Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

Are you a card person or not? I’ve skipped a few years, but I generally enjoy sending holiday cards. I don’t do a big huge letter or any sort of newsletter and some years the cards barely get signed, but it’s one of those little traditional things I like to do every year.

It gets me onto some of the family card lists that my cousins aren’t necessarily included on. It makes me feel like a grown up (as often as I try to deny my adulthood, I still have that little kid-ish need to prove that I’m grown up in random silly ways and holiday cards are one of my random ways). It connects me to friends who have moved away or with whom I don’t keep in as close of contact as I should. And since I know that my mom can’t necessarily get her cards out every year, it feels like I’m helping to fill in when she can’t finish as many cards as she’d like to. So, every year I find and/or make cards and send to about 50 households. And this year I’m planning on getting myself some moo cards to put in the envelopes and (scary thought) bring this blog into the general consciousness of the people with whom I share some holiday cheer.
I went through and updated my recipient list this week and I always have to limit myself when I get to adding names to my list. That got me thinking about bloggers (doesn’t every thought lead back to bloggers, or is it just me?) I love my blog and while I’m starting to forge acquaintances and friendships with some of you through comments and contests and exchanges, the whole comment & reply conversations always seem a little fragmented to me. I’m not sure who I would or would not automagically add to my holiday card list. So, I’m going to throw this idea out there and see if there’s any interest and follow the model of the Pay it Forward post from yesterday and let you all decide for me.

Spread some holiday cheer

I will send a holiday card during the month of December to the first 5 people who leave a comment on this post requesting to receive a holiday card. I would love to get a card in return but that’s not necessary. However, I would ask that you make the same offer on your blog, spread some holiday cheer and send cards to a few of your readers as well.  I don’t intend for this to be some extravagant gift exchange. My crafty resources are spread thin this time of year but I can definitely put a few extra cards in the mail and share some of my abundance of holiday spirit. 

Also as an aside (beyond the scope of the snippet above), I’ll probably be ordering more than the 5 extra of my cards, so if there are already 5 comments here and you’re still interested feel free to comment anyway. I’d like to see the ‘5′ number work it’s way through the blog-world if by some miracle of blogginess this actually catches on, but I’ll send as many cards as I have to exhaust my supply. I may not always write a lot in my cards, but I do try to be a bit matchy-matchy and send all the same card each year and exhaust that year’s supply so I don’t have to worry about sending a repeat card to the same person the next year. That’s about as close to tricking myself into being organized as I can get. The holiday season has a bit of that mystical fantasy charm to it, so if I can trick myself into pretending that I’m an organized person for one month out of the year it just adds to the fantasy. Fortunately, I have a couple more days before that month begins so I can finish the prep work necessary to fool myself into that belief.