Finding the Spirit

I almost said no Christmas cards from us this year. It's just seemed too much trouble and expense. The stamps run at least fifty bucks. That doesn't count in the cost of the cards themselves (always bought on sale, of course). And I couldn't come up with a Christmas letter. Heck, I didn't even have a Christmas note. So for the past month, I've been dithering around, trying to justify to myself that a year without Christmas cards was acceptable, just this once, anyway.

But then I started to feel better than I've felt in the past 10 months. In fact, a whole heap better than I've felt in the past six months which have been actually, pretty awful. It's my life finally turning over a new leaf. I'm no longer so exhausted I can't stay awake past 4 p.m. I can actually make plans for after school and carry them through. If I need a hair cut and perm I can make the appointment and KEEP it. Plus, Hubby's been taking me out and about in the spirit of gathering Christmas goodies and my mood is vastly improved, too.

I finished a huge paper for grad class this afternoon and I thought, well, I've got some time. Let's see if a Christmas letter will magically flow from my brain to the computer screen. It's not art but I filled a page with this and that and some good cheer thrown in, too boot. So I unearthed the drawers full of Christmas cards and found the labels for the mailing list, edited the list, and even managed to do a mail merge without a lot of teeth gnashing. The to and from labels are now printed. The stamps have been ordered and will be here in a couple of days. The letter is saved, not printed, because I still may need to do some editing. The cards sit on my desk ready for the the hand-written notes, the letters, the address labels, and the stamps.

There will be Christmas this year.