CHRISTMAS MAIL

The month of December is the only month in the year that I look forward to getting the mail. Usually this job goes to Husband because, . . .  well, he has nothing else to do so at least he will get a little exercise walking out to the mail box and back.  These days he has been quite frustrated because our regular mail man has been replaced by "some woman" who is not delivering our mail until almost 6:00 PM.  "Huff, puff, huff",  and many other sounds of indignation come from H as he makes two or three trips out to see if the mail has arrived yet. FINALLY he hits pay dirt when he finds the box stuffed to over flowing with mail.  Most of the mail is junk, as usual. BUT, because it is Christmas season there are some Christmas cards and even a small package every now and then. H loves to bring the mail in, sit in his comfy chair and tear (literally) into the envelopes.  I get a large pile of opened mail that H thinks I might like or need to see and the rest goes to the recycle bin. 

Most times that is just fine with me but in December there are all sorts of greetings from friends, old and new. You just never know who is going to have sent a holiday greeting along with . . .  do I dare hope . . . . a CHRISTMAS LETTER!  Now over the years the Christmas Letter has gotten quite a bum rap. I remember one year sitting with my nieces and nephews laughing at the "family" Christmas letter. They would compare Aunt So and So with Uncle What's his name's letters and find great amusement in tearing apart all the boasting about family in each letter. Who could out do Whom in listing the amazing accomplishments of the children in each family. And since we pretty much saw each other on a regular basis everyone knew what their cousins were really up to. 

But Christmas letters aren't for those folks who we see every month or so. They are for those friends and family who we only get to talk to or see every couple of years. They really do want to know what we and our children are doing. And in return I want to know what they have doing. I am all for Christmas letters. You can laugh at them, in fact I hope you do, and you can also take those few minutes to remember times past when you were part of our lives and might even have made it into one of my Christmas writings. 

This year I sent out our annual letter filled with the good and the bad of this past year. Included in the greeting was a family photo that always makes me smile. I sent the cards out to the usual list of folks and then added one more name to my list. Cousin Johnny, who I have not seen or spoken with in YEARS!  Johnny was ALWAYS my favorite cousin. I think as a child I had planned on marrying cousin Johnny when I grew up. Being eleven years older than me I am sure he found this quite amusing.  His dad was my mother's oldest brother and as we came to find out much later in life, Johnny's father was an abusive dad and husband. John has 2 sisters with whom I have kept in close touch all my life. (When your family consists of 6 people, 5 cousins and myself, you tend to keep up on relationships with them.)  Just recently John's oldest sister, Lucille, told me she was in contact with her "little brother". (There had been some drama years ago and Johnny fell out of favor with his family. That was when I lost track of him.) But now that we are all growing older and hopefully wiser Lucille had renewed contact with her brother and would fill me in on how he was doing. While Lucille and I have migrated to Florida, John and his wife are actually living in his boyhood home in NY. I still had that old address in one of my address books so I took a leap and sent my favorite cousin a Christmas card, letter and photo. 

Today I got the mail!  And what a perfect day for me to be the one to bring it in. I went out to tie a red bow on the mail box and there was today's delivery. And it wasn't even three o'clock !  As I walked in I sorted through the pile and there was a card from my "Long Lost Cousin", John. I stopped everything I was doing to sit down and read his 3 page letter. BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER !  He started his note with a "Good to hear from you" and a reference to feeling like the "Prodigal Son". All I know is I have found my favorite cousin again and I couldn't be happier!