Mel and I chose a fairly recent photo of ourselves to send with our Christmas postcards this year. Yesterday we walked down to the city center, to a little photo shop and had copies made. Took an hour, an hour in which Mel and I then went and had a nice lunch together. Kind of our date for the week.
After we picked up the photos, we went over to the local 'department store,' TsUM, to see if they might by chance have mailing labels in their stationery/school/business supplies section. They did not. In fact, the saleswoman seemed a bit insulted that I would ask for them. Told me she didn't know what they were called in Russian (I described them to her) and told me to go to the post office and ask there. She was - huffy. That's a nice way to say it, huffy.
Ha ha!
So, while Mel then went looking for The Nutcracker Suite in the music department, I looked at movies. I was very surprised to find The Far Country, starring Jimmy Stewart. Wow! I looked at the price - 39 griven - and decided to buy it. I had told Mel last week that he was not allowed to buy any more music or DVD's until Christmas, yet there we were, in the music/DVD section of TsUM, looking for both. He commented and I said something on the order of, you aren't allowed to buy any before you ask ME. :) :) Christmas is coming....!!!! He did not find The Nutcracker, but we did buy The Far Country.
We came home and I set to work getting some of the Christmas postcards ready to mail. I tried one time to send a postcard through the mail here just like we would in the States. The post office lady was horrified. It was not in an envelope!! Anyone could read what was written on my postcard! Put it in an envelope!!! So, since that time, I always put my postcards here in envelopes. Well, this time I'm sending a photo, too, so I'd need an envelope one way or another anyway. I still think it's odd that the postcards here have a place for postage right on them, but she insisted they need envelopes.
Whatever.
I am a Christmas card lover. I love to choose them. I love to prepare them. I love to cover the envelopes in all sorts of stickers. I love to write the addresses. I like to send them, I like to receive them. I like working with mail, actually, which is probably why I liked working in the mail room for so many years at Young Life.
There is something nice about mail. A letter is like a book in many ways. It is made of paper. You hold it in your hands. You can fold it and carry it in your purse or billfold to read again, altho you couldn't put a book in your billfold... :) You have to open it. The first time you read it, you are not quite sure exactly what is going to be in it. You have to read it. It is covered in written words and when those words are actually handwritten - oh! it is so personal, so nice to read, so mine.
The problem with sending all the postcards that we send from Ukraine, is that I have to write on them. They are not simple Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! from us. No, I write a brief note and thank you on each to our prayer and financial partners, possibly more to our family members and close friends.
That is the norm for me.
But this year - I am having really bad arthritis in my thumbs and holding a pen for more than a couple minutes becomes shear agony. It is still very easy to type and to use the computer, but holding a pen is a different story. It's the same reason that although I have crocheted for years and love doing it, I have switched to knitting over the past year. Holding a crochet hook really hurts now, but holding the knitting needles does not - yet. They are held differently in the hands.
So, I am writing a couple postcards and then resting for several minutes. I am taking my ibuprofen and using a pain-reliever cream on my hands (I like one better than the other, but Mel says when I use it, I smell like an old woman. ha ha! I like the smell because it reminds me of when I was a kid and my great-aunt would give me those wonderful pink peppermints to eat - smells just like them.) This Christmas is a bit different for me. Age is showing. The age of the body is showing more. My hands are betraying me. I know there is joint replacement for the joints in the hands, but I am not going there! Nope. No. Nyet. Nine. Nada. Non. And so forth in many languages where the negative seems to always begin with the letter N. I'm hoping to get all the postcards out by this time next week.
After I had been working on the postcards for an hour or so last night, Mel put on The Far Country. I don't remember ever watching this movie before. I wonder if my father has it? He has a lot of movies starring Jimmy Stewart. Near the beginning of the movie I told Mel I thought it must have been filmed at or near Banf National Park, in Canada. Sure enough, at the end there was a special thank you to Jasper National Park for allowing them to film there. I was just a few kilometers off, but in the right area. :) I really liked the movie, not for the story line, which was kind of hokey, but for the scenery. Oh, wow, it was really, really pretty. I want to be there! It was a nice movie to watch just now. I'm still surprised it was at TsUM, however.
And life continues.
I look forward to my perfect heavenly body, more and more each day, but I really like the holiday season here on earth.
The little things make life so good.
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