:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day- 

OR 

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?::: 

Today 

On Day Seven 

We Find Out That It Really Sux To Be Me 

Just after Thanksgiving, I start getting 

The Letters. 

By that I mean 

Those Letters 

that tell you what the sender did over the year. 

And what a great year they had. 

Which is wonderful for them. 

My Mom LOVES to get those in Christmas Cards, she used to read them to us and she would even hang them up with the Christmas Cards and pass the news that she found neat on to her friends. 

My Mom is Filipino and she grew up in Hawaii and that means – among other things- she’s into  ‘talking story’ so yeah, she’s into those letters. 

I’m not sure how I feel about them- I actually look forward to one of the Christmas Letters I get from a friend, who honestly doesn’t like the computer and travels. Every year I get these whopping  long letters ( and presents- ) around Christmas. 

No fooling it’s awesome and don’t think I don’t put a lot of thought into what I’m going to write back. 

HOWEVER 

Call it me getting Grinchlike in my advancing years but if  someone has  had a hellaciously bad year 

( Some people do, so I’ve heard ) 

you may want to use some common sense before sending out your 

“Snow-Are You Newsletter ” 

First off: 

Would you give details about your kid’s lives- where they work, go to school, where they can be found during the day, WHAT KIND OF CAR THEY DRIVE, even a picture of them to a perfect stranger? 

Of course not. 

So why share that happy news with ‘dear friends’ who wouldn’t know your kids unless your kids walked up to them and stuck a sprig of Holly into their left eye? 

In addition 

you may want to consider who gets your ” Happy New(s)Year ” post which always contains a travel intineray. 

Myself I didn’t go on trips that would be the kind of news I could share back ( not that those kinds of letters actually invite conversation ) 

for example, this year I went  to a Funeral ( only one, what can I say, in my book it was a good year ) and I mourned the death of my friend who shot himself in the head just after Thanksgiving over 25 years ago- and the place I go to in my Soul when I reflect on that time in my life isn’t going to be showing up on the Travel Channel anytime soon- let alone in a ” Holly -Are- You Newsletter “. 

And as to the cool things the letter writer did over the year- 

if the receiver  had no idea that your life’s goal was to swim with the Dolphins and what it took for you to get to that point where you actually go to a place so that you could, indeed, swim with the Dolphins-  they’re not going to understand why oh why you’re sharing that bit of glad news six months after the fact. 

Rule of thumb: 

If your co-worker whom you hate -and the person you sit next to on the bus or train or the person in the check out line ( the slow one ) knows  more about what is going on in  your life then your Season’s Greet-ees, you may want to consider putting that news into a letter, encased in a Christmas Card  and sending it off to ” All “. 

Besides. 

Christmas Cards are not intended to be suck -up ( gee I’m sorry I spent the year not thinking about you) gifts. 

– Things like flowers and wine and 

FIJI MERMAIDS 

are suck up gifts. 

In case you missed that. 

During the Holiday Season I run into a lot of friends from my past- they’re in town visiting family, sometimes they give their old friends a call and sometimes all we do is talk outside in the snow, or we might toddle off for a drink or meet up for a little while for a bite to eat. 

And that’s when we talk about what’s been going on in our lives. 

Those times are pretty wonderful and when they happen I feel lighter, do you know what I mean? 

Sending a letter to eveyone in your address book to say how wonderful things are for you is a bit like playing Chicken in Santa’s Sled with a drunken elf at the reins, if you don’t care how the person at the other of of your letter is really feeling and how they could take your letter….. 

you may want to consider nixing the letter and instead add an extra line at the bottom of your card that says something real like: 

Thinking Of You. 

 

:::and now for a Christmas Song That I really do enjoy sharing:::