A story about the subtle dilemma of whether or not to stop sending New Year's cards.

In our household, we print about 50 photo-inclusive New Year's cards on the computer every year, write messages on them, and send them out. However, for about two years now, the thought that 'maybe it's time to stop this tradition' has been crossing my mind.
In fact, several acquaintances have already declared that they are stopping.

I am the type who relatively believes that 'traditions should be passed down without dying out',
and I am aware that I have a slightly off-putting seriousness, the kind where a classmate in high school would say to me, 'Chiko, you're kind of like NHK.'

During lunch break, I was the high school girl who would collect the empty 500ml paper cartons from my classmates, wash them at the sink, dry them in the classroom, open them up, take them home, and put them out for recycling,
taking pleasure in the idea that I was contributing to the preservation of the global environment. It's gross, even to me. Haha.

But since even someone as serious as me is considering abolishing New Year's cards, it must be a significant issue.

This year, I actually posted them on Wednesday, January 10th... yesterday.
It was so late that the 'New Year's cards here' sign on the mailbox was already gone.
It's at the level where people would laugh at me for sending them so late, but I posted them while swallowing my shame. This guilt itself is 'troublesome thing number one'.

Looking back,
I remember being able to send them on time in 2021, I think.

Perhaps it was because I was eager to use a family photo taken at Adventure World in Wakayama, a zoo famous for its pandas, for the New Year's card.

The reason I was so eager was because,
my husband's grandmother passed away in 2020, the year our eldest daughter was born, so we couldn't send out New Year's cards in 2021.
So, I really wanted the relatives who hadn't been told about the 'birth of our third child' to see our youngest daughter, especially the older brothers and sisters of my mother-in-law who passed away in 2017.

Because our eldest daughter has looked exactly like my mother-in-law since she was born, to the point where you'd want to shout, 'Mother-in-law!? Did you happen to be reincarnated?!'

And, one year ago.
For the 2023 New Year's cards, we had completely lost the energy to make them because our family caught COVID one after another at the end of 2022. However, I remember desperately replying to the cards we received. I think I managed to get them in the mailbox by around the third day of the New Year.

Since it only happens once a year, I forget, but
troublesome thing number two is failing at printing the New Year's cards and wasting several of them.

Also, the despair and emptiness when a card comes back saying it couldn't be delivered because I didn't properly update the address for someone who moved. But I've done the same thing, so there's also guilt.
This feeling is troublesome thing number three.

Now, this year.
I should have been relatively free in the latter half of December, but perhaps I was restless because I had too many things I wanted to do, and on top of that, I spent the end of the year working hard on deep cleaning (though all I did was throw away shoes and tidy up the entrance), so I ended up just buying the New Year's cards in December.

I had intended to create and write them right at the beginning of the year, but I was bedridden with a headache from the evening of New Year's Day, and I didn't feel like myself until around the 5th, so I could only do the bare minimum.

And then, late on the night of January 8th, the last day of the three-day weekend, after the children were fast asleep, I finally created the New Year's cards on Canva.

I had run out of some ink, and the scale wasn't set correctly, so I failed at printing three times.
Even though they can be exchanged for 5 yen each, it's a waste. It drains my energy.

Furthermore, I used to print the addresses and names with a printer, but I'm afraid of failing and wasting them, so I've been handwriting the addresses for the past year. I'm disgusted by how inefficient we are. But that's troublesome thing number four.

This time, I bought 30 cards, being stingy and thinking I would only send them to those who sent me one, but I realized I didn't have enough.
Ah~ come to think of it, on New Year's Eve, the kids used a few to draw something to send to Grandpa and their cousins, ah~

And I bought more on Tuesday, January 9th.
I was surprised they were still at the post office.
Not being able to predict the right number to buy is also troublesome thing number five.

Having said that, having said that...

When I receive New Year's cards, I'm still very happy, and when they have photos, I feel nostalgic and sense the children's growth, and I deeply feel that they are a good thing.

And while writing the messages,
the time I can spend thinking about the other person
is a rich time, I think.
Even if we haven't met in a long time, the feeling of wanting to see them and wishing them well.
If I feel it in my heart, I want to convey it, and I thought that in times like these, I must convey it.

In the end, I bought even more and wrote to relatives I hadn't received one from but felt I should send one to, and to friends I didn't want to lose touch with.

It also became a time to re-evaluate the relationships I want to maintain in my life.

I've started to feel that if I just prepare properly with enough time to spare, the hassles mentioned in 1 through 5 might be resolved.
Ah, above all, peace of mind is so important...

I think I'll add this to my list of 100 things I want to do in 2024.