The power of an address book
I still send old-fashioned Christmas cards. Why? Because they are fun to receive, pretty to display, and they are a wonderful break from all the bills that arrive in December.
They also give me a chance to go through my address book and bring it up-to-date, recording new addresses of friends and family who have moved, updating cell phone numbers, and adding new kids to the listings.
This year, I finally bit the bullet and threw out all my old address books. I went through each and every one, bringing over the addresses of people I'm still in touch with, and people I wanted to get back in touch with. The newest book is on the left. The further I moved to the right, the more nostalgic I got. There were a lot of names to be scratched out: elderly relatives who have since passed away, friends of my parents and parents of my friends who are also gone now. Then there were the people who have moved a dozen times over the years, so I had to ensure I had the most recent addresses for them. The pink book on the end is from my high school and university days. I found my old college roommates' information (now decades out of date). I had friends that had migrated from the pink book to the red one that I could not for the life of me remember, but they'd obviously made the cut at some point. It was nice to remember (when I could) but those old names and addresses are ancient history now.
I also took a minute to update my new address book by writing down the phone numbers and email addresses stored in my contacts list on my phone. I don't have them all, but I have enough that I can contact a few people, and then branch out with the information they give me if I ever lose my phone. I should probably backup my contacts list to my computer before the end of the year too.
Take a minute to back up - or print out - your own contacts list from your phone. Cards are cheap ($2 a box at a dollar store). Postage costs a little more. But next year, you might want to consider stepping back in time to when Christmas cards were a thing. Sometimes the old ways have more value that you'd think.