Mish Mash of Pavement Tiles, Barcelona

Today's main task was to get the 'Christmas' letter sent out, both by email and the dozen or so we still post. You could say this is part of our ritual at this time of year, given that it's our 30th one! The only year we didn't do one was the Christmas of the year we got married, 1990, when we were still living in Edinburgh. Today, it was very pleasant to sit at our dining table in our patio room and do the final stages, but I was remembering that we've done the folding, envolope-ing and stamping process in a 'greasy caf' in London ; a hotel reception area, also London ;  the pool area of our apartment building in Sao Paulo; our wee studio in Rio; the folding bench of a launderette in Barcelona; and an airport lounge - to name just a few! 

A process has evolved over the years. Together, we note the things for including that year; Bb writes the first draft, over days, and I've learnt not to ask to see it during this time; he prints off a first draft and I get to check it for typos and suggest changes and we agree on the overall style ;  negotiation then follows over a few days more, back and forward, adding a word here, changing an adjective there, squeezing another photo in;  then I'm given a copy and told 'there's little room for any changes now';  and a bit more negotiation usually follows ;-)  Then comes the actual sending of it and this is mainly my job. We only started sending the majority by email 2 years ago; before that we had them all printed and posted them from wherever we were in the world to Scotland, England, Spain, Norway, Holland, France, Germany, USA, Canada, Brazil, Egypt... And I'm sure I've missed places! With emails it's an easier process, but not without its challenges! I couldn't remember how to see the full email addresses on sent emails with BCCs. I was sure I'd noted this last year somewhere... Then I couldn't find the postal addresses that I'd transferred onto a reduced label list for printing out and I decided it was quicker just to retype those again. Bb left me in peace to do all of this and went for our food shopping. Of course, I then sent one batch out without attaching the letter and before I had time to resend it 2 mins later (why do you always notice just after pressing send that there's no attachment?!), a friend from Holland had WhatsApped Bb to tell him!  Picture Bb then coming into the patio room, pulling a laden shopping trolley, saying cautiously 'you might have forgotten to attach the letter to one batch of the emails'.  Then there's the waiting to see if any are going to be returned - miraculously, just one this year - and the searching for updates of their latest email addresses.  Finally, you breathe a sigh of relief, sit down with a cuppa, read the letter again....and spot a typo!  Why do we do it, you may ask. Well, as I said, it's a ritual and there's a certain comfort in rituals. Mainly though, it's because we genuinely enjoy the keeping in touch with people and love it when friends send a quick reply, and we've already had a few of those this year. 

After all that, I only managed a short walk in the dark, before we had a tostada with cheese and anchovies for dinner at Sanabres, which we lovingly call 'the cheap place'. Very mild for the time of year and we were on the terrace.