Happily Even After

To connect with dear friends and family across the country Joshua and I send Christmas cards each year.  Our list tops out a little over one hundred cards…we have lived a lot of places and have been blessed with many people to love and treasure.

Each year we make our cards on the computer.  We keep it simple, picking a family picture or two. We also add a theological quote or poem about Christmas or Advent.  Then we print them out on plain cardstock, write a personal note and send them.

There were a couple exceptions to this tradition in years when our parish was doing new directories.  We usually buy photo cards in those years. 

Or the year Joshua wrote a mock Christmas letter.  He felt like “playing with the conventions of the genre.”  It included really kitschy holiday clip-art and he intentionally printed it crooked on the paper. Here’s a little excerpt from his lines about me:

“Stacey continues to enjoy crochet and croquet and has taken both hobbies to new heights when she developed the skill to do them simultaneously.  I humor her when she shows me the “pieces” she’s created – they mostly look like a bird ate a few bottles of food coloring and then crapped on a pillowcase, but she feels good about them, so that’s what counts.”

HI-larious!!  It probably goes without saying that I do neither of those activities nor any that resemble them.  I still keep a copy of the letter and it makes me laugh so hard I cry.

This year is a new directory year at our parish and we will be sending out picture cards. What I personally miss in these years is the opportunity to share a little theology that touched us this year in the quote we would include in a card.  With that in mind, I thought I might share some with you.  Just a little food for thought during this time of reflection and waiting.

 “He who made all natures became son of her whom he created” – Pope Leo the Great

“I do not worship matter.  I worship the Creator of matter, who became matter for my sake; who willed to inhabit matter, and through matter accomplished my salvation.” — St.John of Damascus

“Rejoice, O Isaiah, and receive the Word of God!
Prophesy to Mary:
She is the burning bush un-consumed by the fire of divinity.
Adorn yourself, O Bethlehem.
Open your gates, O Eden.
Enter, O Magi, and see Salvation swaddled in a crib!”

–Vespers, Advent (Orthodox Church)