S'more questions, anyone?

The Christmas letter is finished!  Yay!  And I've mailed out about half of them.  Still way behind compared to usual, but oh well. 

I wanted to try something different this year, so I asked a friend of ours, (who I will refer to as "K" from here on) to come up with some questions of her own to ask us.  I was thinking along the lines of a magazine article interview -- and told her to think in that category when coming up with different topics for our family to talk about. 

Little did I know how much fun our little "interview" would be!  K and her boyfriend/our friend snuck into the backyard when the girls weren't paying attention and went out of their way to set up a cozy atmosphere for our "interview", complete with Christmas music, a bonfire, & smores fixins to help get us in the holiday spirit.  (Which, according to my middle kid, was "awesome"!) 

K even had an agenda written down, with a hula-hoop contest to break the ice a little bit before we got started (the hula hoop lit up and everything).  My youngest went about 3o seconds before one of the dogs got in the way (very dramatic reaction to that, let me tell you), my middle daughter went almost two minutes.  My oldest didn't go close to as long as the middle one, which was nice, because someone different won something for a change.  Lovemuffin and I -- well, we gave up pretty quickly (Lovemuffin's didn't rotate even three times I don't think!  ha!). 

After the hula hoop contest Lovemuffin got out his cell phone and we sat down, bellies stuffed full of smores and bodies toasty from the cardio of the hula hoop contest (and crackling fire pit, of course).   Lovemuffin asked the questions K had come up with, recording our responses the whole time on his phone so I could go back later and share the "exact" reactions.  

A few minutes after we concluded our "interview" I headed into the office and listened to the recording.  Some parts were more entertaining or funny than others, but I had to pick out the most interesting quotes only,  because when doing an interview-type letter, a lot of empty space is used up each time there's a hard return.  (Which I did often to show someone else was talking... so that's why magazines have a few columns on a page... to cram more words in! Duh!)

Was this year's Christmas letter the *best* one ever, in my opinion?  I'm thinking probably not. That's kind of what happens when I don't come up with my idea six months ahead of time (which I will do in 2010 - mark my words!)  I'm hoping what I chose to share will at least give a little insight into the kids' personalities, and show everyone how we interact as a family.  And at this point, that's good enough for me.   

The only thing that sucked a bit was the fact that I was sooooo intent on getting the letters out immediately, I didn't really think my beginning all the way through.  So about 20 people have a boring opening talking about what year it is, and then the rest of the recipients' letters  are more "interview" styled in the beginning.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  Well I wouldn't say I lost anything exactly,  maybe "learn" would be a better word.  I learned a couple of things with this year's Christmas letter.

First, sitting down with the family and having smores on a school night (something I normally wouldn't do) didn't kill us.  The girls still went to bed on time, there wasn't a huge mess, and that evening is something they'll probably remember for a long time.

Second, planning ahead is still my very best friend.  Not having an idea way ahead of time just adds stress to my life that I truly don't need!  More proof to Lovemuffin that I just can't handle anything spur of the moment!

And third, friends are a wonderful commodity -- especially the ones who go above and beyond to do those little, unnecessary things that'll put a smile on your face.  I have a few friends that I love to do little unexpected things for, and it made me remember that we can't always assume our friends know how much they mean to us --  showing our appreciation with words or kind gestures once in a while should be automatic (and that rule could go for family as well).

Well enough sappiness.  I'm off to print out as many letters as possible before I run out of ink (I'm guessing I'll get about four done, if I'm lucky).

Oh - I forgot to mention, I did list a few websites and my email in the letter as well, so if I connect with anyone new via the Internet, that will just be a bonus=)

Christmas letters are so boring. Or are they?

Dear so and so... This year our family did this, this, this and - oh yes, we did some of this, too...  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Sound familiar?  That was a pretty accurate example of my annual Christmas letter there for a few years.  It worked out great at first, since Lovemuffin and I welcomed a child into the family three years in a row.  (Gotta mention the new rugrat, and inform everyone about how the older rugrat/s are reacting to the new one, right?) 

After a while though, my letters began to sound a bit boring.  I imagined people were opening up their letters and saying “Oh no – it’s two pages long – again!  Blah blah blah…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”  and stuffing the letters back into the envelopes (A habit Lovemuffin has – and may I say that I don’t get it?  Why would you read a letter or card and stuff it right back into where it just came from?) or chucking them onto the counter with the bulk mail, or worse yet, dropping their letter directly into the trash. *Gasp*  So a few years ago I decided it was time to spark things up a little. 

