Sunday, November 30, 2008

Fa la la la la!

It has been Nag City here at the bungalow, with cabin fever coming before winter has even officially begun. It feels like we're fighting about everything - the ugliness of the new recycling bin in the living room, the shape of the meatballs rolled up on the baking tray, the volume of the television, the sound of the pages flipping as we turn pages in our respective books in bed.

Today it felt like we had a break in the sniping when we designed our Christmas photo card. I LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards and they are important to me.

"Do you want to send a photo Christmas card?" I asked, after addressing approximately 30 cards to people who I maintain acquaintances with, but who are not known by Jeff.

"Yes" he replied definitively. ("Hooray!" I cheered on the inside, no guessing on what he *REALLY* means.)

"How many people do you want to send them to? I have about 15 people who I would send photo cards to." I replied.

"Hmmm. Maybe nine," says Jeff. ("Hooray!" again I cheered, another definite in the making.)

Within two hours we had set up and taken the photo, and I had begun the process of choosing the photo card template online. It felt like a peaceful and fun collaboration. We both wanted something silly and clever, and we didn't want to spend a lot of money. After I spent about 2 hours poking around on tens of websites, playing with different templates and captions, I turned to Jeff for help.

"Honey. I really need your help here. I can't think of something clever to say." ("Hooray!" I imagine Jeff thinking. "Gretchen is asking for help!")

"Okay, tell me what you got."

And from there we started working on the card together, scrapping our favorite template in favor of a simpler one that called for a less clever play on words. And, by 9:00 PM they were finished. They will be here in about a week. And the 25 or so of you - plus 15 bonus friends - who are on our shared "hot list" will get a beautiful and silly card from me and Jeff. Happy holidays!

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