For the first time since we've been here, Jude and I are not going to be with family for Christmas. In 2003, we were in Florida with his aunt and uncle; 2004, it was Montreal with his other uncle, and for the past two years, we've had the wonderful blessing of being back in Singapore for both Christmas and New Year's. On the one hand, it makes me a little sad that we won't be home for the holidays, but on the other, I'm grateful that we're surrounded by good friends with whom we'll be spending Christmas, and that our families are a mere phone-call or video-chat away... Besides, since we've never been in Ann Arbor for Christmas until now, it'll be nice to soak in a little of the whole all-American snowy Christmas vibe :)
And so to make up for being away from our friends and family at home, I decided I'll hand-write Christmas cards to everyone this year. I've always loved receiving cards or letters in the post, and that excitement of tearing open an envelope or flipping over a postcard will never be replaced by checking email, no matter what people say... When I was younger (a.k.a. when I had more time...), I used to hand-make my own Christmas cards. It would be a whole elaborate process of buying the right card stock, the right matching paper, bows, lots of painstaking cutting, folding, pasting, tying, stuffing, etc. It was a long-drawn process, and I loved it! :) Thankfully, both my sisters still do it today, and I'm glad that their friends will be blessed with the fruits of their thoughtfulness and effort. The practice of taking the trouble to handwrite something (which itself is a quite a gesture since writing isn't quite like typing, with the whole backspace/delete function), buy a stamp, and then mail it out is just one of those unfortunate sacrifices of the Internet that I truly rue. And while I send as many e-cards as the next person, I figured Christmas is as good a time as any to make that extra effort.
Since I'll be making the trip to the post office already anyway, I thought I may as well send cards to our friends who've moved away from Ann Arbor too. And by the time I got to that point, I was like, oh well, I'm already writing 30 cards, what's another few more for our friends here in Ann Arbor?... So then I add up the number of cards I'll be writing in all, and what do I get? A grand total of 52! What started as a bid to immerse myself in this whole spirit of Christmas thing might just end up giving me a hand cramp!...
3 comments:
I'll be in Michigan then...I'm probably coming up to AA on the 23rd. Let me know if ya want to meet up :).
serene, i presume leaving a comment is better than emailing you back? not sure of our Christmas plans yet - waiting on Dan the Man. I would love to get your help in setting up blog site even though I'm extremely fearful that I wouldn't be consistent with it. I already have three titles in mind that I would write about - today's story is entitled, "May I have milk with my blue crayon?" I wanted to take a pic of Divya with the crayon pieces in mouth, but amidst the crying because I startled her and the reality that perhaps it's not a good idea that she continue chewing on crayon...the photo just didn't happen. For the record, I love your blog site. Though I don't get a chance to read it often.... I just love the organization and the pics!!! and I read the 10 photography related articles. You're articles are like excellent short stories and I never realized your expertise in food photography. Ok, this is more than a comment. Does this comment go to your inbox? Gnite.
I didn't even hand write the cards, just the addresses on 50 some envelopes and my hands were hurting :-) I am so much more used to typing.
Post a Comment