Merry Christmas to you…I think.

I love Christmas cards. The getting more than the giving. Years ago, prior to children I was a Christmas card snob. You know the ones. The people that expect that the cards should be signed, NOT PRINTED. The people that expect a personal note, NOT A GENERAL GREETING. The people that have WAY too much time on their hands… Yep, that was me. Times have changed along with expectations. I now send out PRINTED cards with GENERAL GREETINGS. I squeal in delight when I receive a card, any card. I am a BIG fan of the photo card. I search the pictures for clues of change. A few years ago I noticed AN ADDITIONAL CHILD in one of my best friend’s Christmas photos. Turns out she had a baby and forgot to tell me. Ooops! Big mistake. I am good for super cute baby gifts especially if it can be frilly and pink. This year I opened a photo card that struck me odd. It wasn’t that the family wasn’t handsomely dressed and posed perfectly, it was that they were TOO PERFECT. Like an iStock Photo family. I stared at the picture and realized that the reason it seemed like stock photography was that I didn’t recognize the family at all. I grabbed the envelope to make sure I opened something addressed to me. Yep. The holiday greetings were mine. I opened the card to read the printed signatures and that didn’t help either. I don’t know these people. Oh well. Cute family…up on the wall they go with the others. Yesterday I was at my in-laws house. I was looking through their Christmas cards when all of a sudden I came across my mystery family card. My mother-in-law had received one of the cards too! Me: Who are these people? MIL: I have no idea. Great. Is it possible that I have uncovered a new trend of Christmas card spam?