That time of year

Getting ready for a move of this magnitude has been a little like therapy. My goal was to go through everything and make sure we took the 'right things' and discarded the items that were not useful. Much progress has been made and there is little left to scrutinize.

All of the activity has been exhaustive. My family came for Thanksgiving - our two dogs, Bugg's one dog, mom brought two of hers and my brother brought his two. The bunnies were isolated from the canine factor and they were the lucky ones! 7 dogs is enough work to exhaust anyone. Most of the warm bodies have departed and there was enough time this afternoon for me to reflect on the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Sending Christmas cards is one of my favorite things to do. Every year I compile a collage of photos showing us and the kids in memorable activities throughout the past year. I LOVE doing this and was saddened at the realization that there was not enough time to accomplish my annual ritual. I also don't like just signing our name and addressing an envelope without personalization. Why bother?

The cards that stick in my memory are the ones where the sender took time to say a little something about themselves or about us. Anyway, I sat down and began to tackle the annual Christmas card event, braced to prepare the inevitable generic sayings and printed generic greetings.

I found myself writing personal notes in each card. There are things happening in our lives that we want to share with those that we love. This is an exciting time for us. I wrote and wrote and wrote then realized one very important thing. The annual photo collage will not go out this year, but individual personalized cards filled with love will. In all of this craziness, I was still able to find time to let our friends and family know that they are special and we love them. I am thankful.