Christmas newsletter

Dear Friend from long ago

We have been sending one another Christmas cards for 30 years now, can you imagine?! The years we knew each other well are now buried under many more years of space and time, our only communications occurring annually at Christmastime. Might we have remained friends had you or I not moved away? Perhaps. The enforced distance, however, makes our time together seem meaningful and so I am compelled to send you this seasonal update on my family who you do not really know and, perhaps, are not very interested in. Maybe the following will serve as a fleeting comparator to your own family from which you can draw some conclusions about your life which leave you in the same place as before you read this newsletter. Do recycle it though, should you not feel the need to file it away. We must all do our bit.

My year has been almost identical to the last year I wrote to you about, which was last year. There have been some small variations of course. I wore my outfits in a different order and experimented with a new jazzy top from Bon Marche. I had seven colds, rather than the eight of 2022; a small but notable mercy. I was annoyed by some of the same people as I mentioned in my last missive, but also met some new people who did not quite come up to scratch. My personality remains unchanged, so there is no need to expend energy imagining a person any different to the last update. I do sincerely hope your year has been similarly consistent to previous years, and that next year will continue the same trend.

My three, adult girls, who are very different to the small children you remember on account of the passage of time, are still doing the kinds of things that all adults do. Perhaps even your adult children are doing such things as going to work, gaining qualifications, getting their houses fixed and looking after their children. It really is remarkable how much of their time they spend doing these things. Sometimes they enjoy doing the activities mentioned above and sometimes, unfortunately, they do not enjoy doing them. Furthermore, sometimes they do the activities mentioned above really well and sometimes really poorly. But the majority of the time they do the activities somewhere in the middle of really well and really poorly. I sometimes wonder if this is the same for all adult children, but just in case it is not I am letting you know this is the case in my family. 

My three adult girls still have the same husbands I wrote about last year and for several years prior to that. Their activities and success at the activities are equal to their wives, my daughters, but they do offer an added sparkle to me (as their mother in law) for reasons which may be to do with outdated gender conventions or my own experiences as a wife or something else entirely. I have not really thought about the reason so I'm afraid I cannot elucidate. I will just let you know that my sons in law are largely the same as all of the adult children I know, but just a little bit better than my daughters.

I, like you and many people of our vintage, have grandchildren. Some of them are still small and some of them are larger but the unifying theme is that they are all growing up, the bigger ones were simply born earlier. The grandchildren each have unique personalities and interests but I economised early on in their lives by identifying one or two traits to focus on and look out for. The examples I provide to demonstrate these will not only delight you, but also reconfirm the comforting decision I uphold to keep things very simple, as far as understanding people I know is concerned.

And now to larger things as I draw my annual update to a close. There have certainly been some politics this year haven't there? I expect you have heard about them too.  Also what about the weather we have had? It might have been a bit different where you live, but I expect it felt like weather nonetheless. It certainly did here. 

Sending you the same wishes as I sent last year and I look forward to sending a similar update next Christmas time.

With all best wishes,

a friend from long ago