One year I shared a play-by-play example of a typical chaotic morning at our house.  It looked like a screenplay, with each person's name next to their lines and everything. (Verrrry time consuming.)  Another year I re-wrote “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” by summarizing my family’s activities in rhyme.  And last year my letter came in the form of a multiple-choice quiz, with pretty obvious questions and a few quirky false answers thrown in the mix. (One question asked which member of the family had just gotten braces, and I threw our dachshund's name in as one of the possible answers.  Not sure if anyone else found that funny, but I sure did.)

I can’t believe it's time to write my tenth Christmas letter this year….and this year, well… I still haven't decided what to do yet. (Panic is setting in, people!)  We take our family photos today and the letters must go out this weekend (for my sanity), which means that I am running out of time, and fast!

For those of you who haven't done a Christmas letter before, I'd like to suggest you do one this year (it doesn't have to be long - in fact, I think mine are a little too long half the time).  Maybe it's the reader in me talking (or, er - typing), but I actually wish I would receive more letters - especially from friends and family who don't live nearby. 

I thought I'd share a Christmas letter ideas link to help get you started, and a few more ideas are below.

1)  Think numbers.  I found this idea on a blog, and if you're number oriented, it's a great idea.  Instead of summarizing the past twelve months by explaining what you've done, break it down by numbers.  For example - 

This year we traveled 5,600 miles, lost 12 teeth (some baby, some permanent), played 15 football games, gave 53 groundings, lost 42 pair of socks, ect.  (You can also do a matching version, by having the readers match the numbers to the facts.)

2)  Where's Waldo?  Do your own version of Where's Waldo - take a picture of your family (or individual family members) and add a lot of other pictures of people and objects to the page.  Then photocopy the entire assortment and have your readers try to find you, either all on their own, or by giving hints.

3)  Re-invent a Christmas song.  This is kind of like re-writing "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  (Make sure to inform your readers in which tune the letter should be read!)

4)   Movie Madness.  Compare family members or specific incidents to movies.  You can either make it a trivia sort of game where the readers have to choose which things go together, or do it in a more conversational way and tell a story.

5)  Mail a game.  There are many games you can create, depending on the amount of time you have to spend.  Memory would be one of the easiest (copy 2 pictures of each family member onto a regular sheet of paper and send instructions telling them to cut the pictures out), and a Monopoly kind of game (using your child's school, place/s of employment, favorite restaurants or parks as the properties, ect.) would be more time-consuming.

6)  Write a letter.  A good, old-fashioned letter never hurt anyone.  In fact, they're quite popular, and are the easiest thing to do if you haven't done anything like this before.  Here are a few simple rules to go by-

* Use the spell check feature on your computer. Your readers will thank you.

* Make sure not to brag.  There's "We had a wonderful year..." and there's "Our year was the better than everyone else's...".  Try not to do the second one.

*Date your letter.  You can do it the classic way and have the date at the top, or incorporate it into the body of the letter.  Either way, it's important - because some people do save them, and it would be nice to know in which order they were received.

*Don't go too crazy with your font choice.  It would be a crime to go to so much work and then have it so difficult for people to read that people don't want to finish it, or have to get out a magnifying glass in order to see the words.

*Have fun!  Involve your family - quote them, ask questions, incorporate pictures or drawings.  The more personal the letter, the better.

*Sign it.  This last one is my favorite.  Typing your name is easier, but taking a few more minutes to sign each one will make the letter seem all the more personal.

Each year I print out four extra copies as I'm stuffing envelopes - one for me, and three for my daughters' scrapbooks. We pull out the old letters and read through them at least once during the holiday season, laughing and tearing up (okay, I'm the only one who gets a bit emotional) about things we'd long forgotten about.  And even though I stress myself out trying to figure out new ideas, it's well worth it - because the letters will be a neat, personalized summary of our lives, long after the girls and grown up and moved out of the house.  

One last tip - and this is my personal preference - make sure to share your email address, website or blog on your letter.  I've never been contacted that way (and I send out around 75 letters), but I'm one of those people who will literally run to the computer to check out a blog I didn't know a friend had, or add a new email address to my contact list. Let the internet help keep you connected!   

So what are you waiting for?  Go write a letter already!   And oops - I almost forgot - Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!