Birthday cards

[mtbc]

I have mixed feelings about greetings cards: they always seem a bit expensive for what they are. I also have difficulty keeping on top of my life as it is: for instance, I still have lingering issues with backup volumes and I have yet to put away some clean laundry from a few days ago. I used to send my parents a card but they since passed; for years I have sent hardly any birthday cards. Adding to my to-do's visits to shops to select cards is certainly possible but, as I already make too little progress with domestic affairs, it feels unwise to add even more to the list.

I do manage to send Christmas cards. For those it is easy to buy whole boxes of various kinds and they are all due at around the same time which tends to coincide with when I take time off work so I can use a vacation day to sit down and work through them.

However, I do reliably receive a birthday card from aunts and uncles and I do know the birthdays of nieces, nephews, etc. When I travel within range first cousins do kindly make a trip over to say hello. Possibly with my lack of birthday card issuance I am committing a serious faux pas and should do a better job of politely respecting family obligations.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I'm not the best about cards, though I do send them to my brother and sister, and a friend who shares my birthday. (That's an easy one to remember!)

What I do instead is I call people and sing happy birthday to them. I started doing that years ago and it's become a tradition. My friends seem to enjoy it. And I had one friend, who when I first did it for her, cried because it had been so many years since anyone sang to her. So I faithfully did it every year. (She died last month, so I won't get to do it again.)

I don't send Christmas cards because I totally suck at getting those out.

[mtbc]

That's really lovely. Though, I wonder if from me a better gift would be not making them hear me attempt to sing! I am so bad at it I crack myself up when I try, the result is so funny.

[wpadmirer]

Ah, it might be all the more adored! Especially if you crack up.

[goldibehr]

I have 5 neices and nephews. I sent them birthday cards and a small amount of money when they were children, but stopped once they graduated from high school.

For many others, I notice, a facebook-acknowledgement seems to be sufficient now.