Keeping the US Postal Service in Business

In the age of email and text messaging, everyone still loves to get an old fashioned letter. Never mind that the USPS lost several of our wedding invites and thank you notes.  Never mind that our local post office isn't open on Saturdays.  And doesn't even have a stamp machine!  Where is one supposed to buy stamps if you can't go to the post office M-F 9-5?  Thanks to the nice stranger that heard TB and I complaining about the lack of office hours, we discovered that the best place to buy stamps is the UPS store.  The UPS store?  Strange but true. 

One of our contributions to the postal service was a moving announcement with a side of craft project.  Yes, I decided to push my craftiness on everyone in the guise of a moving announcement. Sneaky.  As I was putting the moving announcement together, I crossed my fingers that everyone would at least "get it", but TB assured me everyone would "get it" from the moving announcement perspective, but no one would actually participate in the craft project.  I quickly decided he was wrong, or I didn't really care if any one participated, or maybe it was that I had already put hours worth of effort into them, but they went out the door regardless.

Much to our amazement we started receiving pictures of the final product!  The participation was much appreciated and in fact even made my day!



Our second contribution to the postal service was our annual Christmas card.  I must admit that I'm obsessed with picking out the perfect card every year, and I start bookmarking potential cards early in the year.  I may even have a folder on my computer with a collection of cards that I'm considering for upcoming mailings....  Or maybe I shouldn't admit that. Crazy.  I know.  This year's winner was a cute little place called Hoot Design.

Anyway, after pouring through our pictures from 2010 - I realized that we didn't have any good ones.  Or at least Christmas card worthy pictures.  So we went with the non picture version of a card, but yet still personalized:

So after 20 books of stamps bought from UPS, the TB household has contributed our fair share to the USPS.  At least until next Christmas - which I'm already planning for.....

Decorating for the Holidays. Sort Of.

As the Christmas holiday is approaching, most people take on the tradition of decorating their houses.  Everyone expresses themselves a bit differently.  Lights, blow up lawn ornaments, window candles, fake snow, stockings - but whatever you choose to decorate your home with, there is always the centerpiece.  The Tree.

Practically every home celebrating the holiday has a tree.  If there are lights on the house, there is most likely a twinkle in a window.  Every large Christmas display has a tree.  The White House, Rockefeller Center, the Macy's at Lenox Mall in Atlanta (although that one looks particularly sad this year).  The best Christmas movies are about the tree - Charlie Brown, Christmas Vacation.  Need I go on?  Based on the importance of the tree in regards to holiday decorating, you have to ask yourself - Was a good faith effort in decorating really made if a tree is not present?

After all, where would you put the presents?  Does a stocking even matter if there is no tree?  Where would you put all those years worth of Hallmark ornaments?  What would be twinkling through the window as you drove up to the house late at night?

Considering this was the first year in our house, I had high hopes for our holiday decorating.  We started with a few of these on the outside of the house:

It may even seem to the casual neighbor that we know what we are doing.  What a step in the right direction!  You might actually start to look through our front windows for the familiar twinkling of the tree.  And......... Hmmmmm.  No twinkle. 

But surely we just put the tree toward the back of the house.  I mean, we must have a tree.  We obviously celebrate Christmas - we have candles and evergreen wreaths, for heaven's sake!

Unfortunately, the twinkle is not in the back of the house.  We have no tree.  Yes.  I said it.  No tree.  There was a executive decision made in our house.  (Not by me.  Or the cats.  That should narrow it down a bit for you.).  The decision to go treeless was made based on the fact that we would not be home most of December.  But does it really matter?  Santa still needs a place to put the presents and Hallmark still needs to stay in business.  And there would be no twinkle.  Gasp!

It almost seems like a crime to go without the tree.  Just a crime. 

Next year.  Next year, we'll have the best twinkle on the block.  Just you wait!