House of Christmas Cards

December 9, 2009

One of my favorite Christmas traditions USED to be sending Christmas cards. USED to be... Not this year.
Nope.
A couple years ago, I got all tech-y and made my address list on a label template.  Labels were supposed to make my Christmas card list easy to access, print, and, in general, save me time.  Well, we just keep adding to the list, making a few name changes, etc.  So it is nowhere close to alphabetical order anymore. This drives me crazy because I am very orderly and all (missed my calling to be a librarian).
I printed the labels.  Nice and easy.
About half of them did not line up with the stickers.  Grrr.
So, I adjusted the font sizes, spacing, etc. 
Most of them, except for one column were perfectly aligned.  I opted to handwrite those 10.  Ten names, no biggie (If you recently got a card with a handwritten address, you were mis-aligned). 

About 80/100ths of the way through my card assembly line, I noticed that I am about 20 cards short.  So I dash off an email to my etsy card creator (because my Christmas cards are adorably-hand made by bellablu designs) for another 30 just to be safe.  That means another order to Costco.com for more photos.  And more stamps.

Oh, I forgot to mention the photos. . .  I had to trim each one(hundred) because my adorable cards are not a standard 4x6 size (my custom cards are starting to lose their cute factor).  More grrr-ing. 

Then I am email chatting with my friend, Melissa C., when I realize that I didn't see her name in my card assembly line.  I scroll through my mental rolodex and realize that I missed most of the friends whose last names begin with A-C.  What happened to my fancy- schmancy address list??? A-C people disappeared!  Double grrr with some *!**!! thrown in. 
Thankfully, I had ordered those extra cards and photos.
So if your last name begins with A-C or you are related to me, your card is coming - eventually (for my relatives, I bumped you to the bottom of the list so I could get out the cards to people who don't see my kids everyday. . . . sorry).  And it will have a handwritten address. 

This is my second Christmas card fiasco.  Last time was when I sent out the photo cards pre-printed.   Hmmm.  The pre-printed Christmas cards and I DO NOT work well together.  Next year I will go back to ordering the cards from the Phoenix Children's Hopsital Cancer Center and handwriting all those greetings and addresses.  I should probably get started now.  

Karen