Christmas Cards

I love Christmas. Absolutely adore it. The hot chocolate. The peppermint ice cream. The candlelit dinners. Slumber parties by the Christmas tree. Family evenings. Nativity scenes. The music. The snow. The Chi'mas lights (to quote my li'l sis when she was still the li'l sis.) Family trips to my grandparent's house for hiking, biking, and eating.

And, of course, I love getting Christmas cards.

I mean, who doesn't?

You got to the mailbox on a blustery, gray day. Maybe even fighting the rain or snow. Its been a dreary, long day. And its already dark. Its only 4:30 and already the sun is setting.

So there you are, on this gray day, walking to the mailbox. You open it up - maybe even fighting the frozen hinge a bit -- and staring back at you on the gloomy day is a pile of red and green and gold envelopes. Big envelopes. Bright envelopes. Happy envelopes. Inevitably, envelopes bearing the return address of a long lost relative, a childhood friend, a former teacher, a school buddy.

With that trip to the mailbox, the whole day gets brighter.

Back in the house, you sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and settle in to read the cards and see how your long lost friends are surviving.

The front of the card is pretty. Maybe an idyllic snow scene. Or a glittery nativity scene. Or a forest with a cute little bird flitting among the branches.

You open the card.

"Merry Christmas. Love, the Smiths."

Um....WHAT?!?! No letter? No update on life? No picture?!?!

Suddenly, the day is depressing all over again.

That, my friends, is my Christmas pet peeve. I don't understand why someone would spend a couple dollars on a card, forty-four cents on postage, and the effort to write my name on an envelope...and then leave me with a huge letdown with no personalized touch. (Unless, of course, you call the handwritten name a personalized touch. I don't.)

Ergo, I have an offer.

(No, I'm not going to write your Christmas letter for you. Sorrrrry. Not that generous!)

I will take your picture. You will get a CD of the images with the full rights to print the pictures off for your friends and relatives. Your friends and relatives will love you forever when you don't leave them with an impersonal Christmas card.




And, besides, just think: if you get Christmas pictures taken, I won't be peeved by you, nor depressed by your Christmas card!

fine print: pricing good through December 25, 2009 for up to six family members. subject to photographer's schedule availability.