2008 Miranda Family News

My Christmas cards have evolved over the years somewhat. one of these days I'll do a "news of Christmas past" and put them all on here, that would be fun. Before I got married, I sent out Anne Geddes cards. I love her work and her Christmas cards were adorable. I bought those for several years, but then the designs ran out just as we were celebrating our first married Christmas. I decided to take the plunge into a huge endeavor. I began creating hand made cards for each person on our list. The list was already around 50 families back then. I had always wanted to make a "Newspaper" Christmas newsletter. It was a bit weird at first to write in the 3rd person, but I really wanted it to read like it was a newspaper, and unless it was an editorial, it wouldn't sound like it was written in the first person, the way most people would write their newletters. Anyway, the paper was a huge hit with friends and family, so it became a Christmas tradition. I continued the handmade cards for four years, but when GG was born, I had to be realistic. I couldn't fit in the hours it would take, but I also couldn't accept the feeling that I was being defeated somehow by giving up making the cards. So I decided if I still designed them, they would be more personal, but I'd have the digital design printed instead of making each by hand, one at a time. I loved the result last year. Still beautiful, still a design from the heart, a bonus with the wallet sized photo on the card as a keepsake, a fraction of the time and about the same amount of investment.

This marks our 7th edition of the newspaper, but it's the first year we're producing a "green" Christmas newsletter. Couple reasons for this. For starters, we're avid recyclers, have been for years and we really understand the benefits of paperless communications. Second, and this one has a more immediate impact on our family, the economy obviously has seen some better days and I don't know about all of you guys, but we're feeling the pinch. We've trimmed down all we possibly can and have come up with some pretty creative ways to make a dollar stretch. Normally, I love going all out on our cards because I feel like it's the one gift I can give to everyone even if we've never been able to buy a real present for everyone we know. Our card list surpassed 75 families last year. But this year, when I started thinking about the fancy labels, the envelopes, the printing charges for the cards and the newspapers, and of course all the postage (usually extra required for weight) I just couldn't figure out how we could afford so many. They're typically around $2.60 for each card, including everything.... now think about it, that's really not that bad when you figure you're getting a totally custom card, and you pay probably $2.75- 4.50 for a greeting card at Walmart. But you've probably never gone in there and picked out 75 cards at once.

Time to get creative.

We knew there were lots of people on our list who would not only be supportive of this "green" movement, but were also tech-savvy enough to be receptive to the idea of a digital card and able to actually check it out. So we're moving again on the evolution chain. Hopefully we can add a few more green recipients to our list next year.

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Happy Holidays!