The batch of cards grows a little larger each day.

We decided to do Christmas cards a little differently this year.

Well, the same, but different.

It’ll be different because my oldest won’t be back from school until Saturday, so I figured we’d wait until then to open the Christmas cards we’ve received so far.

That’s what got me thinking about this this week.

And then we’ll proceed the same way we always have - we’ll open them when we’re all together, usually sitting at the dinner table, each person opening one and then passing them around until everyone has seen every one.

It used to be that we’d have a bunch of cards to go through every night for most of the month.

But the cards have been dwindling a little bit each year.

I guess it still gets a little bit busy just before Christmas…but I don’t know what it is.

There are some people - friends and family - who we send cards each year and receive cards from each year, no questions asked.

But there’s a fluidity each year where some friends drift in and out. They might send a card one year and not the next….or we might do that ourselves.

It happens.

I used to read into everything a lot more than I do now - sometimes you just order fewer cards and have to make some cuts.

Sometimes you just go a while without hearing from some people.

I understand.

We still accumulate enough Christmas cards here that I’m able to still do one of my favorite things of the season. I’ve mentioned this in Sunday Papers in years past - I drape them over the opening between the dining room and the living room. I start by hanging cards in the middle, and then the collection grows from there out to the left and right around the entranceway.

Each year I hope we end up with enough cards to cover at least the middle and maybe a little bit down each side…on both sides of the wall.

I leave that up for a few months - long after the rest of the Christmas decorations are gone and put away.

I like looking at the friends and family there until about March - it’s one of those things that makes the long winter months a little less unpleasant.

We’ll start hanging them this weekend, which is a fun kickoff to the season.