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hrjI drafted up a chatty holiday letter over the weekend but haven't done the proofing and editing yet. To some extent, any time I get cards out before New Years, I consider it a victory. What with the internet and a certain amount of attrition over the years, the card list has dwindled somewhat over the last decade. A few people have been dropped because I hadn't heard from them in years and our lives have drifted too far apart. A few have dropped me, perhaps during times when I was not coping with getting cards out (although I think I've always managed at least every other year. A very few people have left my holiday card list due to death. Mostly it consists of relatives (some for whom this is my only regular contact), long-term friends (most of whom don't need a holiday letter to know what I've been doing), people who I've managed to continue reciprocal card-sending with through thick and thin, and a handful of short-termers that I've added and am still seeing if we settle into reciprocity. I've been thinking of adding a few people from the Linguistics department who have now fallen into the category of "people I spent a lot of time with who I don't see regularly anymore". (Although, given the localness, I run into Lx faculty and staff around town on occasion.)
The gift shopping is about half planned but not much is executed yet. (I'm always relieved to have an extra week and a half for doing SCA 12th night presents after the family get-together.) Some day, there will be a year when I'm ahead of the game and have all the shopping done before Thanksgiving. The only time it's happened so far was the year I was in Europe over the summer and everyone was getting stuff I picked up there.
Big M Update: The underwriter called to collect a few more details and confirm some of the numbers. My employer has a totally arcane system for confirming employment/salary to outside entities that requires me to get a special code to give the requester. I suppose it's secure, but it sure is convoluted. I need to check the current title to the house to see what it says about ownership -- whether it has the partnership name or individual people. The question has come up and I had to confess that I wasn't absolutely certain. So far they've been satisfied that I could state with certainty that the partnership is registered with the state, is the entity that fills out the tax forms, and that my name is there on the official partnership forms.
The gift shopping is about half planned but not much is executed yet. (I'm always relieved to have an extra week and a half for doing SCA 12th night presents after the family get-together.) Some day, there will be a year when I'm ahead of the game and have all the shopping done before Thanksgiving. The only time it's happened so far was the year I was in Europe over the summer and everyone was getting stuff I picked up there.
Big M Update: The underwriter called to collect a few more details and confirm some of the numbers. My employer has a totally arcane system for confirming employment/salary to outside entities that requires me to get a special code to give the requester. I suppose it's secure, but it sure is convoluted. I need to check the current title to the house to see what it says about ownership -- whether it has the partnership name or individual people. The question has come up and I had to confess that I wasn't absolutely certain. So far they've been satisfied that I could state with certainty that the partnership is registered with the state, is the entity that fills out the tax forms, and that my name is there on the official partnership forms.
