I’m gonna come out and say it, I love Christmas.  I’ve celebrated it in all kinds of ways.  Straight up Episcopalian religious, completely pagan, commercial x-mas, and any combination there of.  I’ve even tried being cynical about the whole thing just to see how that felt.  It didn’t work, because I love Christmas.

When I was a kid there was a little half wall/counter thing that divided the kitchen from what became the “computer room.”  There was a ceiling portion of the counter too from which we would hang all the christmas cards that we got throughout the season.  Walking around that counter in January was wonderful, with smiling faces, fat santas, and various animals all staring down at us.  Some were from people I cared about, some were from people I barely knew, but it was the thought.  It was the idea.

I’ve always wanted to send out hand-made Christmas cards.

As an idea, it sounds like a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, I know that as soon as I sit down and make more than five I will be done and the idea will no longer be fun.  I do that when I paint all the time, I come up with this great technique and decide to cover the entire canvas with it to see how that technique plays with the colors I’ve already got.  Once I’ve done about a quarter of the canvas I realize how tedious my new technique is but by that point I’ve got to finish.

For the first time, I’ve received my own Christmas card, from a friend, what was specifically addressed to me and not “The Hynes Family” (or whichever last name is used for the part of my family I am in at the time).  No, it was not handmade, but it was specially designed with smiling faces of nice people who I care about and they actually managed to send it, so I think they win.