I love getting Christmas cards. Well, I love getting mail. But knowing it's Christmas letter season has me running out to the mailbox to see who loved me enough to write me and send a picture.
As I review the years and the Christmas letters and photos I've read, I have created a list of Do's:
At the top of the list is: Put your contact information on every piece of mail--your name, mailing address, email address and phone number.
If the whole purpose of Christmas cards is to stay in touch, then contact information is actually the most important part of the letter. Some people put their mailing address as a return address on the envelope and that is it. If the envelope gets separated from the letter then contact may be broken. If you finish your letter with your name, addresses, and phone number, then your recipient can throw away the envelope and your contact info remains intact.
Next idea: The Christmas photo is important--if you can get it together enough to have one. Part of the idea of staying in touch is being able to recognize your friends next time you see them. Adults don't change as much as children, so I think a photo is particularly important for children.
There is room for a short greeting on the Christmas photo. Instead of merely wishing your friend a Merry Christmas, see you if you can also include your contact information.
This year I added our contact information to our photo. I used an online photo company, Winkflash, and one of their stock designs had room for a "Merry Christmas", all our names (and we are seven) and four lines of contact information--as well as three photos. I was very pleased with the result.
The only problem is not Winkflash's fault. We're closing on a house next week and when we move in January, my photo will have an obsolete mailing address. While I had prepared the photos early, I had not foreseen a new address on our horizon. The good news is my email address and phone number will remain the same, and they are on the photo as well.
Third: Send Something. Some people don't like to write a Christmas letter. They worry they have to be funny or creative and so decide to send nothing at all. Send something. If you want to keep in touch with the friends of your past, then send them something. Send a photo all by itself. If it has contact information, then you have accomplished your goal. You have visually updated your friends and let them know where you are.
Fourth: Reference your Blog. If you include your blog in the Christmas letter, then those who really want to know what you're doing and what's on your mind, will read your blog. Just make sure you post often enough to keep them looking.
Fifth: Use Labels. If you take the time one year (try to do it early in the year, not right before the holidays when time gets busier) to put your addresses in Excel, then you will be happy come Christmas card time.
Print out your Excel list and as Christmas letters come in, check the accuracy of your list with the incoming address. If I get a Christmas card from someone not my list, I can add them easily.
I also keep my Friends and Family list by my calendar and throughout the year I am updating it in pencil, and can input the information when I have time.
Once the initial information is in Excel, it is easy to update. And when it is time for your Christmas mailing, just put the addresses on labels. Print out your return address on labels too. No one minds if each envelope is hand addressed. These are your friends. They are just glad to hear from you. And they are really glad to get your contact information. :)
What do you think? Do you have any more suggestions for making Christmas Card Connections easier and better?
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Sunday, December 3, 2006
MyLife-The Warning Cough and a Christmas Tree
Today's topic is the warning cough that proceeds vomiting. So you are warned.
I am feeling grateful for the warning cough that proceeds vomiting because I have been listening for it day and night for the last 36 hours as the flu makes its way through my family.
It started with my 7 year old who caught the flu bug at night. He had one vomiting episode that night and two the next day. The warning huffing cough helped me keep the mess at a minimum.
Then my 10 year old caught it. She's good at catching her own messes, so I was mere moral support.
With that night spent uneventfully, I decided we were going to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. My husband had to work, so I enlisted his Mom and two brothers and sister to come with us, and my youngest sister as well. We had planned to leave at 10 a.m., but like all travel with more than one person, we left late. After filling up our cars with gas and tires with air and finishing the other loose ends that seem to unravel a schedule, it was 11:30 a.m. by the time we were pulling out of Central Point, Oregon, headed for a treed area outside of Prospect, Oregon. All of us were enjoying just being together (in other words, no one was stressed out by the late departure) and I had reason to be grateful for the relaxed air of the group.
By the time we'd reached Prospect, I'd pulled to the side of the road three times to the sound of that warning cough that signaled a food expulsion. My 18 month old and 3 year old had both caught the flu.
Sharing a car with vomiting children normally would have had me heading back for home. The stink alone could do that! But I was set on cutting my own Christmas tree.
