Christmas Cards

Christmas has a new meaning for me now that I am a mother. It means...STRESS! Only now do I understand what people mean when they say they are "behind for Christmas", or that they are "not ready for Christmas". How hard can shopping for a few presents and putting up a Christmas tree be, some may wonder. Ignorance is Bliss.

Take Christmas cards for example. I use to just pick up a pleasing box from Borders while ambling around the mall, taking advantage of the extended Holiday hours. Now, I have to make them, while ordering Christmas presents on-line after midnight.

I gave up on the idea of a family picture. Getting threes toddlers to dress up in fancy outfits, sit still for the camera, and smile at the same time ages me. So this year, we have the kids with their Dad who can intimidate them more easily, and a collage of pictures taht took an hour to pick. Scott had to write the message because I had to go intubate some unfortunate soul.

Then there's the matter of sending the cards out. I really wanted to use nice labels and holiday stamps, so special trips to Office Depot and the post office were made. But, Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) failed me. Even though it was pretty easy to print out labels for the recipients, I could not print out a whole sheet of my own address, very strange. I guess I will be buying the Microsoft Office 2008 when it comes out. I ended up hand writing my own address on all the envelopes. Not pretty. My printer also broke as I get ready to print which necessitated a long phone call to HP technical support. After an hour, they decided to send me another printer. My printer is still under warranty, that's how new it is.

Maybe I will just do e-cards next year. With my luck, it will go straight to every one's Spam box.