Yearly Memories
I worked on the family Christmas newsletter this week. It really isn’t a traditional “newsletter”, more of a half page insert that I try to cram as much information onto as possible. We’ve been doing it now for several years. This year I took off the kids’ heights – it will be obvious in the photo that all the children are taller than me, so who cares how tall they are?
I love working on the newsletter/insert. It gives me an opportunity to remember all that our family was involved in over the past year. The kids (and my husband) know better than to say, “we never do anything”. As they read over the insert I hear a lot of “oh yeah, I forgot about that!” We do it by category. Travel, each kid, health, hobbies, careers, and a misc (this year it’s “Grandparents”).
Most of the items are good tidbits, with one or two less than great ones thrown in (this year it was my knee injury). I’m grateful to remember all of it. When I do so, I realize how fortunate we are, and that anything I complain about really isn’t worth it.
If you were sending out an account of the past year, what would you say? Why not try writing one, even if you don’t send it out – I bet you will be encouraged by the exercise.
My wife usually sends out an update of what we've been doing. Our Christmas card list gets shorter every year, though. So few mail cards anymore.
Once upon a time, we did this. Sadly no more.
I was tasked to write the family newsletter for years. As you can probably imagine, it had my own style. Last year we stopped after our son went to college. They were fun to write (and I ALWAYS like getting other families-still do) but we felt that it was time to stop.
Incidentally, I plan on writing one in "Penwasser Place" in the next week or so. Will it be serious? Whadda you think?