My years of childhood "wild tree cutting tradition" wanted me to share the good times with my children. So I pushed on. My 18 year old brother-in-law stuck some AireMaster bars into the vents of my car (my in-laws own an
Airmaster franchise) and we continued on toward Prospect to the smell of apple cider with an underlying, but easily ignored, smell of vomit.
I am feeling grateful for the warning cough that proceeds vomiting because I have been listening for it day and night for the last 36 hours as the flu makes its way through my family.
It started with my 7 year old who caught the flu bug at night. He had one vomiting episode that night and two the next day. The warning huffing cough helped me keep the mess at a minimum.
Then my 10 year old caught it. She's good at catching her own messes, so I was mere moral support.
With that night spent uneventfully, I decided we were going to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. My husband had to work, so I enlisted his Mom and two brothers and sister to come with us, and my youngest sister as well. We had planned to leave at 10 a.m., but like all travel with more than one person, we left late. After filling up our cars with gas and tires with air and finishing the other loose ends that seem to unravel a schedule, it was 11:30 a.m. by the time we were pulling out of Central Point, Oregon, headed for a treed area outside of Prospect, Oregon. All of us were enjoying just being together (in other words, no one was stressed out by the late departure) and I had reason to be grateful for the relaxed air of the group.
By the time we'd reached Prospect, I'd pulled to the side of the road three times to the sound of that warning cough that signaled a food expulsion. My 18 month old and 3 year old had both caught the flu.
Sharing a car with vomiting children normally would have had me heading back for home. The stink alone could do that! But I was set on cutting my own Christmas tree.
My years of childhood "wild tree cutting tradition" wanted me to share the good times with my children. So I pushed on. My 18 year old brother-in-law stuck some AireMaster bars into the vents of my car (my in-laws own anAirmaster franchise) and we continued on toward Prospect to the smell of apple cider with an underlying, but easily ignored, smell of vomit.
This is a photo of me with my 18 month old--the snow suit hides the smell and mess.
We cut our Christmas trees out of douglas fir. A douglas fir tree does not look like the bushy evergreens sold on tree lots. At least not if they are cut wild from a mountain. Their boughs are more widely spaced--perfect for showing off ornaments. I like a tree that acts like a display shelf for the ornaments, rather than like an I spy game of hide and seek. And a wild grown tree lasts until the new year
before dropping lots of needles. And the tag only costs $5.00. If you ignore the cost of gas and a day of work (if your days of work are paid for in money), then cutting a wild tree for Christmas is a good deal. And even if it doesn't pencil out entirely, the experience of taking my suburban children into the snow and beauty of the mountains to find the best Christmas tree ever (it's the best every year) is priceless. And no flu will keep me from giving that experience to my children. And of course, they WILL enjoy it.
We cut our Christmas trees out of douglas fir. A douglas fir tree does not look like the bushy evergreens sold on tree lots. At least not if they are cut wild from a mountain. Their boughs are more widely spaced--perfect for showing off ornaments. I like a tree that acts like a display shelf for the ornaments, rather than like an I spy game of hide and seek. And a wild grown tree lasts until the new year
before dropping lots of needles. And the tag only costs $5.00. If you ignore the cost of gas and a day of work (if your days of work are paid for in money), then cutting a wild tree for Christmas is a good deal. And even if it doesn't pencil out entirely, the experience of taking my suburban children into the snow and beauty of the mountains to find the best Christmas tree ever (it's the best every year) is priceless. And no flu will keep me from giving that experience to my children. And of course, they WILL enjoy it. This is a photo of my 15 year old BIL holding a douglas fir Christmas tree.
So now you're wondering if the experience was worth it. It was. The sick children forgot their ills for most of the time we were there. We took happy pictures, which always defines how we remember the event. True, I spent yesterday sick and today my 3 year old is still sick. So I am still listening for the warning cough (which sounded its warning in the car after I dropped the rest of the family off at church). But we have a Christmas tree leaning up against my roof ready to be fit into its stand and decorated tomorrow for our Family Night.
And it's the best Christmas tree ever! Or do you think yours is?
