Mom's Zen

I think I speak for most everyone when I say, Christmas cards are adorable.  I love getting them in the mail.  It makes it seem more like the holiday season has arrived when I open my mailbox and there are bright, festive cards from loved ones inside, right?  Years ago, I was really on top of things and even managed to hand deliver my cards on Thanksgiving to my family.

This both impressed them (Kelly, I don’t know how you do it!) and delighted me as I saved a small fortune only having to mail to friends.  As the years passed, and apparently so did my focus, I found cards to be such a hassle!  I had long since given up on getting the kids’ pictures taken professionally as this generally ended in tears and frustration.  I would snap pictures through out the year and generally took a great picture of them that I would send as our Christmas card.  Pretty brilliant, right?

Well, yes.  IF they get out in time to be delivered before the holidays.  The last couple of years I decided that if they get it by the 24th, I am doing good.  But I always longed for the more organized, timely me of years past.  Reminiscent of the Ghost of Christmas past, I was doomed to repeat my current, lame ways unless I put forth some effort.

Years back, I was organized.  I mean really organized.  I had a packing checklist that I developed after countless trips home where I forgot something, or sometimes numerous things.  Along these lines, I typed everyone’s addresses into a label document so all I had to do was print them out, slap them on the cards and voila! my cards were ready to be sent out in no time flat.

I even had adorable clipart that I aligned so it would print on the labels.  First, you printed the sheet with the clip art; next you printed the formatted addresses on the same sheet.  I even had my own Christmas labels for return address labels.  I tried to take the stress out of a nice holiday tradition.

I panicked this year, when I realized all of my addresses were gone!  I looked everywhere in the computer and sure enough, I still had my address labels and the clip art, but none of my friends or family’s addresses.  I buckled down and retyped them, saving them for next year.

I suggest you do the same to save yourself some hassle in the coming year.  Now that I have them saved, as I get new addresses, or someone moves, I simply go into my document and either edit or add the address, save and I’m good to go!  As I receive new cards I quickly add those addresses into my document.  Here are customizable christmas labels for the clip art if you are interested.  I know it’s a lot in the beginning, but it saves so much time in the future!  It really is worth its weight in time.  This also lets you know exactly how many cards you need so you don’t have to guesstimate and inadvertently leave someone out!

Let me know if you have any holiday time savers.  Goodness knows we can all use some!