FRIDAY FUN - Guest Post from Kathryn

Y'all…this blogger world thing is amazing! You may recall last week we hosted Britt of The Fisk Files…well, one of her friends - Kathryn - email us to say hi and in the first line of her email she mentioned that Christmas cards are her LOVE LANGUAGE. Y'all. The MERRY MOMMAS just about died. Died. Christmas cards are so very much our love language and we were so so happy to talk to "one of us". Well, turns out Kathryn is a blogger and an Aggie - clearly we have to be friends. We chatted a bit more and insisted she be a guest blogger for us and she said yes…

So without further ado here's Kathryn of Team Whitaker!

Be sure to follower her! AND, check out this post!

If Christmas cards are a love language, then they are most certainly mine.

Since my husband and I married 18 years ago, sending out annual cards has become a family tradition. The list has evolved as we’ve moved to different states, made new friends and added family members to the tree.

For me, it’s always been about the connections. While I love a good card with a beautiful photo, I absolutely adore the updates from friends and family members. Hearing about job promotions, vacations, special family memories and great stories is the highlight of our holiday season. And, being able to pray for someone who has had a particularly difficult year is our family’s honor. I’ve even been known to hunt down the perfect Hanukkah stamp for my Jewish friends.

You see, in an effort to help our kids know why these people, with all the smiling kids and cute pets, send us greetings every December, we hold on to those cards all year. At dinner each night, we pull out a card or two, re-read it, reminisce and pray for that family. Trust me when I tell you there is a race to pick out “the” card each evening. Bruises may, or may not, be involved.

In an age of social media and instant gratification, some may say that cards are so passé. I beg to differ. I’m a graphic designer, so putting together our card is a labor of love. But, the true joy comes from gathering the kids together to help me assemble them and then placing all that joy in the mailbox. Well, let’s be honest, the boys just want the glory of mailing them, the girls are my workhorses. We skip to the mailbox everyday to see what new update awaits, which smiling faces will greet us and how we can witness the love and grace of Christ in other people’s lives. For us, Christmas cards are an experience to be cherished and loved, not a checkbox on the to-do list.

We share bits and pieces of the kids’ year, often with a re-cap of an ER visit or our annual family vacation. There are lots of photos and our traditional wish that everyone has a healthy, happy, family-filled, Christ-filled new year.

It really is the most wonderful time of the year, isn’t it?

(Photos by Shannon Cunningham of Photo Frolic)

Mommas here - how AWESOME is their tradition of keeping the cards out ALL YEAR LONG and using them to pray over families. We love this idea - anyone else do this or something similar? Let us know in the comments below!