So now you're wondering if the experience was worth it. It was. The sick children forgot their ills for most of the time we were there. We took happy pictures, which always defines how we remember the event. True, I spent yesterday sick and today my 3 year old is still sick. So I am still listening for the warning cough (which sounded its warning in the car after I dropped the rest of the family off at church). But we have a Christmas tree leaning up against my roof ready to be fit into its stand and decorated tomorrow for our Family Night.
And it's the best Christmas tree ever! Or do you think yours is?
Friday, November 17, 2006
MyLife-When I Got A Paycheck
With my husband's support, I have been a stay at home Mom for 9 years. My eldest will be turning 10 next month, so you can see that for most of her life, she's had the quantity time as well as the quality time. During that almost decade, however, I have earned a paycheck twice, for 2 months each time.
The first time was for American Promotions, Inc.. American Promotions is an advertising specialties company. That means they sell and have logoed any product you can imagine. Most companies want mugs or pens or t-shirts. Think about how many times you opened an account at a bank or attended a conference--most of the freebies were one of those three, right? Well, that is what most companies seemed to want. But if a company wanted a product outside the box, well, AP had six filing cabinets with catalogs from companies who did far more than mugs.
One of my favorite products was a zippable coconut. It was a real coconut, with a zipper
around the middle that you could open and shut and thus use the inside as a container. Who would ever throw that away! And that is, of course the whole point of advertising specialties--for a company to keep its name in front of you so when you want what they sell, you'll think of them first. Of course, a coconut might not be thrown away, but people won't wear it, write with it or drink with it (well, maybe that last one is possible). And that's why pens, mugs and t-shirts remain such a popular choice. Because they get used (and keep the company name in front of customer's faces). I still like the zippered coconut though. I would keep my jewelry in it!
My husband, Theron, was the President of American Promotions, and needed my skills temporarily, so I obliged. I enjoyed it, knowing it was temporary, and then returned back home ready to work where my heart is, even if it's without a paycheck.
The second job I had in the last 9 years was for two months as a legislative aide to my Oregon State Representative, Dennis Richardson. He's also my dad, and so, knowing it was temporary, I bridged his gap between aides.
I loved it. Not everyone would like to be a Number Two guy--but I do. I liked organizing his office, scheduling his day, and anticipating his needs. I liked having him ask me about a paper, and knowing right where it was. I liked having him call me en route to a meeting and asking for the best route to get there. Maybe because I like controlling and organizing things, and his office stayed in control and organized far better than a household with five children. Or maybe because I like making a difference, and Representative Richardson's work made a visible difference in people's lives. I had never before met a politician so concerned with answering constituent's problems--and actually finding answers, not just commiserating.
Ironically though, my current and constant "job" of the last 9 years has been making a huge difference in people's lives. Particularly the lives of one man and (now) five children. I cannot control or organize as consistently as I can in an office. But I make more of a difference in those six people's lives than any person can in any other job. So, after a great two months with Rep. Richardson, I again left paid work for the unpaid kind (thanks to the support of my husband).
Are you making the same choices? Why or why not?
The first time was for American Promotions, Inc.. American Promotions is an advertising specialties company. That means they sell and have logoed any product you can imagine. Most companies want mugs or pens or t-shirts. Think about how many times you opened an account at a bank or attended a conference--most of the freebies were one of those three, right? Well, that is what most companies seemed to want. But if a company wanted a product outside the box, well, AP had six filing cabinets with catalogs from companies who did far more than mugs.
One of my favorite products was a zippable coconut. It was a real coconut, with a zipper
around the middle that you could open and shut and thus use the inside as a container. Who would ever throw that away! And that is, of course the whole point of advertising specialties--for a company to keep its name in front of you so when you want what they sell, you'll think of them first. Of course, a coconut might not be thrown away, but people won't wear it, write with it or drink with it (well, maybe that last one is possible). And that's why pens, mugs and t-shirts remain such a popular choice. Because they get used (and keep the company name in front of customer's faces). I still like the zippered coconut though. I would keep my jewelry in it!My husband, Theron, was the President of American Promotions, and needed my skills temporarily, so I obliged. I enjoyed it, knowing it was temporary, and then returned back home ready to work where my heart is, even if it's without a paycheck.
