Saturday 15 December 2012

Of Snow and Christmas Cards

I’ve been staying in today, doing my best to ignore the Weather going on outside.

Others chose a different strategy:

2012-12-15 snow
(Paparazzi shots through the window.)

Christmas cards from abroad have started to arrive.
I found a new way to display them this year, hanging ribbons on a corner by the doorway to my study.

2012-12-13 christmas cards

One card that arrived this week (not included in the display above) presented me with a bit of a dilemma. Not a very serious dilemma, as dilemmas go… But I’d be curious to get a “second opinion” (or more).

I had this penfriend in another European country. We never met. I think we first got in touch via something called “friendship books” sent around between penpals. (A way of making contact with strangers around the world before the internet.) For various reasons we never got into frequent exchange of letters. It almost immediately turned into just a once-a-year Christmas letter/card.

Two years ago, she wrote that she had decided to cut down correspondence even further, so thanked me for years past but said she’d not be writing again.  I accepted that and crossed her off my own list. So was rather surprised last year when I still got another card from her. And yet another one this year! even though I never answered the last one.

Obviously she’s clean forgotten that she “broke up” with me two years ago.

What would you do??

11 comments:

  1. I don't know what I'd do -- this is a toughie. I guess if I had a card to spare and could afford the extra postage, I'd probably send her one. But if you decide not to send her one, don't feel guilty. After all, she's the one who said she didn't want to exchange cards, not you.

    Love your paparazzi photos by the way. The red hat is a great touch!

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  2. Like your paparazzi pictures, they seems to have a lot of fun.

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  3. Well, I would include it in the display and maybe even send her one back, kind of the Christian thing t do. It seems she is still thinking of you, and maybe she had been going through a rough time, one never knows. I see my card there! I have mine in a little card tree, but may yet try to do it this way, I love it.

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  4. Easy for my simple brain: forget it. Presumably the person is not that important to either you past nor your future.

    You do have a lot of snow! I love the pictures.

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  5. So far as your dilemma is concerned I think Canadian Chickadee got it about right!
    I hope you can get out OK when you need to. It looks very pretty and fun if you're snowball age but tricky when you aren't.

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    1. Thanks John - I hope so too. The dry and light kind of snow we had the last couple of weeks is one thing... The frozen slush and/or melting ice kind is a very different matter!

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  6. I would assume she had a bad headache when she wrote that comment about no longer keeping in touch. I suspect she regrets it. I would send a card with a note inside telling her about your blog and a tiny bit about how you are these days. She might like to read your blog every day. I know that I do.
    Make the world a connected place. Be kind. You are a nice person so just extend the friendship a little more. You never know; she may be lonely, ill, old, and need that personal touch from someone who is just a little bit distant.
    Forgiveness does not always cost a lot.

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  7. Good advice from all of you... Covering just about the whole spectrum of thoughts that already went through my mind :) If I hesitate, it's certainly not because the cost of stamps (I found enough stamps after my dad to see me through years of correspondence). It's to do with my impression that to stop writing was the thought-through decision on her side, while her picking it up again is because of forgetfulness. Usually it's the other way round!

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  8. i would just ignore it. but then that is ME... i am with you on staying inside and watching the fun of others through the window.

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  9. Lovely, lovely wintery-Christmas images. It rarely gets cold enough in lowland EnZed for us to have snow, let alone dry fluffy stuff... But in December 2014, I may experience it when I have my first Northern Hemisphere Christmas (- planned, anyway!) I hope to be in Lapland at my father's cousin's home, watching the northern lights.

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    1. I hope things turn out for you as planned, Katherine! It's a pity we can't really plan/order the weather too when we make travel arrangements, isn't it... But in Lapland at Christmas time you should at least be pretty sure to find snow. Down here in the south-west where I live, I'd say it's pretty much a toss-up. Some Christmases white, others 'green' (greyish brown).

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