Yesterday I received a card from a former supervisor of mine from when I lived in Northern California that reminded me that I have not done my card insert yet so I stayed up last night to finish it so I could mail them out today. I have exchanged cards with this former supervisor for many years, ever since I left and came to Los Angeles. He's had such a hard last few years with his son passing away from a hard fought battle with leukemia and then his wonderful wife (who I've met several times) developed Alzheimer. It made me sad and almost guilty to send my trip photos because I felt bad that he and his wife was not able to enjoy traveling like I do. But one of my co-workers a couple of years ago told me to keep including them in my cards because she was positive that he loved seeing them and was probably looking forward to getting it. And sure enough I got his annual card in the mail the next day where he always gives me a brief update on his wife and his own health. But the first thing he wrote was "I am looking forward to hearing about where you traveled to this year and seeing your photocard Kathy". My heart sank and since then I don't have that feeling of guilt and I send it with nothing but love and best wishes. I hope he will be happy to see this year's photo card of Amsterdam, Brugge and Berlin. I think he will.
As each year draws to an end I always have such strong feelings of being thankful and grateful for having such wonderful people in my life (both present and not) and for the continued health and happiness of all the people in my life and myself.
This Thursday my sister and her family will be visiting (yay!) and on Friday we will be going on our annual road trip for the holidays. I'm so thankful and blessed to have them in my life. See you tomorrow Jean!
What a great idea! I love the photos you selected. I love getting personal holiday cards with photos of kids or whatever; it really is a nice tradition.
ReplyDeleteI hope to finish my shopping this weekend then I can relax and get into the spirit. :)
Hope you and your sister have a safe and fun holiday road trip!
sounds like a rich, full and happy life, Kathy! I'm sure it's because you mirror all those things too. Such a wonderfully touching post. Enjoy your time! I know you will. Mele kalikimaka .. m
ReplyDeleteHi Annie and M, thanks so much for your comments . . .
ReplyDeleteAnnie, thanks for liking my traditional photo card. It's fun selecting amongs my photos which ones to feature to sort of represent all the experiences of my trip. I also love those journal holiday letters from people and photos on their cards. That's great that you'll be finished shopping by the weekend and can relax next week and enjoy the days leading up to the big day. It's always good to get all the shopping done and wrapped and then just kick back. I'm looking forward to my sister's visit. We can only get together once a year sometimes everyother year so it is always fun catching up when we do. We'll be in Vegas and the funny thing is we're both cheap gamblers so get along perfectly while there. We'll be seeing the Elvis show with Cirque Cirque which I'm looking forward to a lot. Mainly for the music but we'll see how they blend the two. :)
M, I'm so glad you liked my post. I always get very sentimental and reflective towards the end of the year going into the next. I guess it makes me realize just what are the most important things in life. There was this quote from a show that I once saw. He said life is like a delicate string. As you move through it, there may be times when that string is "broken" and yet somehow in the end these broken parts mend and the string becomes connected and strong again through our faith. I've always remembered that.Mele Kalikimaka too!
Enjoy your holidays Annie & M....