by Missy Thompson

STAFF WRITER

Monday was the busiest day of the year for postal workers. Billions of pieces of mail were shipped to all parts of the world. People sending out last-minute Christmas gifts and holiday cards stood in long lines at post offices to make sure their loved ones received their packages.

There is something special about receiving a holiday card in the mail. This time of year an electronic card sent through e-mail just doesn't cut it.

My family has a tradition of taping up every card we receive during the holidays. When we lived in Pennsylvania, we covered the door to the basement. For the past 15 years, Christmas cards have taken over our kitchen. Next to the refrigerator, cards of all shapes and sizes from different parts of the country are on display. Usually my mom waits until each of us has read the cards before putting them up.

But the thing I enjoy most about getting these cards each year are the letters enclosed. Because my immediate family members are the only relatives I have within about 500 miles, the Christmas letters are a way for me to feel as if I can catch up with extended family members. People I haven't seen or talked to in years will send their letter with a card telling all about what their children or grandchildren have done over the past year. Even one of my dad's college professors, whom I have never met, sends a note of some kind each Christmas season.

Sometimes we'll get a letter from a relative who isn't a blood relative. My mom's uncle's ex-wife sends us a card and letter each year. For some strange reason when I opened the mailbox and saw a large envelope with "postage due -- $.97" on it, I knew my mom would roll her eyes at her aunt's strange mailing strategies.

Being a writer, there are times I cringe while reading a letter. Sometimes there will be misspellings and gramatical errors galore. There is also a level of embelishment that comes with holiday newsletters. I know I'm guilty of that charge, but my sister is the worst. This year I asked her to write a brief paragraph or two about her year. What I got back was a long passage filled with flowery adjectives.

Receiving the cards and letters is fun, but writing them isn't. For the last three years, I have had the unfortunate task of writing my family's Christmas newsletter. When I was younger, the letter would fill a whole page front and back with each award, achievement and acknowledgment my sister and I received. My dad would write about how school went, what plays and teams we were involved in, and some of the mischief as well.

Now, I have to rack through my memory of everything I've accomplished in the last year and put it together coherently for distant family members to read. What's worse is trying to get my sister to write down what she has done and then format that into a few paragraphs. It's difficult to get an entire year's worth of information down into one letter.

The information written about my parents is usually brief. They believe what our relatives should read about is their children.

After the letter is written, edited, re-written and edited again, it gets printed on pretty holly-framed paper, stuffed into envelopes and then sent out. Usually our Christmas letters don't get to their destinations until after the holiday.

Having the tireless task of writing Christmas letters does allow me to enjoy reading the one's sent to my family even more.

missy@tooeletranscript.com