The second job I had in the last 9 years was for two months as a legislative aide to my Oregon State Representative, Dennis Richardson. He's also my dad, and so, knowing it was temporary, I bridged his gap between aides.
I loved it. Not everyone would like to be a Number Two guy--but I do. I liked organizing his office, scheduling his day, and anticipating his needs. I liked having him ask me about a paper, and knowing right where it was. I liked having him call me en route to a meeting and asking for the best route to get there. Maybe because I like controlling and organizing things, and his office stayed in control and organized far better than a household with five children. Or maybe because I like making a difference, and Representative Richardson's work made a visible difference in people's lives. I had never before met a politician so concerned with answering constituent's problems--and actually finding answers, not just commiserating.
Ironically though, my current and constant "job" of the last 9 years has been making a huge difference in people's lives. Particularly the lives of one man and (now) five children. I cannot control or organize as consistently as I can in an office. But I make more of a difference in those six people's lives than any person can in any other job. So, after a great two months with Rep. Richardson, I again left paid work for the unpaid kind (thanks to the support of my husband).
Are you making the same choices? Why or why not?
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Food-Canning Applesauce, A Saga
Canning feels so cozy-old-fashioned. I like to jar something at least once a year. I will only make the effort (and it is actually a great deal of effort) if I can find a great deal on the food. Free is best. Last year Harry and David's had a super sale (for locals) on their fresh peaches. I put up over 70 quarts of peaches and we currently have two quarts left only because I hid them and then forgot where I hid them. The other quarts didn't last past Christmas. And we tried to ration them.
This year I found a friend with yellow apples that she wasn't going to pick--seven trees worth. I grabbed my sister-in-law (age 13) and brother-in-law (age 15) and bribed them with visions of homemade applesauce to come help me pick apples and then can them. They came! And we filled the back of my mini-van with bags of apples.
We then started to prepare them the traditional way. We cut them in quarters, put them in water to boil. Then we pushed them through a Victrola Strainer and out one side flowed the apple waste parts and out the other flowed real applesauce. I had heated the lids and sterilized the jars and prepared the rings--everything was working so well. Then I realized I couldn't find my steam canner. I tried calling my Mom and twin sister, but neither of them could help me. That's when I had a brand new idea that should have worked.
I felt like I was figuring out a whole new way to process lots of canning jars at once. A path unavailable to the old time canners. A canning conclusion that perhaps I was the first to conclude: Use a Dishwasher!
A steam canner processes the jars of food using hot steam. A dishwasher, set on the hot water setting, on ultra wash (so it washed on the longest setting) could hold 25 jars at once--and how could its steam be any different than a steam canner? Steam is steam, right? And the outside of the jars would be sparkling clean too. It was the perfect idea!
So I loaded up the dishwasher, turned the settings on, and by the end of its cycle, only four of the lids hadn't inverted. It worked! So I did it to all 54 jars. By the next morning, only five lids hadn't sealed. So, we ate some fresh applesauce, gave my dear relatives their share, and put the sealed jars out in the garage.
The garage was as cold as a refrigerator until we hit our Southern Oregon October Week of Warmth (it comes every year). It was just after that warm spell that I decided to make granola, which requires applesauce, and I walked out to my garage for a jar of that tasty, homemade applesauce. As I picked up closest jar, I noticed a hairy blue growth on the applesauce surface.
I put it down, thinking it an anamoly, and then picked up another jar. It had orange spots "icing" the applesauce. My heart beat fast now. Another and another and another jar. Every jar but five had hairy spots of black, blue, green or orange mold growing on top. Ah, the variety of colors. But how could it be? The center of the lids wasn't popping up. So I tried to take off a lid. And off it flipped off with just a bit of effort from my pointer finger.
I could push every lid off every jar with a push from my finger.
I felt sick.
I tried to do something with the wasted applesauce. I mixed it with glue and cinnamon to make some great smelling sachets. But it required too much cinnamon to make it worth it for 45 jars of applesauce. So I threw the rest out.
And when I made pears the next month (only $1.00 a box from a church pear farm!), I used a steam canner.
So I learned the moral of the story, which is...Well...what do you think the moral of the story is?
