Christmas Card Envy

How do people do it? Every day the amount of Christmas Cards in my mailbox grows exponentially, and I look at the stack of half-addressed cards on my kitchen table and go into a guilt kvetch. The worst ones are when you get a card from somebody and realize, "CRAP! They're not on my list!" Then you have to scrounge around the house for an extra card (because you're always ONE CARD SHORT), but to no avail. And then it's back to the store to fight the other last-minute shoppers to grab one package of cards (which will ultimately get lost before next year) so that you can make sure everyone you know gets some form of correspondence.

But the real question is, why didn't I keep up with these people throughout the year? People I worked with, old friends, family... Sure, I had a baby this year, but some of them have two and three children of their own, and they managed to get a card to me already, smiling baby pictures included.

And let's not even talk about the Christmas letter... if you do it one year, it becomes a tradition, and you can't break tradition... it's unlucky. So I must sit down and try to think of something clever and witty, but when the pressure is on, I crack. Two days after I send the letters out, it will come to me.

"Damn, I wish I had written that down!"