The Family Newsletter
I must admit I do like to receive a yearly update from our friends and family, the ones that we don’t see very often. It is a great way to keep in touch. I find they all differ in their content…some are more serious and some quite funny others tell of their travels, holidays, and achievements and for others they can express a good or difficult year.
I find it is good to be able to join in and congratulate, sympathise or make a mental note to make contact more frequently if anyone seems to be struggling with their life through illness or just a bad patch. We all need support at sometime in our lives.
There are some surprises too like the time I found out my cousin who I see very little of, save for major birthdays and funerals, makes the most wonderful patchwork quilts!
I have sent and received them for many years now. At one time I had to handwrite each one, sometimes onto airmail paper – (those lovely printed Christmas ones) and it took a while though they would probably be much shorter back then. Now I write everything into a word document, add a few pictures and send it by email. My blog is such a useful tool to run off a quick newsletter as I can reuse a few photos and see in an instant what we were doing in any given month.
I am not sure if the newsletter, like postcards, is a dying custom or even a custom at all. At one time I would write letters throughout the year (remember them?) to friends and family who lived away, so I suppose this is the equivalent of many letters through the year but all at once.
I wonder how many people reading this send a family newsletter or receive one?
Sorry I was a little late posting this today – it has been a rush so excuse any garbled bits and spelling etc. Mum rang me just after midnight last night thinking I had rung her disturbing me from my slumbers…so a sleepless night afterwards.
Back tomorrow X
wherethejourneytakesme2.blog 
I’ve just walked down to the postbox in the sunshine and seen the cards through the slot. I shall start putting Christmas up (as granddaughter says) next week.
Hope you manage a decent night’s sleep. Xx Gill
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I have only a few things crossed off my list…I am going slow and steady – thats my excuse! xx
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I’m afraid I don’t create a newsletter, to be honest, we don’t have that much news to impart and we tend to see most of the family reasonably regularly. I usually email my sister in Australia at Xmas or New Year with our news, but it’s probably not a very exciting read. We do sometimes get a newsletter from some of OH’s relatives in New Zealand telling us all about family over there. It’s always nice to hear their news. (johnnyjumpsup)
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We have family in Australia and Scotland and a friend in Guersey that we don’t see very much so it is lovely to get more than a best wishes in a card. I always think I don’t have any very exciting news I just keep them updated each year on our expanding family or decreasing, as the case might be, and anything we have done worth mentioning throughout the year. I often end up having to leave a lot of things out!
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Years ago I used to get a lot of Christmas newsletters but never sent one. Too many were full of boasts about their own and their childrens’ achievements but never about the problems they must also have faced at times. Nowadays friends who want to know what I am up to can read my blog in which I try to share the difficulties as well as the celebrations.
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Ah yes people’s personalities shine through on a newsletter. I am always glad for their achievements and successes or their limitless holidays in far off destinations – I just know that I am quite content with my life as it is and yes some aspects could be better. If I wanted what other people have I would need to switch my focus – the fact that I don’t tells me something. I am looking forward to reading your blog – I am so sorry I hadn’t realised you had one.
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I was pleased for the good things in life but like the pictures of ‘perfect’ homes and lives on social media it was not good for my mental health and for our relaationships to thrive I needed them to be more real. I hiope you enjoy my blog but there is no rush to read it and certainly no need to read previous posts. I am writing about incidents and ideas and events rather than telling a coherent story where if you start half way through it makes no sense.
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