People love to rip on Christmas letters. They like to roll their eyes and complain about the braggy letters they get from friends who they only hear from at Christmastime. And while it is easy, I suppose, to scoff at a letter and make sarcastic remarks about your friends' children's accomplishments, I for one want to stand up for the Christmas letter. (Kind of like how the Lorax speaks for the trees)
I like hearing from friends each year and seeing what their children look like another year older. I like to hear about jobs and church callings, kid's funny moments and whatnot. And if you must be obnoxiously boastful about your family's place in society, I will enjoy that as well. I will probably make a sarcastic comment about it too, but you knew that was coming when you wrote it, right? In fact, I love the Christmas letter so much that I am requesting right now that all of you who insist on getting your photo card from snapfish or shutterfly at least accompany it with a short letter!
A few years ago, when Zane was out of work and we were in less than the brightest of Christmas spirits, we made up a terrible Christmas letter. It was super funny, more so now than then, but Zane was great at channeling his angst and came up with some funny lines--like Dear Friends and Family, Hope you are well! We're not! We don't have a dime to our name and can't afford a Christmas tree this year! We're in debt up to our eyeballs and we had to pull Eliza out of preschool because we can't scrape up $60 this month! We will probably have to sell our house and move so don't bother to send us Christmas cards! Love and Affection, The Colbys
We never sent it, of course, but it made us feel good to articulate it!
This year we are in much better spirits but our brag letter probably still pales in comparison to a lot of other people we know. We got one letter in which we learned our friend just finished law school. Another is spearheading a project to recycle 400 million gallons (or something) of wastewater in Seattle. His wife volunteers at a rest home doing massage therapy and has created a group where elderly women and new mothers can mingle, therefore bringing together two groups that are normally isolated and sad. Oh, and they just adopted a little girl who was orphaned in the Tsunami of 2004. We have friends who have chosen to be childless and they send letters with grand descriptions of exotic trips and movie parties that they host.
Our letter gives little to boast of. Our kids' greatest accomplishment this year was learning how to make fart noises in their armpits. Zane and I can't cross off one single goal from the New Year's Resolution List we made for Family Home Evening last January. We never put in our gorgeous raised-bed garden we talked about, and our basement is STILL under perpetual construction. But, we can brag about the fact that we all love each other and are the ever-important "happy and healthy". What could be better!
3 comments:
I'll always take a night with the Colby's over a night with a rich, well-traveled couple HANDS DOWN!
Love you!
And believe me, you have plenty to brag about: a beautiful home, a gorgeous yard, a 9 year old daughter who is smarter than me, a 6 year old son who is ALSO smarter than me and who both are the most well-behaved, loving children in all of Boise.
P.S. The only problem with your Christmas cards is that they don't illustrate how much you do for other people. You need to brag more about what an amazing, giving friend and sister you are!
I agree with Carly. You could come up with plenty to brag about. maybe we should all write each others next year?? :-)
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