I love Christmas cards, but I am more of the family photo variety than the long winded letter kind of card sender. I figure if we are close enough you will know everything that has gone on in my life in the last year anyway, and if we are not as close I don’t need to share all the details of our family vacation, funny things the kids said, or when they learned to tie their shoes or ride their bikes, etc.

But then a couple years ago it dawned on me that there are two people that I absolutely, completely wanted to share these moments with.

So I got out some Christmas cards and  then I went through my photos from the year and looked back through my calendar. I laughed, I cried and I laughed some more while I wrote two Christmas letters to my most favourite little people.

I wrote about many firsts: camping, being a flower girl, trips to the ER, and more. I wrote about all the things I was proud of them for trying and learning and doing in the past 12 months. And I also wrote about the things I learned being their Mom, some fun, some sad, some silly. Lastly I printed out a few favourite images from the year to go along with the memories.

Then I sealed them up and wrote their names on the fronts along with the year and took two gift boxes and started one for each of them. My plan is to keep adding a new one each year until they are 18 and we can open them together on Christmas. I will have a good ugly cry and we will reminisce together.

Each year I am reminded at how much can happen in 12 months and how it all goes by too quickly. This is my time to pause the holiday craziness for an evening and reflect on the moments that matter and share them with the ones who matter.