I think the annual Christmas letter may be on its way out. This is not a prediction of sorts.....just an observation. The trickle of Christmas cards to the Hesterfamily Mailbox is just about over....with a few last minute stragglers coming in behind. (I am not being critical. I have no room to talk. I didn't get ANY Christmas cards out last year. Shame on me!) But I am noticing that the popularity of the annual Christmas letter is not as prominent as it once was. Case in point....we received 11 "letters with family picture," in comparison to 25 "picture only/no letter" Christmas greetings. And I must not forget the "Christmas Card/handwritten message" people. Those people out numbered the "letters with family picture" category by a landslide.
I haven't written a Christmas letter in two years. And it is not because I don't want to. I love to write and have always enjoyed the prospect of summing up the ways we have seen God move in our family over the year. But I think there are two reasons why I haven't written one lately. The main thing is time and the other is transition. I have a hard time finding the time to do it. Secondly, we just aren't experiencing a lot of news like we did in the years of moving from place to place, babies being born, Gregg's jobs in the Navy changing like the seasons. Simply put, we just don't have a lot to tell....at least not the kind of things that you find most people including in their Christmas letters. I could tell you the things I feel God has been trying to teach me, (and trying some more), or the ways in which we have grown as a couple/family, the things of the heart that we are trying to overcome with help of the Holy Spirit. But those topics don't usually make the TOP 10 discussed in Christmas letters. And I think that is OK. Maybe topics like that are saved for other occasions.....not Christmas letters.
I would imagine I would return to letter writing at some point. But I certainly have enjoyed those that I have been able to read this Christmas. Some have brought me to tears.....missing so much the people who have sent them to us. Wishing we could see them more...live life with them more. Receiving any form of a Christmas card is such a little gift to me waiting in my mailbox. It reminds me all the more of the importance of God-given relationships in your life and how abundantly I have been blessed by them, and will continue to be. God is good!!!!
I haven't written a Christmas letter in two years. And it is not because I don't want to. I love to write and have always enjoyed the prospect of summing up the ways we have seen God move in our family over the year. But I think there are two reasons why I haven't written one lately. The main thing is time and the other is transition. I have a hard time finding the time to do it. Secondly, we just aren't experiencing a lot of news like we did in the years of moving from place to place, babies being born, Gregg's jobs in the Navy changing like the seasons. Simply put, we just don't have a lot to tell....at least not the kind of things that you find most people including in their Christmas letters. I could tell you the things I feel God has been trying to teach me, (and trying some more), or the ways in which we have grown as a couple/family, the things of the heart that we are trying to overcome with help of the Holy Spirit. But those topics don't usually make the TOP 10 discussed in Christmas letters. And I think that is OK. Maybe topics like that are saved for other occasions.....not Christmas letters.
I would imagine I would return to letter writing at some point. But I certainly have enjoyed those that I have been able to read this Christmas. Some have brought me to tears.....missing so much the people who have sent them to us. Wishing we could see them more...live life with them more. Receiving any form of a Christmas card is such a little gift to me waiting in my mailbox. It reminds me all the more of the importance of God-given relationships in your life and how abundantly I have been blessed by them, and will continue to be. God is good!!!!
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