Thursday, December 8, 2011

Holiday Card Love

 
Today my Christmas spirit is starting to simmer with holiday card love, one of my favorite parts of the season.
Mail every day?
Beautiful pictures of my family and friends?
Letters that make me laugh and tell stories from the year that make the states between us seem to wane?
This was the greatest idea, ever.

When I was growing up, holiday cards would come to our house in flurries for weeks and be collected into a basket set out on the counter amidst cookies, wrapping paper, and a nativity with "Gloria" the angel sticky-tacked to the barn's gable.

Every time you walked by, you could re-stick the fallen Gloria to her post and glance at the newest Christmas card on top of the pile, which was refreshed with the daily delivery of mail.

I used to love to take the basket to the couch and sift slowly through every card and letter.
I think it was an early evidence of my love for photos and photography, for stories and reflection, and for the message delivered through the pairing of photos and words together.

Today I spent an hour in Paper Source picking out envelopes for our Christmas card and feeling that familiar merriness.

Getting down to the brass tacks of this year's cards, I ordered from Tiny Prints.
Tiny Prints, who sent me a hand-written note thanking me for "joining the Tiny Prints family."
Customer service.  I wish it wasn't so unimaginable.
Thanks to Tiny Prints, I'm a believer!
Order your own Christmas cards from Tiny Prints here.

Now, not to interrupt myself, but if I do what I came here to do tonight, I would backspace all the above paragraphs and say this:
My friend Kirra Sue has a lovely, lovely photography business and should you need holiday cards, save the dates, birth announcements, or simply updated family photos to frame in your house for the new year, you can find Kirra here.
She took the photo of husband and I above, and I am in love with her work!

I hope that every day for the rest of December "you've got mail!"

2 comments:

ilene @ muchloveilly said...

oh my goodness - love the outfit and love this picture!

Kirra said...

Yea! You are sweet. The mailman keeps bending all of our Christmas cards & I have yet to get ours printed. Ei yi yi. I'm on it!!!!! Can't wait to see how yours came out. I know it'll be so cute. Love you.