Yesterday I took a break from working on the manuscript for my second Mandy Tanner river ranger mystery (that I'm calling Evil Eddies) to work on a personal writing project--the family Christmas letter. It always takes me quite awhile to produce this because there are multiple, sometime conflicting goals: make it interesting and entertaining and light, cover all the major accomplishments but don't make it a "brag sheet", and keep it short--about a page and a half, so a couple of photos can be inserted at the bottom.
Once I'm fairly happy with the draft, I email it to my husband, daughter, and son to review and correct, especially the parts where I talk about them. Heaven forbid if I say anything about one of them that's incorrect, passe', or is something they don't want everyone on our Christmas letter list to know!
After I get all their feedback, I make the corrections, format it so it fits on this year's holiday stationary, then start printing them on the black & white printer. My husband then adds the photos on the color printer, then the addressing and stamping begin. I'm lucky if I can get him to address & stamp those going to his relatives, and I get to do everyone else's. This is why I try to keep the recipient list down to 50 or less!
7 comments:
Wow, I wish I only had 50 recipients. No matter how much I pare it down, my Chrismas mailing list seems to hover at 100. It's a task I enjoy every December (November if I'm lucky), and so many friends and relatives have told me they look forward to it every year ... I just wonder if technology will ever make it a thing of the past?
In the meantime, Merry Christmas!
You have an award on arise 2 write.
andrea
Way to go! Proactive! I finally did away with the letter. My recipients get pictures of the kids, the whole family if they're lucky. You sound very organized!
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
I'm still doing letters. The one year I didn't send one, I actually got complaints! It does take time to do just what you said you try to do. I try to include information for relatives & friends, esp. the ones who don't hear from me often. I'm going to try to get mine done before next week. Running out of time here...
I know some people who hate getting Christmas letters but I really enjoy them. Good luck getting yours out this year!
so many friends and relatives have told me they look forward to it every year ... I just wonder if technology will ever make it a thing of the past?
Work from home India
I love receiving Christmas letters and catching up on all the happenings over the year. I like this idea and am glad to see it catching on.
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