Writing a Christmas Letter: Of Christmas Past, Present and Future

Writing a Christmas Letter

Every year I sit down to begin writing a Christmas letter to enclose in the Christmas card I send out to friends, family and past clients.  In the letter we mention some of the years activities and include an update about our three daughters.  At the end of the letter I usually tag on some encouragement for the New Year.

My husband and I have reached our mid 50’s and should be looking backward at a string of past accomplishments and forward at a secure and peaceful retirement.  Both of us enjoy working so we were never canidates to retire at 55. But the thought of retiring at 65 had crossed our minds.  Instead we are looking a a future where we may never retire in the traditional way.  Because of changes in the real estate market, the two of us anticipate working our way through retirement.

My oh my how things have changed from a decade ago.  Our future was so bright “we had to wear shades” to envision it. Now we are embracing a future where we will be working far past the horizon we had anticipated.

Many of my clients now face uncertain financial futures.  I am working with sellers who see there entire financial future “wrecked” by a fickle real estate market.  Clients who should be looking forward to years of peaceful retirement will now, like me, be working their way through those golden years.  In Home Depot I was served by a gentleman who was many years my senior.  It was both a surprise and a glimpse of a future for my generation.

Ecclesiastes 3

 1 There is a time for everything,

   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 2 a time to be born and a time to die,

   a time to plant and a time to uproot,

 3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

   a time to tear down and a time to build,

 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

   a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

 6 a time to search and a time to give up,

   a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 7 a time to tear and a time to mend,

   a time to be silent and a time to speak,

 8 a time to love and a time to hate,

   a time for war and a time for peace.

 

 9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.