Thank You, Andy

March 1, 2020

Dear Andy, 

I just want to say thank you.

The mail came yesterday, the usual stuff, window washing ad, plea for money from Planned Parenthood, credit card offer,  a medical insurance statement…and your Christmas card.  

It made our day.  I mean, it was Leap Day, and my heart actually did a little leap. 

There was a period of time when sending timely Christmas cards was important to us.  For several years in a row, when the girls were relatively young, I had used the days after Thanksgiving to craft our non-conformist Christmas letter.  Absolutely no serious accomplishments noted. I mostly made fun of the ridiculous things we’d done in the previous year. The point was to make someone smile. We’d stuff the letter in a card , the card in an envelope, and usually get them off before Christmas.  

As you can guess, that all came to a halt in 2009.  I stopped writing silly letters. Not much to joke about. We’d make a card on Shutterfly and pay some ridiculous amount of money to have the cards and envelopes sent to us. Nancy took over the actual addressing, note writing and sending.  Over the years, we’ve gotten them out later and later. I order later. The cards arrive later. We send them out later. We gave up on the Christmas or Happy Holidays thing and started sending a New Year’s card. It seemed more realistic to send things during that holiday week.  This year, it took even longer. Nancy thinks it might have been mid-January before the last of them hit the mailbox. We had joked that it might eventually turn into a Groundhogs card.

So really, thank you Andy. Seeing you and your smiling kids hoisting a beer at a brewery to wish us a happy new year when we’re only 21 days from spring, well that just gave me the biggest smile. 

I’m picturing you at home.  You’ve somehow gotten through Valentine’s Day.  I know that must be tough for you these days, but you survived.  I’m sure that’s how it feels. You looked down at your pile of cards.  They’d probably been sitting by your couch for weeks. Maybe Beth used to do the addressing and the sending? But you decided, “What the hell, I’m sending them off.”  I’m really glad you did. For one thing, we loved the pictures. For another, we haven’t gotten a holiday card in months.  But perhaps most importantly, I love a late genuine card so much more than those annoying cards that arrive on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Those overachiever cards just make me feel like crap, like it’s a month til Christmas and I’m already late with an assignment. 

 Your card has a whole different feel.  It feels like you said, “Well, I really want to send my friends a card.  I’m willing to risk some embarrassment. It doesn’t matter what the calendar says.  I want them to know I’m thinking of them.  Who knows, maybe it’ll give them a smile.

So, thank you, Andy.  Happy Gently-Used Year to you and your family.

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