Tonight I did something that some might find rather quaint. I wrote personal notes on birthday cards and anniversary cards and enclosed some photos. Tomorrow I will put these notes into the US mail.
What’s the occasion you might wonder?
The occasion is my niece’s wedding that took place just under a month ago. Seeing the pure joy on the face of my niece and her new husband during their wedding reminds me that family is all about celebrating and honoring the love that binds us together.
While there I took photos on my smart phone, but the ones I liked the most were the ones I took on my camera.
Much like my mother would do after such an occasion, I organized the photos, selecting the ones that I thought the recipient would most appreciate.
Other than sending cards at Christmas, I rarely send anything “hard copy” (as we call it these days) to any of my family members. I don’t tend to send birthday days in the US mail to my nieces and nephews as I did when they were young. Instead, I extend happy birthday wishes on their Facebook wall.
Yet, because of this wedding, I am sending them birthday cards, as most have birthdays between late July and early September. This way, I can include those photos from the wedding weekend. This way I can help them to extend the memories of a weekend that gave us all enough memories to last us all a lifetime.
I even sent anniversary cards with photos enclosed to my sister and her husband, plus to my brother and his wife. Usually those dates just slip by me.
So, even though most of the year the communication among my extended family comes mainly through cyberspace, it just seems appropriate to take time tonight to communicate the old fashioned way – by taking pen to paper.
That said, tomorrow night I will be posting those photos into an album on my Facebook profile, as I still want to share them the “new-fangled” way as well.
Do you still send cards and photos in the mail? Do you get them from your loved ones?
Perhaps you, like me, choose to communicate in both the traditional ways along with the contemporary ways.
Joyce Feustel, Founder
Boomers Social Media Tutor
www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com
Hi Joyce,
I love sending a “hard copy” of almost any card to family and close friends — as much as I love receiving them, too. I try to make my own cards when I have/make the time. I also use Facebook to send greetings.
Thanks for the renewed inspiration!
-Kathy
I am with you, Kathy, though I probably don’t send cards as much as I plan to send them in my mind. That’s cool that you make your own cards.
I send far more ecards than mailed mainly because a free e-card account comes with Comcast. Like e-holiday family updates, I can reach out by email to far more contacts than by regular mail. In addition I make a lighter footprint. Sometimes I post ecards on the birthday person’s FB page, as well.
I don’t like receiving a cascade of auto-generated FB birthday wishes in my inbox and FB page. I removed my birthdate for that reason and I don’t do the FB birthday calendar. It’s too impersonal.
I still like greeting cards and I still like the US postal service. I hope the agency doesn’t default!
Yes, let’s hope that the US postal service continues to be around! It is always interesting to me to see the different approaches that people take to sending cards.