There was a rather special

Christmas card yesterday. It came from a friend in England and the front was drawn by her daughter, a young artist of considerable skill. Her school has had some printed as a fundraiser. It's a lovely idea.
Of course fundraising Christmas cards are not a new idea in themselves. We always get a variety of cards from friends who want to support animal welfare, child or cancer charities.
Our first "card" this year was a sheet of paper drawn by the youngest cousin. The Whirlwind often makes her own - at least for some people.
My mother used to keep a "Christmas card book". In it she would keep a record of the people she had sent cards to, along with their addresses and a tick if they had replied. She would sit down and write lengthy letters by hand to friends she did not usually see during the year. One year, after going to a craft class in her retirement, she made her own Christmas cards. It only happened once though, after that she bought the cards which supported "Anglicare" - a big welfare organisation run by the Church of England in Australia.
I meant to take that book out of the drawer where it is kept with the old phone book. I was going to look at it but then I thought I did not want to. Too many of the people in that book are no longer with us. It's a depressing thought even though many of them are people I did not know well, if I knew them at all. 
And, somehow, that made it especially nice to get a card from someone who is just starting out on the road to adulthood. I couldn't help wondering if Christmas cards will still be around when she is my age. I rather hope they are and that she gets one from someone much younger than herself.