A note not a card

I failed to send Christmas cards out this year and so did my husband. He sends to his family and friends and I send to mine. This isn’t the first year that we failed on this one, we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.


To make up for my failings I write a family letter yep my friends get punished for my failings.
I have to make it fun because no one likes to read the droning ons of family life.
Here is the rough draft


Dear friends and family,


This year we decided not to send out Christmas cards because of the whole commercialism with the industry. Instead we are sending you this letter some of you are getting it e-mailed so that we can save the environment and not give the postal system more over priced stampage money.


Everyone here is doing well.

The husband is always looking for things to do so I let him vacuum and clean around the house. He’d love to give up his job working for the man to just fix stuff at church but money is an issue, darn government.


The wife is recovered from her surgery for the most part and has been, as the husband
instructed not to do, over doing it. So she shall stop trying to lift heavy stuff for a while. Oh yes the wife had surgery, two at once. . . well . . . they took turns, I think, I was out. Thank goodness. No big deal, I’ll be fine. I’m working in the home improvement industry and enjoy it. My favorite is the day that we can pay the bills and stay in this big house.


We moved last year, for those who didn’t know, as of Thanksgiving we’ve been here for a year. We no longer live in Tulsa. We however are almost close enough to spit in Tulsa. We have gone from the little three bedroom to a four bedroom two story home with the big open kitchen where I pretend that I cook.


The boy turned thirteen in November and is such a great kid. He is going to be taking the ACTs at the beginning of next year and his grades are wonderful. He spends his time with his church group I hear he is great at serving food to the homeless, playing video games, scouts, and with his studies. I do worry that he has a bit too much pressure on him he is now taking ninth grade math and they are working towards trigonometry in the next year or so.


The girl is about to turn seven. She has a boy friend, I think it’s way early in life but the look on her dad’s face when he found out was priceless. Heh! The years to come are going to be fun. The girl never stops moving she bright and zealous about everything but cleaning her room. She was in the choir for the December service and an angel for the Christmas eve service. I missed seeing her sing.


J and I try to balance our church time and family time so that all get the right amount of attention. It’s not easy but we want our children to know that helping around the church is also part of the experience.


I miss you folks that can’t be with us but understand that life takes you away, we feel so blessed to have those who are here with us and you who are there with us in spirit. I think of you often.


We had a bit of sad news in the last year with the loss of an aunt and one of mom and dad’s friends. My cousin is looking at a difficult divorce and isn’t handling it well right now. As you know my brother went through one and had some sage advice for him "Don’t marry a lesbian" I think that’s a good piece of advice. His new wife and daughter are doing well it looks like he learned from the first one and did well.


My dad is still hanging on. He spends time with the kids and fishing.

My sister is working way too much, you can’t do much about that it’s how things are. They lay folks off and work the others more. The reality of it is that a younger generation would gladly step into the job. She spends time working and hanging out with my kids.


I pray that all of you are doing well and that life in your homes is good. We should all take the time in the next year to see how blessed we are.
God bless,