Wow, Christmas is practically here! Thank goodness I finished printing the holiday cards. I also designed matching return address labels. I still have to address the envelopes since I go all old-school and do NOT print the "to" address labels like so many people seem to do these days.

Can I just say that I'm a bit saddened by the trends in holiday cards that I am seeing. First of all, I'm all for adorable photos of kids, truly I am. And I'm VERY understanding of being busy this time of year. But there are two trends that really bum me out:

1) Holiday cards printed by places like Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. with no handwritten note, no holiday letter giving me info on what people have been up to, and printed "to" and "from" address labels on the envelope. It feels so impersonal. Some of these people I don't get to see regularly at all, so a little bit of "hey, here's what we've been up to" would be SO NICE! Maybe that's why I still hand-write the address on the envelopes myself. For that personal touch. Don't get me wrong -- love getting the cards. But I am bit bummed when that's all there is.

And as I said earlier, I understand being busy. I know this is as a result of that. But still... send 'em later and let me know what you've been up to! Please!

[Edited: I just want to say that every year, Mike and I send out a two-sided extensive holiday newsletter with multiple photos. It's quite the undertaking, but we continue to do it every year because we actually get a ton of requests and/or "can't wait to see the holiday" newsletter notes from people this time of year...]

2) Holiday cards printed by places like Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. that are photos just of the kids. People exempt from my ranting on this topic are: people I see on a regular basis AND people who blog and thus show me photos of themselves on a somewhat regular basis. Now, here's why this bothers me. I'm friends with (or Mike is friends with) the person sending the card. Not the kids. Actually, it would be REALLY creepy if we were friends with the kids in the photo and not their parents, right? See, I want to see what YOU look like now IN ADDITION to seeing your kids. Seeing your offspring is cool -- I get to do the old, "Oh, junior looks so much like his daddy!" routine. This amuses me.

But I also want to see what my friends look like now, too. If I haven't seen you in a few years, this is important to me. Mike and I have both moved around a lot, so we have friends scattered all over the place. I don't care if you think you look old or fat or worse-for-the-wear. I do too, and I show you what I look like in my holiday card, so I want to see you in yours. Take a FAMILY photo, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(And throw a quick xeroxed note in there about what you've been doing, too, while you're at it. A pox on people who make fun of holiday newsletters -- I don't live in the same place as most of my friends, so I value newsletters highly... even the ones where it's all roses and puppy dogs and happiness and kids that excel at everything they do... [ok, I would, just once, love to get a holiday newsletter that was totally honest like mine always are... do it, people! C'mon!!!! A few of Mike's friends send holiday newsletters that are witty and real and I love reading them every year.])

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When we were growing up, there was a long-standing family joke -- I have no idea where/when/how it started, that we would send a parcel of joke cards to my aunt. My mom would save the freebie sample cards that came in the mail with faux names printed in them. And we'd gather around the table, the four of us, and write faux holiday notes in each of them based on a completely fictional family. We'd end up giggling like maniacs as we composed them.

They were hysterically funny -- the kids were always screwed up, as were the parents, and the notes talked about their foibles and follies and fake achievements too. The sorts of things you'd never tell people about were always fair game in these cards, and we'd spin yarns and more yarns about these faux people. This amused us endlessly, probably even moreso than it did my aunt who received them in one envelope in the mail. We stopped doing that when my brother and I graduated and moved out of the house, but maybe next year I'll surprise my aunt and send her an envelope full of faux cards with fictional families' years documented therein. And maybe I'll send some to my brother and my parents too, for old times' sake.

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I'm making GREAT progress on the one remaining holiday gift I am making. I can't say anything else here about it because the recipient does read my blog on occasion. Suffice it to say, I've known I wanted to do this for months now and am FINALLY getting it done. I have a little bit more to do on the computer, and then the rest is all hybrid, baby! Break out the glue and the scissors and the ribbon and doo-dads. I hope to finish the digital portion in the next few hours, print all of the pieces, and then assemble it tomorrow afternoon. Thank goodness I'm officially on vacation today! So I can do this without any day-job guilt.

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The Altered Art Chicks first annual holiday extravaganza Wednesday night was a blast! I cleaned my house for the chicks, set a table with placemats, Santa napkins, holiday plates and bowls, and everything. Yeah, I know... craziness. I'm sure they thought they were in the wrong house. Our usual gatherings are more along the lines of going over to somebody's house, no cleaning done beforehand, eating off of the paper plates, etc. So I glammed it up a bit and would have gone all Martha and decorated the table if I'd had easier access to holiday decor items. Instead I put a lovely Christmas spice candle on the table and a poinsettia plant our neighbors gave us. Very festive.

Audrey brought firecracker favors, but none of us could get ours to do the loud "pop" sound they were supposed to do. Darn! Still, they were filled with goofy little surprises. It's a toss-up who had the best thing: Melissa's wacky whistle or Audrey's pirate tattoos. All of the favors had paper crowns in them, which we all decided was very altered, so we wore them for dinner AND for photos later. You didn't think we wouldn't photograph the event, now, did you? Yes, here are the chicks, crowns and all (left to right: Melissa, Krista, Audrey) -- how cute are we? (Rhetorical question!)