When my sister left for her overseas military duties, her biggest fear was missing out on all the special occasions: cookouts, birthdays, Thanksgiving, and even worse – Christmas. Every Christmas season our family comes together for our yearly custom Christmas cards strategy session. Each year we come up with a new Christmas card as a family; this was a tradition my grandparents established in our family. The fact that my sister was going to be absent from that holiday tradition, but even worse, not there for the Christmas season, was very upsetting for me. I have a very close relationship with my sister and the 2008 card would not be complete without her input.
My youngest son saw how heartbroken I was. He would look at me confused and ask, “Will Aunt Sophia be there?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wouldn’t be there and that he wouldn’t see his favorite aunt for a very long time.
I attempted to cancel the Christmas card meeting but my attempt was met with a slap across the back of my head; I became the family Grinch. So when the day for the gathering came and everyone was together in my back yard lined up, I decided I wouldn’t participate. Sure I was creating a huge argument with my wife, but it was a matter of principle. Then, as I watched everyone discussing across the lawn, I saw my son holding up a picture of my sister. He waved at me and said, “I told you.” The gesture was heartwarming and I felt embarrassed for my behavior and the 2008 card was born – a family photo card. We took a photo of the entire family, my center in the center holding my sisters picture.
Off course we needed to make this card happen, so we went to our favorite personalized holiday cards website – The Gallery Collection. I chose a very festive card design that let me place our wonderful family Christmas photo as the front cover. I knew my sister would love it because it would show her that we all missed her that day and she would now have a complete family photo to comfort her.
When she received the card, she and her troops were astounded by the quality and perfection of the card. I wouldn’t expect anything less from this site. They always come through and this time they provided me with a way to help my sister feel a part of the moment.