Resolve to Be in Touch with Family and Friends

Are many of you like me and struggle to write letters in with your Christmas cards to so many relatives and friends that you haven't been in touch with for far too long?

You realize there are so many letters to be written that you have to spend weeks of your spare time trying to catch up as the holidays fast approach and you are also busy with so many other preparations, gift buying and mailing, menu planning, etc.

Many people write a Christmas Letter that they enclose which is a time saver, and that gives the readers your general family news of the year, but I personally usually have letters of theirs to answer, and I want to incorporate my news as well as reply to their last missive in detail. So that does take a lot of extra time.

This new year I plan to add another big resolution to the ones I have already made, and maybe you would like to, also: I will try to answer more promptly during the year and really stay in touch.

There is nothing more heartwarming than finding a special letter in your mailbox among the junk mail and bills, and what a pleasure it is to curl up in your favorite chair and read that news leisurely, picturing that person in your mind as she or he "lives" the events portrayed.

It is like reading a book but is far more personal!!

And if you are like me and some of my favorite pen pals, we like to enclose little tuck-ins in with the letters, and those are so much fun to find inside!! That can range from stationery or note cards for the recipient to be able to use to write someone else a letter, memo sheets, pictures, stickers, bookmarks, greeting cards perhaps for birthdays or thank yous, a scarf or other small easy-to-mail gift, holiday confetti, and the list goes on and on.

Of course you are probably again faced with many letters to answer that did come your way with the holiday cards, so you can put this resolution to work rather quickly!!!

But it's when you get the replies during the year that they tend to sit unanswered as you live your life, so we are going to be better correspondents in 2009, aren't we?