Justine's Christmas card is always the first to arrive, which I think is a tribute to her active organizational skills. It gets first-place billing on our beam that separates the sitting room from the step-down lounge. All of our Christmas greetings go there. In a couple weeks time I hope the beam will be covered with cards. It shows how popular one is.
I was recently talking to my friend Sarah who laid out her Christmas Card Policy and Procedure. The card must have a photo with her whole family (not just the children mind you) or else a card and photo will not be sent. I agree. Sometimes I get cards with photos of just the children and I think, "Are these the needy Christmas orphans everyone sings about?" because it's not like I can memorize all the children's faces of acquaintances. You know you can't either. Be honest with yourself this time of year.
Of course, you must read through the entire Christmas letter and become educated on who learned to ride a two-wheeler this year and who is "mommy's big helper." One year, someone got fancy on us and sent us a card which required us to complete a crossword puzzle before we could be properly updated on the goings on. Like this: Tyker is now a first grader and is learning to ________ (rhymes with "feed") which of course is "read" so now I can complete 5 Across and wish Tyker well with his phonics.
Exhausting.
But here is the good news for all the family bloggers out there. When one blogs, one essentially writes a Christmas newsletter and publishes a photograph with every post. My cousin Jamie, for example, does an most excellent job of recording all the good times (with photos mind you) of her little family. I can't think of one thing she would write in her newsletter that one wouldn't already know from her blog. Their move from Arizona to Utah? I know all about it. I'm also in the know about the friends they left behind, as well as the boy's recent trip to see Santa Claus. I can even peruse a slideshow entitled "Christmas in Past Years."
Jamie, if you are reading this, I give you and A+.A Christmas card would be unnecessary extra credit. Save your stamp money and donate it to the Christmas orphans everyone always sings about.
P.S. Keep up the good work!
Futhermore, don't you think that frequently blogging should also eliminate small talk amongst friends? The question, "How are you?" would be replaced by, "I know how you are, and I am sorry that your fish died." An active blogging lifestyle cuts right to the chase, and for someone who detests small talk, I find it exhilarating. Blogging was also the easiest way to announce my miraculous pregnancy to the most amount of people in the most expedient measure of time.
Except, there are those friends who are "too busy" to read your musings and you get an e-mail like this:
Dear c jane,
What in the (bleep) has happened in the last month?? YOU'RE PREGNANT???????? A sista hops on your blogspot only to discover she's the last person in the world to hear the amazing, awesome, jaw dropping news!
Love,
Chu Mama
To which I replied:
Please forgive me for not e-mailing the news. I guess I am vain enough to think that anyone I have ever met in my life reads my blog incessantly. I have to admit that I did drop the bomb on my blog the very day we found out. That is how most everyone in my life found out. I didn't even think to e-mail.
After re-reading this exchange I need to make an addendum to my previous theory that bloggers need not send Christmas cards. Perhaps you should send a Christmas card. Something lovely. Snow on trees with a curious little red robin in the foreground. Maybe add glitter to the snow. Inside, a greeting like:
"Seasons Change, But Our Love Remains. Wishing You and Yours A Bright Holiday."
Then underneath the scripty font, write:
See our blog for details on family life etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. P.S. Why aren't you reading our blog already?
(Include blogging address.)
Who is looking out for you fellow bloggers? In helping you realize that you can comfortably skip the Christmas card tradition this year, I just saved you time and money.
Time and money make the best Christmas presents.
(You're welcome.)
It is COMMENTS ON FRIDAY. Be gentle. Davey.
December 7, 2007
Throw Another Blog on the Fire and Let it Snow!
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42 comments:
CJane, Holy crap, it's like you are reading my mind! My husband and I have been having the Christmas card/letter discussion all week. The chef wants to include a multiple choice questionnaire for people to complete. I said No Way to that one. Like the crossword puzzle, it's just too much work. I like your idea of referring people to the blog if they want to catch up.
Just saving myself Time and Money!
Merry Christmas, indeed!
I've been feeling the same way, too. It's just me and the husband (no children yet), and I feel no need to send out a picture of us, and everything I want people to know, I post on my blog. We've moved away from a lot of really good connections we had while dating, so we like to send cards to keep those up. I've been wondering if I could say, "Merry Christmas! Read the blog!" I think the answer is yes! Thanks for the reassurance!
I'm including my blog and my sister's blog URLS in our family letter this year (we're still included in the parental newsletter. Too lazy to do our own. Plus: we blog! There's nothing new to say!) And maybe next year we can take up one line each saying, "If you read our blogs you would already know what we did this year. Slackers."
(Nice little Christmas cards are still in order though. Blogging doesn't excuse you from wishing people a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!)
Amen.
Blogging cuts the small talk and lets you get down to the philosophy one craves over dumplings and hot pots. I find myself annoyed if I have to repeat something I blogged about to someone.
