Belated holiday wishes to you. I hope you suffered majestically through the past several weeks. I was in the stores on Dec. 27, and there were already multiple aisles of Valentine's Day junk. Does this stuff automatically morph from one holiday to another? Some talented artist needs to come up with a pointy green Valentine's Day object. This way, at Christmas, the candy is a tree with red heart decorations and, when it doesn't sell, spends January decorated as a bunch of red hearts on a – whatever this green thing is. In short, it is something that gives candy a longer shelf life. However, I shudder to think how long some of this candy sits on shelves in storage before being placed on shelves in public.
You didn't get a Christmas card from the Mitchells last year because we still haven't written one. I'm told we started one, but I doubt that. We got a few cards and letters – so others were more attentive to matters.
The best letter I received, though, is the one that fumbled due to the stationary.
The letter appears to be standard 12-point Times New Roman font on an 8½ by 11-inch piece of paper. Nothing out of the ordinary, I'll admit, though the author decided to spring for some Christmasy stationary with a solid half-inch red border around the edges. Centered at the top of the paper is an inlaid square, just a shade smaller than a photographic slide. It shows two children, one of whom is meant to be Joseph pulling the other, Mary, riding a donkey and wearing what looks like an orange sombrero.
The letter's first paragraph has some awkward spaces as it tries to wrap around the square. The author tells how she and her husband attended Mora County Extension Office classes and seminars for many months. Great. I'm all for education. Someone died. Someone else had a baby. The usual fodder. The kicker of the letter is on the back, though:
I bought this stationary not realizing the inserted picture would cause me formatting difficulties. Thurs [sic] I ran over one page, which I had hoped not to do.
The most noticeable thing about this silly little sentence is that it's the only thing on the back. That, and she adds a second "Merry Christmas" to match the one opening the letter on what is now the front of the letter.
I know not everyone is computer literate, but if you can format the letter to fit your stationery, couldn’t you have found a way out of your dilemma? You could have decreased the font size. Or strike the second Merry Christmas. Better yet, don't include the sentence calling attention to how you fixed what you think was a mistake.
Come on people. Happy New Month!
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