When I moved from Virginia to Maryland, I began sending out Christmas cards each year. Mail can be such a day-brightener when it isn't bills or spam!

Each year since, I've noticed something interesting. I get the same feedback each year from at least one (different) person:

"Thanks for the card! I wish I had the time to send out cards. Maybe next year."

I'm certainly not offended at not receiving cards from everyone, but I am concerned at the idea that cards take a long time to send. I personally spend more time selecting Christmas cards than I do sending them. I set up a process the first year (that granted, is an time investment that pays off in future years) that has made sending cards each year after a breeze!


My secret? I have a hard time calling it a secret, but still, people are surprised:

Microsoft Office.

It really is that easy. If you can carve out some extra time one year to plop all your contacts into an Excel spreadsheet, mail merge does all the work for you in the years after. Just follow these steps, and you'll have cards ready to be send in no time:

1. Gather your contacts. I create a document in excel with the names and addresses of everyone I want to send cards to (make sure you set up fields; I use last name, first name, address, and city/state/zip, so that it can read properly in mail merge). The first time you do this, it will take some time, but in future years, this becomes a super short step of "scan your list of contacts for anyone who's moved, married, etc., and update their information"
2. Choose your cards. This is my favorite step and for me, often the longest. There are so many choices! I have done photo cards, but most years, I choose a variety of pretty boxed cards (like the pictured mini assortment I picked up at the Hallmark Store this year). Since you have all your contacts in the Excel file, you can easily see how many you need! I always allow for a few extras for any forgotten recipients or cards returned-to-sender (I catch most people who move, but always seem to miss at least one!)
3. Sign your cards. I usually keep this simple with a quick "Dear mom and dad," at the beginning then a "love, Sean and Bekah" at the end. 
4. Make your labels. This is the real time saver. I buy some blank mailing labels and do a mail merge into Word with the excel file (the software walks you through this, and I have a tutorial video below!). This sets up all your names and addresses in a format that you can print right on to the labels. I jazz it up with a pretty (but readable) font, and hit print! All those addresses that would have taken you a full morning to write on to envelopes will now take minutes. As a bonus, if you have your own return address stamp or labels, you've just cut down even more time!
5. Seal, stamp, and send. You're done! Seal those cards, put a stamp on each, and they're ready to send!

Whew! I'd say this fall has been one of my busiest ever. Every weekend had commitments of one kind or another. In September, I'd established a "wish list" for the season: all the things I hoped to complete before Thanksgiving next week. But let's be real: next week is, well, Thanksgiving, so anything I haven't completed certainly won't be next week, either.



How'd I do?

1. Visit a local winery:  Check. When our apple-picking plans were rained out (after we drove up, of course), we visited a winery in the same neighborhood.
2. Go apple picking. Nope, see above. We didn't have another free weekend together to do this. 
3. Make and can pasta sauce and applesauce/fried apples. Pasta sauce, check. Apple products, fail. Can't do it without apples.
4. Host dinner with friends at our house. Check. We had a great evening of conversation, puppy cuddling, and vegetarian baked ziti.
5. Host an Operation Christmas Child Packing Party. This was probably my biggest disappointment of the season. I planned the event (it's been an annual tradition) and sent an invite out over a month in advance. Not a single person would commit, then the day before, everyone suddenly had other plans. I'll be honest, it's been lonely in Baltimore since fewer people like to come out this way (I get it, I used to dread coming here, too), but this particular weekend was really hurtful to me. I ended up donating all the box-filling goods we'd already purchased to the church to stuff other shoeboxes, and look forward to my three upcoming volunteer shifts at the OCC Processing Center.
6. Have all family birthday gifts purchased (4 birthdays between Nov-Jan!). Check! I've been buying birthday/holiday gifts in spurts each pay period since September. Birthdays have been bought and wrapped (the first birthday is this weekend), and I've made a good dent in Christmas gifts as well.
7. Raise $1500 for Miles for Mothers. Not quite. This was my first time participating in the event and fundraising was a challenge for sure. I raised $200, but combined with all my participating colleagues, over $12,000 was raised to help our non-profit help others in times of urgent need.
8. Update decor and sort through more boxes. Done and done. We got some mums for the front porch and a pretty fall wreath.(We also brought in my jasmine plants and are trying to sustain them with a light over the winter) Knowing I had an overnight guest coming one weekend was motivation to sort through and empty some of the boxes we still had in our guest room.
9. Select Christmas cards and update mailing list. With the exception of last year, I usually send out boxed cards. I choose some pretties from Hallmark this  year, and thankfully I'm pretty good about updating the excel mailing list I keep for cards throughout the year.
10. Make decisions in our church search. I haven't really mentioned this on the blog, but Sean and I started exploring churches closer to our new home back in February. No church felt like "it". and while we found one church that seemed promising, I  couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right for us. We attended for a few months and I just didn't feel comfortable committing as a member. our Sunday-Sunday cruise vacation was just the thing we needed. Neither of us were in a rush to go back after being away which was just the freedom we needed to move on. We went back to our home church the next week and I teared up just being there. I'm thinking we're there to stay.