The problem is, I want to control who is reading my blog so I don't want to put the address on all the holiday cards. Maybe I should get a stamp made
(only half kidding.)
I somewhat enjoy the Christmas letter journals, but the best one we ever received was from a family member just this year. At the end of her letter she provided a helpful tip and even included the item needed for her helpful tip inside the card.
Oh you want to know what the helpful tip was? I will tell you.
Put a plastic bread clasp at the end of the tape so that the next time you go to use it you won't have to search for the end when the tape has slipped off the cutter thingy. She included a plastic bread tab.
I have to confess that I only send Christmas cards about once ever 5-10 yrs (pitiful huh?)but I love to get them even if I don't deserve one.
i have loved all the posts this week. i feel like the cjane is back.
and i saw a bmw convertible w/the license plate
"cjanego" i thought it was you. but since you don't answer your cell, i couldn't call and do the drive and wave thing next to you on the freeway. oh well. this is getting long.
Never. I won't put my blog address on my letter/card. No way. What I write is for the privacy of the whole world, NOT my loved ones.
And you can bet there will be no photos of yours truly included this year. Who wants to see chubby (that's how I'm supposed to feel), acne-faced, tear-stained me? Not me! And not anyone else. I'm thinking a photo of my orphans, in their jammies, will do.
(ps -- of course, if you read my blog, you are considered amongst my loved ones. I didn't mean that you're not. Oh my. This is getting awkward. Hey, anyone want to discuss circumcision?)
I'm so glad I read this post today. This year we decided instead of sending the dreaded family update letter, we'd just add our blog address to our photo card.
We already mailed the cards but were still a bit skeptical of our choice…now I feel so much better knowing we have C Jane's approval.
You make me smile.
I agree, Popularity is definetly measured by the amount of holiday cards you get. In addition...my feeling is no photo no send-o. Don't waste a stamp if you're not going to send a photo. The rest of us spend sleepless nights preparing for ours, it just isn't fair.
I have a massive family who gossips about each other incessantly. I don't like to volunteer myself for such fodder so thus I disclose my blog to only a select few.
I'm liking Azucar's idea of a stamp. And I'm not kidding.
I think everyone should sign up for lessons in holiday letter-writing from Lois & Nigel. They are the reigning queen and king of Christmas greetings.
let it be known that i have, indeed placed my blog address on my Christmas cards for the past two years. such a timesaver!
and, death to the Christmas letter, long live blogs!! :)
We have a seperate blog that we put the "letter" on and post that address...if you don't want to put your other blog on there. Just be sure to use a different log in name or blogger will link them. I think that our blog is actually called the "Bfamily Christmas Letter". It has all the stuff that people might not care about, a few pictures and an update. A "best of" blog, but we don't feel the need to include it in the actual card.
I think that having the kids in the picture is fine..do you know how hard it is to get the whole family in a good picture?
BTW...Don't mock those that write about their kids in the cars. I promise that you will do the same and not even know it.... frankly, i like to hear how my friends family and kids are doing....
(Oh...now I'm craving dumplings and hot pot. Dang! Provo is too far away!)
I just can't get into Christmas card sending. Every year I think I'm going to do it. It never happens. If I do, I'm not going to put my blog address in my card--I'm going to put yours.
By the way, because I've been negligent in my commenting--I am so happy for you that you are having a boy! I love my little boy more than anything. And I know yours will be just as sweet and adorable.
I feel that there is no point in a Christmas letter if there is a blog. I also feel that the people I want know what is going on in my life will know. So they get an email with the blog addy.
There is also the annoying thing of sending out almost 40 cards and only getting 12 in return.
Anon, do people write about their kids in their cars too? I had no idea such multi-tasking was possible.
Anon,
Please don't misunderstand. I too like to read about people's children. As long as:
1.) I know to whom the children belong.
And
2.) I don't have to do a crossword puzzle to figure it out.
I plan to write posts a plenty about The Chief when his arrival has occurred.
You should be receiving a card from us next week. And yes, it has all of us in it. Except Captain. I'm with you on that one sister. Addie will not be the only one on display on our card. I want people to see me too! And no letter of any sort.
Thank you, thank you very much.
Your sister Nie told me that she doesn't allow comments on her blog because if she did she'd be sitting at the computer all day. I wonder if that's why you've made the change? I can totally understand that; even when I receive my usual paltry 4-7 comments on a post I'm so anxious all day to read them. Just curious :)
Also - congrats on the flutter. That's so great isn't it. And - I wonder if we're distant cousins. My great-great-uncle was J. Reuben.
This concludes all I've wanted to comment on the past few days & figured it wasn't worth an email :) Have a fabulous weekend!!
What I really want is Christmas card pictures from all the people I went to High School with. I want to see how they all turned out. And if their kids look like them.
