Keeping in touch....

No, it isn't snowing out yet.  But it is the time of year when we expect it.  And it is the time of year when I reflect back on so many things.  One of my favorite activities is keeping in touch with friends.  At Christmas time I send out real Christmas cards.  The US Postal Service must have my name on their list of all-time favorites.  I should actually be inducted into the Post Office Hall of Fame as one of the most consistent buyer of stamps and mailer of packages and letters.  I have loved to write letters and send cards since I was old enough to hold a pen and make a legible mark.  My dad was a stamp collector and he surely did not like it when I raided his collection one day and plastered a few of his special first day of issue stamps on one of my pink envelopes.  I soon learned that lesson.

Tomorrow I will gather up all the cards that I have received this year, mark 2014 on their backs and file them away for next year.  I re-read most of them and make a note of what has happened to whom.  Most of my Christmas card list consists of friends that I have made over the years.  One woman was a fellow teacher with me at Hephzibah High School just outside of Fort Gordon in Georgia.  Her husband was in Korea with the MP's.  Mine was serving in Viet Nam.  We have written and shared photos at Christmas ever since.  She lives in Pennsylvania, is retired and seems just as sweet as she was the day I met her.  Another is my college roommate.  Still another an old college friend of Andy's and mine.  I enjoy seeing the pictures that they send each year of their kids, grandkids, vacations, new homes.  What a treat, even if it is only once a year.

And then there are the sad times when I get a card back marked undeliverable.  I know that either the person has passed away or moved without leaving a forwarding address.  Sometimes I hear from a family member.  One of my schoolmates passed away a few years ago and her sister sent me a lovely note, telling me about my friend.  This year an older friend passed away in the  spring.  Her daughter was kind enough to let me know when she received my card to her mom.  Another distant cousin sent me the funeral notice of another relative.  It is hard to mark their name out of my address book.

But the good news is that often times I get a card from someone I haven't heard from for a long time.  I know that with the social media and email we can be in almost immediate contact with anyone.  But it is fun to find a card or letter in the mail from a person you knew long ago.

Many of my friends send me e-cards.  I love them.  They are so colorful and fun to see.  Another relative sends their Christmas letter in an email.  I enjoy that too.

But I know that I will probably be the last person standing who visits the Hallmark store or gift shop and chooses a box of cards when Christmas rolls around.  I will be the last person who goes to the Post Office and buys holiday stamps.  And until I can't hold a pen to sign my name and address an envelope, you will be getting a Christmas card from me.  It's my way of keeping in touch.