The Christmas Letter
It was our yearly Christmas letter that got me started writing a blog. One year when I was late getting the cards out, several friends wrote back to me saying that they missed getting our Christmas letter and they hoped they were still on our list. Their reaction, with added encouragement from Steve, prompted me to start writing a Christmas letter every week…or in other words, to start writing a weekly blog.
I was hoping that writing a blog for three years would have gotten my writing muscles into such good shape that when it comes time to write the yearly Christmas letter that it would just roll off my fingertips. However, that is not the case, and I find myself procrastinating starting it.
One reason I struggle with the Christmas letter is because I want to represent the year with the right tone. I want to balance the reality of what we have struggled with in business this year…”it sucked”…with the greater truth that we are still very blessed to be in excellent health, have great kids who are growing into vibrant adults, and the hope that each day holds something wonderful. After all, that’s why we celebrate Christmas.
And while I think our kids are pretty special…what parent doesn’t…I don’t want to go overboard when it comes to listing their accomplishments. I always smile when I think of the Christmas letter we got from some friends. The news of their six-year-old son winning second place in his class’s coloring contest was worthy of three exclamation points. Shouldn’t they allow a little room for growth? In 12 years from now, when their Christmas letter tells us he has been accepted to Stanford, I suppose it will be followed by a page of exclamation points.
Sometimes I think I’ll just go with a half page of bullet points about the year. “Ethan is at college in San Francisco, Valerie wants to go away to college, and Jennifer just wants to have us quit talking about college.” There, I’m done.
Nah, I can’t take the easy way out. So with that said, I had better get back to the letter so I can get them in the mail tomorrow if there is any hope of them arriving before Christmas.
Thanks for reading my blog. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
