You begin in November, designing the card you will send out to the other member of your card exchange. This photo or that? This online card or that one? And then you find it: the perfect card. You upload your photo, adjust the text and place your order.
You read the email message thanking you for your order. Then you await the message telling you it has been shipped. When that one comes you obsessively track your package online, not content until you see it on your stoop when you come home from work.
You check your email frequently for the mailing labels to be sent to you. When they arrive, you print them. After you’ve printed them you receive the email with corrections. You print a few more.
You spend a day stuffing and labeling envelopes. realizing you don;t have quite enough stamps, you send the international cards first, then plan a trip to the post office so you can mail the others.
Then you wait.
Sometimes, as you wait, you wonder if anyone chose the same design you did, and you hope not.
Every afternoon, you open the mailbox with anticipation because, unlike the rest of the year when you expect mere bills and junk mail, there might actually be something exciting.
When the first card arrives, you celebrate, not just the season, but the dogs and the people, too. Your heart swells knowing that in this time of transition, there is still good in the world.
Author’s Note: I wanted to experiment with writing in the second person and share my annual card exchange. Pictured above is my 2016 Card for the annual Daily Drool Card exchange. Numbers are down this year. I’ve sent out as many s 200, but this year, only 96 people are participating. But I still get to put up 95 basset hound Christmas Cards!
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