Last night my husband and I wrote our 2nd annual Christmas letter. I know, we can’t believe it either. I’m the person who rolls her eyes at the mention of such a tradition, but some people like them. Mostly the grandparents, I think. We rattled off our His and Hers versions last night; quickly formatted, printed, folded, and stuffed them, in hope of making it to the mailbox in time for a Christmas delivery.
I tried not to be too thinky about it, but I couldn’t help clearly outlining the points I wanted people to take away from this letter. What did we want it to mean to them, why should they care, who’s the audience, how do we engage them, and how do we get them to look forward to next year’s letter? I decided to grab some fudge from the kitchen, try to stop being a designer for a moment, and just write.
But as I neared the end of my version, I found myself wanting to include links. Links to flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn. Seriously, if these people want to know what we’re up to, they could follow us day in and day out, right? That’s when I realized the letter I just wrote was just like posting a blog entry; our annual post to friends and family. If only this letter had a ‘comment’ field I could find out what they really want to know, or what they’re thinking… ie. “This is dumb. You are sappy. I don’t care about your travels in ‘07. Please take me off the Christmas Letter list.”
Now I must admit, it took me a long time to understand the value of blogging. Unless you’re an expert on a particular topic, who cares what you’re doing every day? But the truth is, lots of people care. Or at least lots of people are interested enough to subscribe to personal blogs, expert blogs, industry blogs, our People Design blog! People spark curiosity in people, and I have come to understand that’s a good thing.
The value and presence of blogging isn’t new, I know. But I’m guessing there are other folks out there who have been afraid to say, “I don’t get it. Why do I want to know what you had for lunch today? And why do you feel compelled to tell the world?” The truth is people are naturally interested in what others are doing, saying, thinking, and eating for lunch; and it’s kinda fun to contribute and comment to help build and create a following or network of like-minded folks, or simply share your lives with friends and family without having to send out letters and buy stamps.
The simplest and my favorite way of sharing information with family is Tumblr. Big dumb buttons and huge form fields make it incredibly easy to post text, videos, audio, and photos. Heck, I started a channel for The Brautnicks, and the whole family participates. I’m not saying that the mature generation isn’t savvy, but raise your hands if you have a computer problem to tackle when you visit your parents.
Now, I don’t have permission to post the ‘His’ version of our letter, but I’m happy to share mine…
Hers:
To embrace tradition, Chad is up in his office writing ‘his’ version of our past year. He’s probably almost done, and I’m just warming up; eating fudge and tuning into the Traditional Holiday Music channel on our digital cable. Yup, not only did we survive our first year as a married couple, but we subscribed to digital cable and bought a sexy flat screen TV for the living room. For the first few weeks of owning it, we’d switch back and forth between our local news station that broadcast in both HD and standard viewing; just to see the amazing difference. It’s a thrilling life we lead.
In all seriousness, it’s been a great year as husband and wife. I’m not sure what I expected, but I do know I have learned a thing or two about myself and about the man I call my husband:
1. Chad really likes using the snowblower.
2. Never use the snowblower if you’ve promised him that he can use the
snowblower. Especially if he just spent the entire day on a plane, daydreaming
of using the snowblower.
3. Chad is really handy. So handy that he replaced all the electrical outlets in the house, replaced our kitchen sink and added fixtures, new lighting in all the bathrooms, built recycling bins for the kitchen, put up a basketball hoop in the driveway so we can play competitive games of P-I-G, new light fixture in the dining room, created a stone pathway to the patio, added a shower into the guest bath, walled in the extra door in the bedroom, helped paint the whole house, fixed the dryer vent, reorganized the garage countless times, hung the kayaks, and put up the best house numbers on
the planet.
4. Evidence shows that I own hundreds of ponytail holders.
5. Evidence also shows that I drink lots of water. I made a conscious decision to not purchase water bottles starting a month or so ago. Two reasons: 1) Someone said I leave them all over the house, partially full. I would say half full, he would say half empty. 2) According to Metropolitan Home magazine, one plastic bottle takes about 1,000 years to break down.
6. Hiring a personal trainer means that Chad will lose weight and I will gain.
7. Having a heat rock named Chad makes up for not owning warm, furry cats.
8. In-laws are not nearly as bad as everyone says. In fact, I love mine. They’re quite entertaining; and I only get a little scared when I see Chad acting like his father.
9. Everyone is a terrible driver, except Chad.
10. I love him more than the day I married him.
11. Chad always has a lot to say and he doesn’t like me to edit his work.
Enjoy ‘his’ version. He’s been done for 10 minutes and he’s already hassling me to read it.
Have a beautiful holiday and stay in touch!
Michele
