Just call me Martha

So I’ve discovered that I’m a complete holiday card control freak. I guess I always new it, deep down, but it’s no longer a semi covert feeling I have, a guilty nagging hunch that I might get too anal about sending out my seasonal greetings. It’s now out in the open, exposed – so I figured I might as well admit my compulsion here too.

You see, I love holiday cards. I love making them, sending them, receiving them. They’re fun, and festive, and help create a merry holiday atmosphere.

This being the case, I typically do put time and effort into my holiday cards, not to mention a few dollars. I think they’re worth it.

And this year, of all years, I felt it necessary to send a proper card, as 2009 was a rather eventful year for my family. I wanted to showcase our new familial additions and arrangements, so knew I needed a photo card. And because young Capri is so, um, young, and somewhat hard to capture on film, I decided to hire a professional.

The photographer was great, the girls really liked her, and she took a lot of good shots.

This meant I could not possibly decide on one photo for the card, so therefore had to search long and hard to come up with a card layout that featured just the right amount of photos, in just the right arrangement. I looked at Snapfish and Shutterfly, at Winkflash and Hallmark, Photoworks, York, and more.

I finally settled on a card that fulfilled both my price and design requirements. I then proceeded to spend hours of work time choosing, cropping, and desaturating the chosen pics. Upon completion, during the checkout process, I was even suckered into putting together some photo address labels for the project -- I was really on a roll.

Anxiously, I awaited the cards’ arrival. Of course the dispensable labels arrived first, and were, as I worried they would be, a little excessive. But my wait was not much longer, as the cards arrived later the same day, and ……..tah dah …….. the quality was not what I’d hoped for.

It never is though, is it?

And perhaps they weren’t as holiday-ish as they should be?

But good, they were still good. I was satisfied, and ready to start greeting, and addressing, and mailing.

But I’d forgotten the holiday stamps, so ordered them online this very morning, and will continue to write, and lick, and stick until their arrival, at which time I will stick once more, and deliver them lovingly to a nearby mailbox.

But then something terrible happened, something completely contrary to holiday card etiquette.

My husband began to write out some cards (which, in and of itself, I was somewhat uncomfortable with, because although I had asked him to round up some addresses, I didn’t mean to imply that he would actually be writing the cards!), and then, after I left for work, he proceeded to affix THESE to the envelopes:

Gasp!

It is not the 4th of July, honey. It’s Christmas, and Kwanza, and Hanukkah.

He could not understand my consternation, confusion, and chagrin.

US flag stamps from the coil of 100? No, no, no and NO! I just purchased 80 holiday stamps, of two varieties, specifically for our super special seasonal salaam.

An email reply from him stated, “I'm pretty sure we can still use them after xmas.”

But that’s not the point, dear husband! Not at all.

And while this incident has completely exposed my obsessive nature, I still find it hard to believe that he doesn’t think it matters.

As Martha says, “it’s all in the details.” (Unfortunately, I really don’t know if she says this, but I think she probably does, or should, if she doesn’t).