Image by Lyn Millett via Flickr
I really enjoy Christmas and wish I had more time to get into the spirit of the season. If I had my druthers, I'd spend loads of time baking and decorating and going to Christmas parties and such. Instead, I end up staring at the calendar with increasing horror as the days click by and I have a pile of work that just never, ever lets up on top of regular household maintenance and am trying to sort out gifts, prepare for houseguests, and keep track of my toddler. So, as in so many other areas of life, I turn to technology to help.
Now, technology doesn't help with baking cookies or Christmas parties, but it does help simplify some tasks that I otherwise might not ever get to.
First, there's the annual Christmas card. Well, we call it a holiday card and it hasn't always been sent before Christmas, but aaaaanyway. I use technology to manage almost all aspects of this project. First of all, we send ours to a lot of people. This year there were more than 170 people on the list. And believe me when I say that we're really not that social! In fact, we are both antisocial nerds. Who are all these people?!? I don't know how or why the list keeps growing every year, but it does. (For one thing we both have fairly large extended families.) So I use my contact database to generate the mailing labels. And I try to do a good job of keeping the addresses in that database up-to-date. I cross-check return address labels against my database when we get cards from people. And I try to be rigorous throughout the year in updating it whenever I get word someone has moved.
Then, I use Kodak Gallery to create the card. Up until this year, we've done an annual letter. (I know those things are as controversial as any mommy war topic - people either love 'em or hate 'em - but I love to get them, so I figure I'll send them too. If people don't like it, no one's forcing them to read it.) But this year I just had no time. One of my buddies, who's also a 'friend' of mine on Facebook (and ohhhh, don't get me started on Facebook's new no-privacy privacy strategy; sigh) complained. But I told her: "Hey, you read my status updates on FB, you know what's going on!" So, this year, I grabbed a recent cute picture of my kid, tossed it into a Kodak Gallery template, and ordered 150 cards. The picture's not even in proper focus--that's how much of a hurry I've been in. (It is a super cute picture of him, though.) And yeah, it was only after I'd done the order that I created the draft list of recipients and realized we had more than 170 names this year. But, fortunately, Kodak saves your projects, so I just logged back in, quick like a bunny, and ordered 30 more.
In addition to the annual ritual of touching base through the exchange of Kodak paper, there's also the shopping. We have done fairly well at keeping that under control. We really constrain who we buy for, although if I find a great gift for someone who's not normally on my list during the course of the year, I'll grab it. I keep a running list all year called "Gifts in 2009" that tracks all of the people I buy for (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) month-by-month. As I think of ideas for people, I jot them down there. "Gifts in 2010" has already got a few things on it. I do as much shopping as I can online. And while, just as with the cookie baking, I have dreams of buying tons of elegant paper with matching ribbons and doing all the wrapping personally, well, HAHAHA. That's a good one. Never happens. This year has been particularly rushed and last minute. Today (December 16th) my sister asked what I was getting my mother. I had to say, "Still don't know yet." Amazon Prime and 2-day shipping is going to have to save my bacon once again.
Another way technology saves me has to do with tracking events and ToDos. I just could not keep track of and coordinate all the obligations and events we do have if it weren't for email, social networks, and a digital calendar.
Finally, I used my iPhone on the Metro the other day to snap a picture of a picture in Express of a yummy-sounding spiced beer that Whole Foods is selling. And I thought about Twittering the picture and alerting my ~brother that it would make a great gift. But that would be taking technology too far! So gauche! (Instead, I'll just point him to this post.) Now, off to check my calendar to see what's going on tomorrow.
You and the Mr. are remarkably well compensated antisocial nerds, I must say. I love getting the holiday letters but will always be happy with a photo of TLG - we have the last one on the fridge right now!
Posted by: Katherine | Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 03:07 PM