
Maybe it's because of the unusuual nature of christmas in my childhood, ie: no gifts, and no cards, just family, company, and a big dinner....I have never done this whole christmas season card, and the habitual family update letter. Every year for the past several years, we get many christmas cards, like 1 or 2 dozen, some of them have letters describing what the family has been doing over the past year, often with pictures.......and I have never sent anything similar to those people..or any people. Is that bad? For the first time, I am starting to feel like I have missed some expected christmas standard. Where is my letter say what is up in the life of Helen and Michael, what we have done, where we have been, are we in any new relationships, etc... I have 2 brothers, 2 sisters, 2 nieces, 4 nephews, and a fairly large number of friends, but I not "tight" with any of them really. I just have this comfortable casual approach to life, like I don't need to keep anyone in the loop...but maybe I should take a more proactive approach....to keep them in the loop. I mean LJ covers some of this, but even that is counter productive in that I sort of assume my information dissemination is covered. My family doesn't read it, not all of my friends read it, and more appropriately, it represents no special effort to make a point of including them. You all come to my journal, but I haven't made any effort really to include you, it was your effort, not mine. I think next year, I want to write a real proper christmas letter. It will have maybe some pictures, it will be in a card with a nice thought for the holidays, and I will send many copies of it. I realize I am bowing to tradition, which is something I usually strive to avoid, but I am thinking it's a good tradition, and I have just let it collect dust. It will be a good exercise, to make a point of having people's phone numbers and addresses so I can actually send them. It's great to know a lot of people, and be liked (as in no one minds me) by a lot of people, but if I am going to matter to people, if I am going to be someone who makes an impact in other people's lives, I will have to make more of a point of actually acting on that, rather than just let life happen.