Compromise

I feel so behind on everything this Christmas season. I am so close to finishing my Christmas shopping. (Only one gift left.) I still need to wrap all of the presents. I would like to do some more Christmas baking. (Baking is one task I really enjoy.) I also have grand plans to super-clean my house before next weekend.

We'll see how much I actually accomplish.

Last night I was pleased to cross one big item off my to-do list. I finally finished my all of my Christmas cards. They're signed, sealed and ready to go!

(Well actually ... I have a confession to make. I sort of didn't do real Christmas cards this year.)

Don't get me wrong, a few weeks ago I had lofty plans to craft homemade Christmas cards with cool stamps and stencils. I wanted to include a beautiful picture of our family and a tasteful letter in each envelope. I planned to address every card by hand in delicate calligraphy. My Christmas cards were going to be a work of art.

Then life took over, the kids all got sick, and suddenly it was the middle of December. I ditched the homemade cards idea and did what any self-respecting mother of three preschoolers would do at Christmas time:

I bought a large box of generic Christmas cards from Superstore for $3.97.

Another week slipped by and the box of cards sat abandoned on my kitchen counter. I found my Christmas mailing list from last year on the computer. (It had fifty names on it.) As much as I tried, I just couldn't bring myself to hand write a cheerful holiday message to fifty of our closest family and friends. Do you know how long it takes to address fifty cards by hand? I grew exhausted just thinking about it.

Feeling desperate, I finally moved on to Plan C. I wrote a cheeky little Christmas letter, spent $15 at Staples for snowflake paper and envelopes, and printed off a stack of mailing labels. I abandoned my pride and stuffed the letters in the envelopes without even personally signing them. I slapped on the sticky labels, and the entire chore was completed in a couple of hours.

No personal touch. No homemade decorations. Just a cheesy form letter.

Oh well. At least the people on our mailing list will know we haven't forgotten about them ... that is, if I remember to actually mail our letters before Christmas. They are sitting in a pretty stack on the top of my piano right now.

Another chore for another day.

Maybe I should get a jump start this week on my Christmas cards for next year ...