Wednesday, January 24, 2007

My Valentines


A couple weeks ago I showed you the small piece that I made to use on my Valentines this year. You can see it here. Here are the finished Valentines, ready to be put into envelopes along with our letter. Ray came home from the Post Office and said, "Look at the cool stamps that I got for the Valentines." They are cool. They are Gee's Bend quilts. The family picture on the letter was taken at Thanksgiving with the turkey. (and I don't mean Ray—or Andy—har, har!) I just realized I published a very similar picture a year ago.
The mailing list changes a little every year. Sad to say, people die, they move and don't send their new address, they cross us off their list or we just lose track. Seems like sometimes the person you worked with and ate lunch with every day drifts away after you or they leave the job and intentions to "get together" never materialize and then the Christmas cards stop and there isn't much point in sending a Valentine. There are some people, well one anyway, that I never hear from, but I keep sending the Valentines to. She's not good at communicating, but I still feel a connection.
Lots of people seem to dislike form letters with Christmas cards (or in our case, our Valentine) but I enjoy getting them from other people and I still send mine. I try not to be braggy or enumerate all our purchases of the past year, as some folks seem to do, as in "When Jr. was accepted to Harvard we were afraid we wouldn't be able to afford the new sailboat, but then Roger was promoted to V.P. of marketing and his bonus turned out to be exactly what the boat cost!" Blah, blah, blah. I try to stick to things that people might be interested in reading.
It also seems like every few years lately we have gone to a family reunion where either Ray or I have reconnected with a long lost cousin and they get added to the Valentine list. It is interesting to me that for years we lost track of cousins, or seldom saw them. As we get older we all enjoy getting together again. I remember how much my parents enjoyed reconnecting with their cousins in their later years. Someone once said that the older you get the more you value people who knew you when you were a child. That would be mostly siblings and cousins and it rings true for me.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:54 PM

    Can't wait to get mine! I have just about every one that you have sent. I carry some of them in my purse to show off to friends sometimes, so I think 1 or 2 may have gone missing, but just know that I treasure them.

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  2. Anonymous8:03 PM

    I love your custom and your recipients are lucky indeed.

    I too enjoy Christmas letters and send them myself to my dearest friends--the girls from 4th grade.

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  3. Just to let you know once again how I have cherished your valentines. Like Beck, I believe that I still have everyone of them.

    The letters we all exchange are often the only time we hear from one another during the year. You and I have a mutual friend whose letters are a milestone during the holidays -- until that one is received the season is not complete. There are a few others that qualify also. My mother's sister and her daughter always tell me the same thing about mine although I know that sometimes mine are too much.

    All this just to say how much I like your tradition and that I think holiday letters are OK.

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  4. Anonymous3:08 AM

    Perfect time of year for an annual letter. Much better than Christmas. I'm tempted to take up this tradition myself.

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