Every holiday season, I spend a few hours writing out Christmas cards to friends and family. It’s a lot of work, but I love doing it. It’s a tradition I’ve kept since realizing how nice it is to get a piece of mail that isn’t a bill.

Sending Christmas cards is a commitment! We usually buy a box of cards from Hallmark (I love this store). I stand in a long line getting festival postage stamps at the local post office so I can make sure they’re not just the American flag (nothing wrong with that either). After handwriting all the addresses on the envelopes, I slip a photo of us in the card and off they go! We usually send about 40 cards every year.

I’ve got an address book just for Christmas cards. I check off who I send them to and who sends one back. It’s dated from 2008. When I flip through the pages, I see the names of people who have passed away or those who have lost touch with us. It gets me thinking about all the people I know who come and go.

We take these cheesy family photos outside our front door with our dogs every year. We changed it up this year because it was just too much trying to take a photo where both a baby and two dogs were looking at the camera.

With the recent snowfall, we took advantage of the beautiful landscape and had a quick Christmas photo shoot with Leigh. He was the star of the show. I hope everyone who gets a Christmas card from us smiles when they see his photo!

If you need a little extra holiday cheer and want me to mail you a card, send me an email at lindsey.nemcek at gmail dot com.