It’s the magical time of year when the mail carrier will soon be loaded down with a heavy bag!
Soon mailboxes will be spilling with red and green envelopes, complete with photos of siblings and their pets, all donned in their matching argyle sweaters. My refrigerator will be just like yours, covered with smiles and Christmas tree clip art.
Pictures and wishes for a happy New Year are awesome, but let’s agree that it is time to address something rather serious. Yes, it is time for us to be honest about a very touchy subject….Christmas letters. Wait, I see that smile on your face because you know exactly what I’m talking about. You are not looking forward to reading about Cousin Gertrude and her year-long detailed search for a new eggplant recipe, are you? Do you truly have any desire to read the latest about that perfect neighbor from your childhood that has now spawned 4.5 pristine children? You know the one – she will give details about her offsprings’ accomplishments, from their award winning interpretive dance about Jell-o, to their vast knowledge of the Latin, Spanish, and Turkish languages.
I may be wrong to assume that holiday updates have the same effect on you. For me, after I read about the ideal life of a third cousin who helped deliver Princess Kate’s royal baby, I look around and see my reality…forgotten towels in the washing machine that now smell funny, a cracked iPod screen, all while I receive a One Call from my child’s school that she has a negative lunch balance. I can actually be disappointed with my cozy little life if I allow myself to compare it with the unreachable accomplishments of others. I strive for contentment, but it can be a struggle when it appears everyone who has me on their mailing list has won the lottery of life events.
About six years ago, I decided to do something about this chaos in my mind. I LOVED my peanut butter fingerprinted car windows, and I was going to be proud of it! I read an article that recommended various twists on traditional Christmas letters. One suggestion caught my eye. It was a Family Top Ten List, and I was instantly SO excited. I got to work, trying to remember some of the highlights from the previous year. The funny thing is that the most important memories for me may not be exciting to someone else, but they meant the world to me. One particular year, my daughter did not win a Preschool Nobel Prize, but she did learn to use the potty. To a parent, those two accomplishments are both pretty close to awesomeness.
I took those life events and turned them into quotes, thereby creating a yearly Top Ten Things Heard in the Martin Household letter. I added explanations to the sayings, so that my extended family would have a better understanding of how my little family unit did life together. My intent was not to boast about my life, but hopefully to let the quirkiness of our everyday happenings allow others to smile and enjoy the daily adventures of their own family.
To give you a sense of our holiday tradition, here are a few favorite quotes:
“I use my left hand for basketball and my right hand for everything else…that means I’m obnoxious.” Sally, tooting her own horn about her “amazing” dexterity.
“Once you lose your first tooth, you get a whole lot more spit.” Hattie, making a most obvious observation after losing her first tooth in a gummy worm.
“If I collected all the bobby pins in our carpet, I could melt them down and make a car!” Greg, after picking up the umpteenth pin all of us girls drop or leave behind.
“Don’t look right at the sun – you’ll go blonde.” Lily, as the self-appointed yet misinformed Saftey Monitor one sunny day.
“I know it is true – I asked a 5th grader!” Sally, validating her claim that her elementary school is haunted by ghosts.
“Your parents are surely going to earn jewels in their crowns in heaven for this!” Me, as Greg and I head to Daytona, leaving his parents with our girls for an entire week.
“When I grow up, I want to live in France so I can eat Italian food like this every night.” Hattie, slurping up her spaghetti at Fazoli’s and revealing her growing geography knowledge.