Fun Monday - Holiday Mail

As the holidays close in on us, Faye at Summit Musings has graciously offered to be our host this week:

Your assignment, should you decide to play, is to share some of your favorite holiday mail that you've received this year. Possible categories:

Best All Around Card
Most Meaningful Message
Best Kid/Pet Holiday Photo
Best Family Newsletter
Most Humorous Card

Most of the people I know aren't doing the holiday newsletter. In fact, most people I know aren't doing Christmas cards at all. We keep up with each other on such a daily basis through FaceBook or blogs or even email that a card seems a bit superflous. But there are exceptions, of which I wish to be one.

My grandfather's second wife was a great writer of what she called encyclicals. They were somewhat rambling accounts of life that came once every three or four months. But she really shone for the Christmas Encyclical! I always looked forward to receiving this amazing piece of mail. She died a few years back and the encyclical died with her... but all hope of holiday newsletter is not gone, for her daughter (my Aunt Lucy) and her husband Kollyn do a lovely letter every year. Like mine, their lives are incredibly busy and the holiday letter rarely makes it stateside until after Christmas has come and gone, but its advent reminds me that the Christmas spirit is here always if you just remember to look for it. And it's full of news of their lives (and their daughters') for the past year. This is how I keep up with that side of the family. If it weren't for this yearly letter, I would know very little of what was happening with the family in England.

My grandmother isn't a big fan of Christmas and prefers to avoid all the commercialism to celebrate the day quietly at home or perhaps up the mountain with her brother. She does, however, send out gorgeous Christmas cards to a select few, usually with a very short letter enclosed.

Many cards from across the pond feature lovely little robin red-breasts in snow and are quite charming. But this year, Grandma went in a different direction. This particular picture reminds her and my father quite strongly of the farm up the mountain where they lived. My father's last Christmas in Wales was much like this. Every year, I look forward to the day when the little card with the Royal Mail stamp arrives in my mailbox, and I settle down with a nice cup of tea and savor the card and the letter enclosed.

I wish travel wasn't so expensive or complicated. I would love to go to Wales and spend a Christmas with her. As it is, I don't know when or even if I will ever see her again. I treasure these brief contacts on paper.

And now, if you will excuse me, I have my own letter to write. Cards will go out late (again) this year, probably AFTER Christmas has come and gone, but I have every intention of getting them out.

Check my sidebar for next week's host (Gattina). I'm going to keep a current side bar of who's hosting and what the topic is, so if you're ever lost and can't figure out who's doing it on any given week, swing by here. If there's a host, it'll be there!