Family Traditions: Christmas Cards

Christmas cards were a holiday tradition at my house. In front of our fully decorated Christmas tree, all sparkling with lights, would be a small coffee table. One of those nice ones that I had to polish on the weekends. Around December, it would be overflowing with cards. That was the sign that Christmas was on its way.

The tradition continues

Cards would come from everyone: family members, family friends, co-workers, friends from church. Even people that my parents knew from long ago. We may not have been able to see some people for long stretches of time, but we still received cards from them. And they got cards from us, wishing them a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

My favorite card this year

And, since I grew up with this idea of, "giving cards is part of celebrating Christmas", I decided it was finally my turn to take part in the tradition of card exchanging. Honestly, I had no idea how much effort I was going to put in doing this.

First off, I can't remember when was the last time I sent someone anything in the mail. Or sent anything in the mail, period to be honest. So, it took some time to round up all the addresses of the people I was going to send cards to. My friends had spread out far and wide over the years. Thank goodness for Facebook. Then, it took several hours to actually sit down, write in the cards, sign them, and then address and stamp the envelopes. Next time I do this, I am definitely investing in labels. I'm not sure how my mother did this year after year. She made it look so easy.

I really like the glittery ones :)

Personally, I'm not sure how many of my friends mail out cards for Christmas, but I think it is a nice way of letting people know that you are thinking of them during the holiday season. This is a tradition that I plan on keeping for a long time.

Christmas Gifts!

Christmas was not all that long ago and I must say that I got some really nifty gifts this year. While I was very appreciative of everything that I was given, there were a few that stuck out as extra special.

My sister got me these face masks in really fun scents. I like them because they are very unique and they work really well. The first one I am going to try is the one on the left: Earl Grey Tea and Macaron. It just sounds fun. I do believe these mask are all from the My Beauty Diary line

Another gift from my sister. I think the packaging is pretty cool and it smells really good. So if you couldn't tell, one side has lotion for normal skin and the other side has lotion for your dry areas, like knees, elbows and heels.

These were from my mother. I told her that I wanted to learn how to cook some authentic Japanese food. So she got me a boat load of cookbooks. The book on the very bottom is entirely Vegan. If you ever want to understand any and everything there is to know about cooking Japanese food, I would suggest the book on the left: Japanese Cooking A Simple Art. It goes pretty in depth about every aspect of the Japanese kitchen and meal.

Last but not least, this book. I think it was a combination of watching shows like "The Mentalist", "Lie to Me", "Elementary", and "Sherlock" that made me want to sharpen my powers of perception. And what better place to start than by learning how to read body language. A friend of mine suggested this book, so I put in on my Christmas list.

So, this year I am going to be well read, well fed and sharpening my powers of deduction.