If we had taken our annual family picture, like we always do during our summer vacation, I would be taking advantage of the offers that Tiny Prints and other major online stationery businesses have right now for holiday cards.  Not only would I save money, but getting my holiday cards already ordered and shipped to me would be checked off the "to do" list before Halloween!  Boo - ya! Truth be told, one year I was totally on top of things and took advantage of the October sales for our Xmas cards.  Funny thing was that even though I got them months in advance, I still scrambled to get them out on time because I insisted on hand writing the addresses and well... that takes time.  Especially because we send out 300+ each year.  

Unfortunately, we don't have our annual family picture yet because we never took a picture together this summer except for my birthday dinner picture.  Which is fine...except it's not fine.  So needless to say, I cannot take advantage of the October deals that expire on October 7th.  Wink, wink. We all know that come October 7th there will be many more offers till the big day.  I know these things, and yet I am panicked that I will let all this time go by and then BAM! - I am paying thru the nose for overnight shipping! Whoops, sorry that's for a therapy session and not for this blog!

Let's get back to why we send holiday cards as opposed to sending out a post on FB claiming we want to save the trees and ease our holiday stress load.  Being thoughtful is the OBVIOUS answer as to why we send out the cards. Keeping in touch is another. Showing how much our family has grown is another.  Bragging about our ages is NOT a reason why we send holiday cards - {oh how cute, Johnny is 3 yrs old now.  But I wonder why Sally didn't put her age in parenthesis - she has to be at least 35 or 36 yrs old, right?}  We have many reasons to send out a holiday card. Do you ever wonder what people do with all the cards after the holidays? 

I heard a wonderful idea from my friend Shannon who said her family collects the cards in a basket as they start coming in.  Each night the family picks one or a few cards out of the basket and prays for them.  Very thoughtful.  I love that idea so much!  That's not easy to do via FaceBook - unless you want your kids to see all the pictures of your friend's alcoholic drinks and sarcastic women bitchy statements while you scroll to find a post that says, "Merry Christmas from the Smiths".  

In my house, we are a bit extreme with the cards that we receive.  First, I must preface that my mother is always with me for the entire month of December so I have lots of help.  A tradition that I adopted from my friend Rachel is to take each photo card and hang them on ribbon throughout my house showcasing our friends and family.  After the holidays are over (yes, this means my decor stays up past New Years), my mom puts the cards in a photo album.  Am I a borderline hoarder? Or as my friend Megan calls it, Hoarder with Order (organized hoarding). I just love seeing my friends and family evolve and grow and it's hard for me to put these lovely cards in the recycling bin!!   It's thoughtful but I'm contemplating if we will continue to put the cards in albums.  

I have friends who send out their holiday thoughtful pinches for Halloween.  The whole family gets in full costume, snaps a photo and sends it off for their annual holiday greeting.  I have friends who send theirs wishes around Valentine's Day and yet another for St. Patrick's Day.  

Whatever holiday you choose - National Coffee Day - how fun to send something via the U.S. postal service to wish people a happy holiday.  Thoughtful.  And maybe we're not saving trees but we are getting messages to people that matter.  Tiny Pinches.  That was a name I was considering before Thoughtful Pinch.  But it's too much like Tiny Prints.

Pinches,

Barb