This year I found a friend with yellow apples that she wasn't going to pick--seven trees worth. I grabbed my sister-in-law (age 13) and brother-in-law (age 15) and bribed them with visions of homemade applesauce to come help me pick apples and then can them. They came! And we filled the back of my mini-van with bags of apples.
We then started to prepare them the traditional way. We cut them in quarters, put them in water to boil. Then we pushed them through a Victrola Strainer and out one side flowed the apple waste parts and out the other flowed real applesauce. I had heated the lids and sterilized the jars and prepared the rings--everything was working so well. Then I realized I couldn't find my steam canner. I tried calling my Mom and twin sister, but neither of them could help me. That's when I had a brand new idea that should have worked.
I felt like I was figuring out a whole new way to process lots of canning jars at once. A path unavailable to the old time canners. A canning conclusion that perhaps I was the first to conclude: Use a Dishwasher!
A steam canner processes the jars of food using hot steam. A dishwasher, set on the hot water setting, on ultra wash (so it washed on the longest setting) could hold 25 jars at once--and how could its steam be any different than a steam canner? Steam is steam, right? And the outside of the jars would be sparkling clean too. It was the perfect idea!
So I loaded up the dishwasher, turned the settings on, and by the end of its cycle, only four of the lids hadn't inverted. It worked! So I did it to all 54 jars. By the next morning, only five lids hadn't sealed. So, we ate some fresh applesauce, gave my dear relatives their share, and put the sealed jars out in the garage.
The garage was as cold as a refrigerator until we hit our Southern Oregon October Week of Warmth (it comes every year). It was just after that warm spell that I decided to make granola, which requires applesauce, and I walked out to my garage for a jar of that tasty, homemade applesauce. As I picked up closest jar, I noticed a hairy blue growth on the applesauce surface.
I put it down, thinking it an anamoly, and then picked up another jar. It had orange spots "icing" the applesauce. My heart beat fast now. Another and another and another jar. Every jar but five had hairy spots of black, blue, green or orange mold growing on top. Ah, the variety of colors. But how could it be? The center of the lids wasn't popping up. So I tried to take off a lid. And off it flipped off with just a bit of effort from my pointer finger.
I could push every lid off every jar with a push from my finger.
I felt sick.
I tried to do something with the wasted applesauce. I mixed it with glue and cinnamon to make some great smelling sachets. But it required too much cinnamon to make it worth it for 45 jars of applesauce. So I threw the rest out.
And when I made pears the next month (only $1.00 a box from a church pear farm!), I used a steam canner.
So I learned the moral of the story, which is...Well...what do you think the moral of the story is?
Review-Charlie Bone is NOT Harry Potter
Does it seem to you that a lot of fantasy coming out of the publishing houses in the last 10 years seems an imitative shadow of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter? The publishing mantra seems to be: if they bought Harry Potter, then they will buy ____fill in the blank___.
The Charlie Bone series comes directly to mind. Sorry if you are a fan, but I found the writing weak and I didn't really like Charlie Bone. It's impossible to like a book if you don't like the main character! There is plenty of action and potential in the books, but I couldn't help but wonder how many times Jenny Nimmo read Potter before she created the Bone world. The magic school adventures Bone experienced forced me to compare it to Potter. And Charlie Bone suffered from comparison.
There are five books in the Bone series. And I dragged myself through them all.
Re-read Potter instead. Don't you think?
Review on Author Shannon Hale
I was going to talk about one book, Princess Academy, by author Shannon Hale. But I can't limit myself to talking about just one. She has four: Princess Academy, Goose Girl, River Secrets and Enna Burning. That order is how I rank them. If you read them, however, the order should be Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets and then Princess Academy is a stand alone book. They are books I'd like to suck up with a straw. Delicious! I devoured them like I was starving. Perhaps because I had so recently finished reading a whole row of poorly written fantasy. These books were like breezes that brushed aside the tasteless writing I had just endured, and left me satisfied--although I hated for them to end. A bit of magic, royal blood, battles, true love, with a depth in the characters that is surprising complex in a fairy tale world.
Read one! Then tell me what you think.
Read one! Then tell me what you think.
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