We fish you a frooooogggy Christmas
I used to do one o’ them thar xmas newsletters waaaay back in the day. The kind you type up and copy and mail to all most of the folks on your xmas card list. Being a Successful Failure, I always tried not to brag about all of our Wonderful Accomplishments and Wunderkind. I mean, our kids are very smart but they certainly aren’t any smarter than yours. Instead I tried to tell what I hoped were humorous stories about our humble little lives here in our shabby little house on The Planet Ann Arbor.
When I did my newsletter, it was back in the early Macintosh computer days and I had a great time incorporating photos and drawings and other graphics. It was not easy to do this. I had to McGyver my way through an unfathomable series of software applications (MacPaint anyone?) and hardware to manage to get everything into a Word doc to print and copy (and stuff into hand-addressed envelopes to mail out). I wish I could remember that whole process because it was pretty dern funny but I can’t, at least not off-hand.
I kind of fell off on the newsletter after a while. Little kids turned into teenagers and it seemed like their lives were *their* lives and who was I to try to write about them. And if I wrote about their best moments it might seem like I was bragging and I have followed in my mother’s footsteps not to brag about my children. Plus I was just plain busy in a different way that I won’t go into for now. And then, when I started my Vanity Blahg, there didn’t seem to be much point in sending out newsletters any more.
Having Froooooggy fishing you a merry xmas reminded me that I once sent out a newsletter with the title “We Fish You a Merry Christmas” and I had a loverly sketch of fish and bubbles and maybe kelp(?), that the GG had drawn. I know that sketch is somewhere on my laptop. I will have to find it.
By the way, I have ALWAYS enjoyed *receiving* xmas newsletters from people. Even if your newsletter sounds like you are “bragging”, I know that you are highlighting your family’s good times and keeping the not-so-good under the covers. Life is like a river and we all have our good and bad days.
Love y’all, KW
December 19th, 2017 at 8:52 pm
Me, too! I took great pride in my Christmas newsletters. They evolved over time as I learned InDesign and Photoshop and it was a lot of fun (but very time-consuming), and once they stopped being fun anymore, I stopped. Between my blog and Facebook, (as well as texts or even email “letters” to my BF), I’m in touch with everyone these days, so everything I’d write about would be re-hash stuff. So, I’m done. And I can’t imagine just sending a card with my signature. What’s the point? I’m all for minimizing the feeling of obligations that honestly don’t matter!
December 21st, 2017 at 8:00 pm
I still enjoy sending out New Year’s cards, but they go to people who aren’t on Facebook or who read my blog. You people know WAY more than you probably want to about my life and what’s going on with my kids. 🙂