Keeping our Cards in Order
With holidays come wonderful cards from family, friends, and loved ones. I love getting cards in the mail, it may stem from my mother being a big "card" person. She would send a lovely homemade or creativley worded card on each event that took place in our lives. Her way with words continue to speak to me as I sit and reread each one.
As much as I love cards, I'm not going to lie and say that I haven't thrown a few out in my day, but the ones that have special messages or personal touches are always the one's I hold near and dear.
My mother had saved thousands of cards, NO JOKE! I discoverd her bridal shower, wedding, birthday... love letters... every holiday. I even have cards from my 2nd and 3rd birthdays that mom had saved in her stash of cards. It was a daughnting task sorting, tossing, keeping and storing some favorites out of the many stacks of cards. This got me thinking about my own house! I had some in files, boxes, drawers, under beds... they occasionally pop up in random stacks. There really wan't a system in place.
My answer was to create a keepsake box for each family member. I already have "Photo" boxes for each person which I fill with a few of my favorite photos each month (Yes, I still believe in hard copies, digital is good but as my backup I order my favorites every other month throuh Costco, have them sent through mail, and toss them in the box with a date on the back. This is probably a blog for another time). Back to the keepsake boxes! After occasions where we recieve cards from others we place them in our designated box. Other items we may have in our box are ticket stubs from a memoriable event, letters, and small tokens that have special meaning. I have these boxes stored in my closet in one area so that it is a one stop drop off for me when organizing and sorting.
This year Mother's Day and my Anniversary fall on the same day. My husband and I have always exchanged cards, but it got me thinking of a way that we could save ourselves from always having to find the perfect card and save him from having to find a combo Mother's Day/ Anniversary. The hubby is great about cards, often he chooses one that is so perfect all he has to do is literally sign his name. I'm not complaining, but like I told him, I love seeing his perfect words regarding his undying love for me handwritten. I even told him he could just take a picture of the card, save a few bucks, and write it on a blank sheet of paper!
I stumbled upon these rather inexpensive journals on Amazon. These journals sit with our children's journals in a designated space and are our personal letters to each other on holidays, anniversaries, memorable events, and/or just because. My husband thought this a great idea in leiu of purchasing cards all the time. This solves my problem two fold, I get the handwritten letter from my love and it is all in one place organized and stored.
Although the boxes (and journal) were initally a way to keep orgainized, I find myself sometimes alone or with my eldest son sitting in the closet with our "Cards and Keepsakes" boxes rereading, remembering and sharing stories and moments from the treasured contents that we have received from each other, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other friends and family thoughout the years. We share laughs, smiles, and occasionally a few tears.