Valentine’s Day at school was always a beacon
of light in the middle of a long dreary winter. Winter break had ended long ago
and spring break seemed so far away it was pointless to get excited about. We
were in the daily doldrums of cold bleak winter weather, battling illness
sweeping through the school, and of course, boring school work. Sheets of
hand-outs and work-packets, or as my teachers called them; dittos. Dittos for
us to complete math problems and practice our perfect cursive handwriting. But
for one day, one day in the middle of the darkness, for at least an hour, we
had Valentine’s Day.
We love receiving cards in the mail at Christmas time. Seeing pictures of everyone’s families, the well-wishing notes and the words of encouragement for the New Year to come. We like it all. We also like creating our own family card each year too. That’s one tradition we kind of fell in to, but cherish. There have been plenty of years when we were too busy traveling, moving, or just down right tired, but we always came through with something.
Aya loves the written word. I think it’s one of her love languages. Cards are important to her. They always have been. She has every card or letter she has received since she was in elementary school. I’m not joking. Moving back and forth between US and Japan, that’s how she stayed in touch with her friends. So for as long as I’ve known her, Christmas cards have always been a big deal for her.
When I was a kid, my dad was into photography. He had a fancy camera, and he even had a dark room where he developed his own photos. There were a few years when he had a big idea for our family Christmas card. This was in the days long before Photoshop and Shutterfly. So all of the editing he did was in the dark room or just with the set-up of the camera. I remember thinking these cards were the coolest thing! When Aya and I had kids, those ideas of doing something different were transferred to me. Continue reading “THE ART OF THE CARD”→
