Did a bit of a draft of our christmas letter and forwarded to xshub. it was damned depressing, i feel bad sending it out! he said he wasn’t able to improve upon it much either!
Despite the fact that we’ve passed the tipping point on the whole western civilization thing, it’s been a pretty darn good year for me. So I guess if I was doing one of those letters, and I’m not, it would be nauseating to read.
:)
Those are the years that I give my friends nd relatives a break and just send a card. This may be one of those years. It's always so gratifying when those friends and relatives clamor for a letter the following year!
I have a couple of rules about Christmas letters. Nothing depressing. No bragging. One page only and no font under 11 pt. and never a dark (red, or green, or purple) background color.
One year we tried a "spoof" letter because we were so tired of all the bragging missives we get. My husband wrote it, and we filled it with all kinds of ridiculous non-happenings, including a ficticious trip to Antartica. We bragged about non-accomplishments of our kids. We explained how my husband had launched a new business based on his clever development of a process of carving Chippendale legs with a chain saw for use in reproduction furniture, and on, and on. We even mentioned that this was all a joke at the end of the letter, but (much to our chagrin) many of our friends believed this blarney. I spent the next 3 years denying that letter!
Only ONE friend caught on to the joke. When I chided an old friend on the Chippendale legs, she said, "XXXX has always been so clever. We knew that if anyone could do it, he'd be the one."
And the folks we aimed it at didn't get it at all. We continue to get 2 page, single spaced letters on dark green paper bragging about dinners with the Queen of Sweden and mountain climbs in Nepal.