Seriously.
I agree wholeheartedly.
1. No "only children" pics.
2. Condense Christmas Letter to Blog address.
3. Help orphans with stamp money.
Check, check and check.
Christmas cards are for those whose lives are interesting. When your kids are typical, happy, healthy, yada yada yada, then why write about it? It is only interesting when they did something spectacular, like being born. Your little Chup will have that to say next Christmas. By then he will have 6 months to do fantastic things like roll over and smile and coo. My little Gracie, who is due a month before, will hopefully have the same amazing things to say next Christmas. But this year nothing big happened. No moves to a new house (that was so last year, literally) and no starting Elem. school for the first time (also last year). So I will take this year off. Why not do an every other year thing? My neighbor does that for her kids birthday parties. Why not defer all our news to one big letter every other year. I am going to do that. Also, pics with just the kids are the only thing I send. I don't want to stare at my overweight body. Why would I want someone else to?
Amen to all of the above!!
I send handmade cards every year, have never done a letter and most likely never will. I always include a picture, and 99% of the time it is just of my children, and that's the way I like it!
I won't put my blog address on my cards.
Receiving Christmas cards is on eof the highlights of the season for me...especially if they are handmade!
I agree about the whole send your friend a picture of your kid. Now, certain friends really want to see the kids, but let's be honest. I want to see what my friend looks like. Otherwise how would I reconize her if I haven't seen her in a few years. Has she gotten gray hair. What exactly does her husband look like again? Those are things that family cards reveal.
I thought about putting the blog address on my card this year, but opted out, as it goes to my husband's boss and co-workers. Don't think I need the WHOLE world reading the blog.
My letter this year was an A-Z. No work for those reading, but no boring travel-log, either.
I got the crossword puzzle one year and it was my own sil and I didn't finish it. Got TOO tedious and I am a Christmas card fanatic, so if I didn't read it...
CJane, Congrats on the bouncing baby boy in your belly! I love you dearly. I am a slacker at Christmas card sending and a sporadic blogger, so if someone really wants to know what's going on in my life, they have to go out to lunch with me when I come to Utah, okay! Next time . . .
Does "Comments On Friday" mean I can comment on anything you wrote all week? I think it does. Anyway, on Christmas family letters--when y'all still lived in the neighborhood, I meant to give little paintings to all my home teach-ees that year. But I never had time to do 'em.
And about your article in the Mormon Vanity Fair, well, next time your local clergyman asks about your association with fringe groups--you make sure to mention you were published in Sunstone...
I check your blog all the time, and I have never met you, but my husband worked with Chup at the LDS MPS a couple years ago. So, I think you can think everyone checks your blog.
Hey CJane, been reading your blog and love. In case you forgot me, it's Amanda's big sis Holly. Love the blog as a substitute, but can't seem to keep my blog up to date. I'm too lazy to blog or send Christmas cards. How about that?
Don't you just hate the anonymous comments people make? That makes me bananas. Put on your big girl garmies and stop hiding behind the "anonymous" phisod. Good post. I agree with everything. My mom was horrible with the cards. She would take Christmas songs and write an update to the tune of that song.
I'm now feeling slightly sheepish about sending Christmas cards after reading all these comments.
I just really like to do it.
I like getting cards, too. I must just be vain that way.
this seriously cracked me up. Especially the reduction of small talk comment--many of my conversations with friends start out "Hey, I saw on your blog that you..."
I think I'll have to link to your post on my blog because this amused me so much! Spot on!
Oh, and I am so excited that you are having a boy. They are so much fun. I highly recommend the Zutano brand for cute, comfy, yet stylishly baby. I love them and my baby boy looks great in them. He is a smaller guy, but really long and the jeans don't fit him. Though he did look incredible in his sweater vest and kackis that matched his father on Father's day.
just tonight while at a gathering at friend's home, a friend says "what's happening with your house? Did it sell yet?" Puzzled, I asked her how she knew..."I read your blog!!!" Brought a smile to my face :) Communication is the best....and so easy via blogs!
Hi C Jane,
I was just thinking of emailing you today since comments aren't always up anymore. Anyway, I said hi once, and here I am again. I added you to my blog links, and I don't know you, but I like to read your blog every week and felt bad about not letting you know. (That was one long run-on sentence) Is that ok that I listed you?
Oh, and I'm loving every, every detail about Mr. Chief. Keep 'em coming!
Alisse
love the post above of chup, what a man to love!!! just wanted to say thanks for the a+ rating, and had i know i wouldn't have sent out those card last week, oh well guess a little extra credit always comes in handy.
Cola AND Beer??
What are you birthing? An addict?
Your sonnet almost had me weeping, I'm not kidding on that point.
Also, I have a recommendation on who NOT to have circumcise your sons.
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