Response-ability

[k9ophile]

Not wanting to sound too hippy-dippy, self help, and psycho-babbledy, yet after my many years of therapy, I have learned I have the ability to form my responses. One thing I haven't achieved from my therapy is lessening my proclivity to sending out my Christmas cards after Christmas. In the past I have rationalized that the twelve days of Christmas are from Christmas day to the Epiphany on January 6. I have even, in a very few years, actually sent them out before Christmas. It seems like every year, I plan to get them out by the 15th , but revert to my post-Christmas mailing. Sometimes I even feel guilty or at least remiss at not getting them out before the 25th.

Last night, I actually sat down and wrote them out. I had gotten one I hadn't read yet and then when I did, this is what I found, "Love to hear from you every year. You always give us something to look forward to right after Christmas." I'll admit I felt a bit stung upon reading it, a back-handed compliment? A bit of shade? Then I laughed and realized I had the choice of how I took this. I am late. I own it. I think it's what my friends have come to accept and we can joke about it. I even re-wrote my little letter changing my generic "Greetings from Tennessee" to "Greetings from the Land of Procrastination Where I Reign as Queen."

Now if only I can strengthen my ability to choose my responses to more important things that are a bit more serious than annual greetings. You know, like paying my bills the day I get them.

 

[JackieOnLine]

Merry Christmas, K9!

I struggle with procrastination, too. I keep meaning to do something about it!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Well, as we (Catholic school kids) all learned back in the day...DICTATOR Julius Cesar adopted a flawed calendar, but POPE Gregory fixed it all back in 1582, at which point most of the world began changing from the dictator Julian to the Catholic-approved Gregorian calendar.

Some people, most notably Jews and Eastern Orthodox churchgoers, live with two calendars. The Jews don’t have a great selection of Christmas cards, but the Eastern Orthodox...well, they are all over their Christmas traditions.

So, all you need to do is purchase Eastern Orthodox cards, TRY to send them out for the December 25th Christmas, but...know that you are STILL getting the cards out before the date that the card is respecting, January 7th.


CAUTION—because of the political scene, you may have to check to see if you are using Russian Orthodox or Ukrainian Orthodox (or even Serbian Orthodox, etc) holiday cards and stick with Greek Orthodox.




https://www.easterngiftshop.com/Category/cc

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Oh...we use our bank’s bill paying feature, so that we don’t need stuff like stamps, ink, even envelopes. We pay almost everything via the bank instead of at each company’s website or phone line. Our current goal is to enter the bill‘s amount and payment date when we get it and have the bank “remember” to send it out to arrive a day before due date.

We’re working on that.

 

[k9ophile]

Well the Epiphany (January 6) is one day short of Eastern Orthodox (January 7) so I'll consider converting. In the meantime, I'm still waiting on my true love to gift me on the 12 Days of Christmas. Please, no birds in pear tress or any other avian tokens of affection.

The only time we relied on the bank was when we were in the military with payday on the 15th and the last day of the month. On those days, the bank was supposed to transfer the child support from DH's account to one set up for the kids. Big disaster ensued when the bank erred and the ex starting making noise. This is important because the court rejected every child support amount negotiated between the ex and DH, so she agreed to take way less and they "pretended" to agree to the court's terms. Holy Contempt of Court if it came out that he was paying less. Nice records provided from the bank would have screwed him. In the end, he cancelled the automatic transfer, she kept her mouth shut, we all lived happily ever after.