to christmas card or not to christmas card?

That is the question.
Do you send out cards? Do you not send out cards?
Do you gather the family for the heinous family photo
with weeping babies and petulant toddlers?
Do you price several photo websites to see how
much it will cost to send these heinous photos to a few
friends or do you feed a small 3rd world nation Christmas dinner instead?
Because the cost of printing the cards and the postage for
sending the cards is roughly the same as buying turkey dinner
for everyone in outer mongolia.
And really, you must send a photo because if you don't
people will call you and say, "What do you look like?"
or "Why are you sending Christmas cards without pictures?
We want pictures. We need art for our fridge."
Or maybe that is just me. I love cards with pictures.
And because each year I paper the side of my fridge with those pictures.
I have been having this conversation with a few close friends.
Do people really appreciate the cards when they get them in the mail?
Do they really understand the blood, sweat and tears that went into
that cheery wintry scene by the flocked tree and fake fire?
Yes, they do. At least I do.
Christmas is the one time I gleefully enjoy perusing my mail.
Sometimes there are actually more Christmas cards than bills.
And that is something to cheer about.
Last year, we fashioned a newsy epistle
and printed out our own Christmas cards.
Then we stuffed them and sealed them.
Somewhere in the Christmas mayhem, card momentum was lost
and there they sat on a forlorn shelf above the dryer
until March when I finally threw them away.
This year I decided it must be done.
Because there are actually people whom I love who may not know
I have 3 children, so we figure let's send them a picture and shock them.
So this year I found a great deal on postcards.
With the help of my niece, Aly, on-line customer service live chat Patrick,
and on the phone customer service Patrick (same Patrick as above),
the glorious Christmas postcards were achieved.
Other than the fact that I don't have near as many friends as I thought,
and I WAY over ordered, I spent today addressing said postcards and
they are heading out via the US postal service,
hopefully, to spread a little Christmas cheer
and let all my friends know that I now have 3 kids.
Someone commented that you can't see all of Jack's face
and the other children are looking off to the side.
It's a candid sort of shot taken at the beach.
I say, "Look here, no one is crying and Scott and I look half way decent."
And since I am paying for them, this is the shot we are going with.
So sorry to outer mongolia on behalf of the Aughtmon family.
There is no turkey dinner headed your way.
This year we're sending out Christmas cards.