How was your fall? If you had a bucket list, how many items did you achieve?

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I try not to watch much TV. I could be reading or exploring or doing something more productive. But, when Sean comes home from a 10-hour work day drained of all energy...that's about all the quality time I can get. Thanks to hulu (and the Roku 3 I bought him last Christmas), we've found a few agreed upon shows for some evening unwinding together. Some are quite popular while some have me rolling my eyes at myself, but I enjoy them just the same:

The Mindy Project

I was so excited to start watching this show...and so confused at the first few episodes of Season 1 . Of course, the show found it's sweet spot and I've been enjoying it since. I feel like this show is pretty popular and was suprised that it wasn't renewed after season 3. Praise to hulu for keeping Mindy and Danny in our living room!

The Last Man on Earth

I found Season 1 to be so frustrating...I really hoped the show would be canceled, and I felt that way up until the last five minutes of the finale when finally something of interest was sparked. I've enjoyed season two a lot more, but seriously, what's with Phil's brother? I feel like they teased us with that angle, then just dropped it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Sean wanted to start watching this together and I had no interest whatsoever (I had no clue what the show was even about). I was kinda "meh" for the first episode or two, then quickly came to love it. As late comers, we were able to binge watch Seasons 1 and 2 on hulu...but now we're in real-time awaiting each episode like everyone else.

Swamp People

Mountain Men

Last week, I got an e-mail announcing limited time discounted tickets to The King and I on Broadway. I've been dying to see it, but a $200 play ticket isn't exactly in my budget. Thanks to LincTix, I found out I could see the show for $35 over the weekend...in a second row orchestra seat, no less!

Of course, the older you get, the harder it is to find people who can join in on such spontaneity (and Sean loathes musicals). I couldn't pass up the opportunity, though, so I went ahead and bought a ticket, opting to visit the Big Apple on my own.

The only un-perk: I suck at selfies.

This is my 4th NYC visit in my entire life and my first one alone. I was nervous, but this turned out to be my favorite trip yet! I told Sean when I arrived home that I'd be game for doing this more often, because:

• Pacing. I could walk as fast or as slow as I wanted to without worrying about losing another person. As someone who enjoys exploring, I could take a few seconds here and there to check out places of interest without inconveniencing someone else.
• Travel. I only used a taxi once and it was because I simply wouldn't have made it to the theatre in time otherwise (I took the bus to the city and back home in the same day). The rest of the day, I opted to walk (the weather was perfect for it). I'd say I walked around 3 miles that day, something not everyone is fond of doing.
• Decisions. A huge stressor for me is trying to make a decision in a large group when there's no formal itinerary in place. Suddenly, choosing where to eat lunch becomes a huge, dramatic conflict. I was crushed for time so I didn't eat at all until after the show, but I passed place after place without feeling the pressure of having to choose immediately.