We took down the tree and packed up all the xmas decorations. All except for my Christmas card making supplies. You see, I have a deep aversion to mass productions. If you are going to make something “home made” you should only make one. An original, one of a kind creation. To mass produce your home made goodie makes you no better than Wal-Mart or Hallmark. I apply this sensible belief to everything from decorating cookies to Christmas cards to letters. The idea of baking home made Christmas cookies and then passing them down an assembly line of same frosting color, same sprinkles, same placing of red hots makes my skin crawl. Each cookie should be a unique and precious piece of work, otherwise, what separates it from a plain old Chips Ahoy?

However, the draw back to my belief is that creation takes time. Faced with 27 star cookies, how do you creatively decorate each one in a unique and yet presentable fashion? In the time it takes my dad to mass produce all 27 candy canes in a monotonous red and white striped pattern, I find I have complete a mere 3 star cookies each a unique and delightful joy to behold. I wonder if the Cabbage Patch creators were faced with the same dilemma?

So for my Christmas cards, I realized that in order to be ready for next Christmas, I need to start making cards in January. For this year, the time break down per card ran something like this…

Drag boxes from basement and arrange stamps, ink and papers around me in a suitable position….. 45 minutes
Take a break for coffee and to call Kat to come join me…. 20 minutes.
Watch with envy and delight as Kat arrives and arranges all her stamps, ink and papers in a suitable position around her… 20 minutes.
Select first paper size, orientation and color…. 5 minutes.
Select first stamp for paper… 6 minutes.
Select correct inking for above selected stamp… 3 minutes.
Ink and stamp… 1 minute.
Confer with Kat over outcome of paper, orientation, color, stamp and ink result… 5 minutes.
Proceed to select wording and correct ink to work with above creation…. 5 minutes.
Ink and stamp… 1 minute.
Confer with Kat over outcome of wording and ink to previous creation… 5 minutes.
Break to refill coffee and confer with Kat about her current creation… 10 minutes.
Select appropriate envelope and stamp/ink for outside…. 5 minutes.
Stamp and ink…. 1 minute.
Sit back and review entire set of envelope, words and card, confer with Kat re results…. 10 minutes.

Total time spent to set up…. 1 hour 25 minutes. Total time to create one Christmas card….. 57 minutes.

So you see, in one sitting I can create approximately 4 cards on a good day with no interruption. At approximately one card per hour, I figure I need to start my Christmas creations now rather than later. An so, with a brisk pat on my back for such foresight, I have refrained from packing away all my Christmas stamps. This fact alone should cut down on the set up time by at least 6-7 minutes and at my pace, every second helps.

So if you were one of the lucky few to receive a home made Chrissie card this year, rest secure in the knowledge that yours is a unique and original creation, created with my own little hands and sweat in the mere space of one hour. If you did not receive a card from me, I apologize for this oversight and vow that come next Christmas there will be enough cards to go around. At 4 cards per weekend, and dedicating one weekend per month, I figure I can complete 48 cards for 2002. Is that impressive or what?!?!?

The truely astute reader will realize that there are no pictures on this site as promised. Yes, the carpeting is finished, yes I took pictures, yes I transfered them to the home computer. However, at this point, someone turned horrible grumpy and stormed out of the computer room ranting about demanding and pushy wives. I don’t think we need to names names, do we? So come back tomorrow, no promises but heck, it’s better than working, right?