Old news...

...but still worth writing about, I suppose.

I arrived home from my quick trip to Brasov last Thursday to find mail in my mailbox. Real mail...honest! Whew, it really needed dusting out (seriously). Then I opened it...my first Christmas card of the year! The last day of August, and I'm getting Christmas cards already :-)



The backstory...My home church has done "missionary Christmas" for as long as I can remember (probably as long as I've been alive). In July, they put up a poster with every missionary's name, including the kids. Then, people from the church sign up to send a Christmas card & a gift of $20. The cards are all "turned in" by the end of July, checks are sent to the mission agencies (much easier for them to send it to our bank accounts in random countries around the world), and the cards are forwarded to the missionaries. When they first started doing it, I think it took several months for overseas mail to reach its destination - thus the July collection date. I contemplated letting them know that there are now VERY few places in the world where mail takes longer than 2 weeks on average...but then I decided, nah, it's more fun to get Christmas cards in August.

Last year I got a birthday card & a Christmas card on the same day (again, at the end of August; my birthday's at the beginning of August). That was even more fun! The perks of being a missionary...