Every year, we write a Christmas letter that has gained some acceptance because, in most years, I pretty much write about everything that went wrong.
The letter was inspired when back in 1983, we had a friend of a friend come over and try to sell us something. I did not want to buy anything because the guy was the most obnoxious salesman ever. But he would not leave until I bought something, so after about four hours, he had made a sale and I had not spent much money.
About two weeks later we get a Christmas card with his family letter in it and the letter is the most braggy letter I had ever read. I was already angry at him for his pushy sales tactic, but when he started telling about the condo be bought in Colorado and the month-long vacation he was taking along with his daughter’s admission to Princeton, well you get the idea.
The funniest part is that as I finished reading the letter, I glanced up and my 3-legged slightly psychotic dog was looking right at me while peeing on the carpet.
I am not joking.
Being a writer with a bunch of pent up material, the “Mr. Perfect” letter unleashed a torrent of funny stories about everything that had gone wrong that year and after Wendy read it, she said “We should just send it out.”
So we did. The response was gratifying and ever since then we have been sending out the letter to over 300 of our friends and family. It is rather stressful because every year Wendy has to re-learn how to print out the mail labels and then we have to do all the work and the expense of sending it out.
But it is worth to hear comments from old friends who claim they look forward every year to the letter, including two who read the letter to the entire family on Christmas Eve.
That, my friends, is a huge honor.
I am honored that anyone reads what I write and am even more honored when people comment on it, even when they disagree with my thoughts.
So, we are 80 percent of the way through writing the Christmas letter and we hope to get it in the mailbox before the 15th. I will post it on here on Christmas Day, in honor of all of my friends and family who have been so great to me both this year and in past years.