And now a word from our family: Our Yuletide Yarn

It’s Christmas time and the Christmas letters are well and truly here…

Dear all

Well can you believe another year <insert sentence about how time has flown by>

We can’t believe we’re doing one of these group letters <insert guilty statement about how busy you've been and don’t have time to catch up anymore but want to share the news> 

<Start year in review now>

The year started off with a bang when we reaffirmed our marriage vows on the Spirit of Tasmania at midnight on the way over to visit Jeremy’s brother Donald in Launceston. Thank god we took a double dose of Quells because combined with the grog, we didn’t feel a thing!

Jeremy is over his bout of ‘not-wanting-to-go-to-work’ and now it’s my turn to put my feet up for awhile this year. I might take up golf in earnest this time.

Jemima is doing so well; she’s passed fourth grade and is such a social butterfly, bursting with creativity and energy. She’s a darling and Jeremy and I are taking it in turns at obedience school with her so she ‘get’s it’ with both of us when we’re out walking with her on the leash.

As for Max, well he seems to just skulk around most days. He’s fit and well and not off his food, but I swear if he scratches at the new curtains in the guest room again I’ll scream.

<Insert personal anecdotes here about travel, hobbies, gardening, trips to a local popular holiday destination, then another holiday destination a bit further away, caravanning, camping, sailing, fishing, trailbike riding, dressage… you know>

<Close now with a big finish>

We wish you all a great 2014 and hope that we will have the time to catch up this coming year.

<Insert another guilty statement about not letting the year get away from you this time>

Much love from your dear friends Deborah, Jeremy, Jemima (dog), Max (cat) xxxx

PS: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We may love them or hate them, but we’re increasingly relying on them to know what the heck has been going on this past, fast year!

It’s the generic and totally un-customised page (or four) of correspondence from dear friends.

I’m already pondering again as I do most years about why we do this, to create our very own newsletter.

Firstly, we can! Our computer, colour printer and digital camera all make publishing a breeze. There are Christmas and family blogs and websites all over the internet, so it’s a fun and creative exercise to come up with a natty title (The Young’s Yuletide Yarn, or Collins’ Christmas Communique) include photos of the year in review, press print and mail or email.

The authors circulate these letters to those who are within the circle, and I suspect, a great number who are teetering on the edge of the circle; those people we haven’t seen as much as we would have liked. Perhaps it’s because of distance, geography, living in another country, or simply moving in a different circle these days.

The ‘hope to catch you soon’ or ‘we must have you over for dinner’ statements come and go throughout the year. Each of our lives becoming increasingly complex and mathematically stretched as families grow up, separate, rejoin, conjoin or just hang out with different people.  Maybe we’re not in that inner circle of friends who get to share each other’s more regular developments during the year.

Is there some feeling of loss that the close friendship that once was, is not the same anymore? Or the things we had in common have changed? The relationships change as we change.

Reading about their year’s happenings keeps me in the loop another year longer. I now know names of children and grandchildren and I get to see photos of family milestones.

Or is it catharsis? Yes, release that emotion and reflect on that year. The year flew by didn’t it? The years are going faster aren’t they? We might barely recall what happened among the chaos of life, but we know something did.

The newsletter helps recall it, topic-by-topic, child-by-child, holiday-by-holiday, month-by-month, in one colourful publication with tiny colour digital photos. I can see myself in one of the photos! I was there to share in their year. Smile.

There is always true newsy-news to share; international travel, postings to community organisations, illness and health, births, deaths, marriages, loves found and lost, and achievements relating to golf, bowls, netball, investment properties, wine, gardening.

Is it a trend? Am I nearing the age when Christmas letters are de rigueur? Should I start this year?

Last year I was the proud recipient of seven pieces of Christmas-circular coloured-paper correspondence. The most ever. I sat on the couch with a glass of red, and I read.

I hereby publish my first draft. If you’re new to Christmas letters, you might like to copy, paste and edit. Then press ‘print’ or ‘send’.