General Chat

you don't speak to throughout the year? Old friends of parents or just people from your youth that send a card or letter at Christmas but no other time?

I am struggling with this years letter, as it's been a very 'domestic' year, no weddings ( and fortunately no funerals) in the family, no house moves or holidays. I am boring myself silly reading it, let alone anyone else ;-)

Hello RamblingRose,

No, I cant be bothered.
I moved earlier this year, so, don't expect I will get hardly any xmas cards, or send any ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

George :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

no never do one have enough trouble writing cards let alone a round robin letter lol.

just to one long time friend and it's just relevant to her

I hate those round round robin letters - my sister always does them and they are horrendous - as my sister hasn't spoken to me for over six years I no longer get them - yippee!!!!

I have a friend who always sends me one and it speaks about people and places I have no knowledge of so I usually just bin it on arrival

another acquantance used to send one that was more ike a medical report - she had so many illnesses and took so much medication over about forty years for goodness knows what - she eventually died about 80 years old!!!!

I don´t because it´s was never something that I got into.I tend to write individual letters and I don´t do the *Oh it´s Xmas* better get in touch thing. As I always sent very few cards and even less now (relying on e-cards) I don´t have to write much.

I do think that is going to change because of mother dear, as I will have to contact so many people for her, that I will do a round robin letter to everybody but that will not just be at xmas (I hope)

lol Ann I hope mine aren't as bad as that ( I've been told they're not) but I know what you mean. I have an 'acquaintance' shall we say, that sends them full of her and family's achievements every year, where they've been on holiday, how much they have seen and done, guaranteed to make one feel totally inferior :-D

Uzzi, I started doing it when my mum couldn't write any more, and it's 'stuck', they are largely to people I have never even met. :-D

I actually write a mixture. Some personal to people who I genuinely like to keep in contact with, old friends and cousins, old neighbours (we have moved a bit). Then I do a brief catch up round robin type with family news and a brief bit of chat. I love to get even the round robin type because I like to know what has gone on in friend's lives, even if it is only once a year they are still friends and important to me. I do round robin, or duplicated type letters because to do individual would take too long, having moved a lot we left friends in each area. I don't find any correspondence from people boring, I am just pleased that I have friends who want me to know what they are doing in their lives. :-)

Trouble is, I find I feel obliged to send 'news' to friends who take the trouble to send me their news. I cannot be doing with those who send out typed epistles of what they've done throughout the year, including much of the the minutiae of their lives, which doesn't really interest me. Also, those friends who boast about their children's/grandchildren's achievements - yawn!

I would just like to say ' Hope all's well with you and yours. We're all fine, just another year older'. If there's been a marriage, birth or something dramatic/sad, I might also mention that, but briefly and written in my own hand.

Gawd, have I got to do that all over again - seems I only did it a few weeks ago.

Bah, humbug :-( ;-) :-D

Ann, we've moved a lot also, and I do like to know how people are getting on even if it is only a short note. I do a basic copy of the things I'll be telling 'everyone' and then personalise them before printing. Used to handwrite them but I'm out of the habit now and just wouldn't have the patience ( or the handwriting!).

I hate the 'round robin' ones too, I always thinks they're a tad pretentious. I did do a newsletter one Xmas (2005) as we'd had a particularly busy and interesting year, I sent it to the 2 people who always send me one plus a couple of other old friends. I wouldn't do one now as it would bore folks to death.... :-D.

Nope. My true friends I keep in touch with via e-mail or text all year round.

Someone we know occasionally sends this sort of catch-up thing about his life as we are in his e-mail address book. It is self-centred and totally boring and totally uninteresting. I realise that this doesn't apply to them all. The only other person I knew who did this, I have long lost contact with. She was a lovely person on the other side of the world who I never met, but lived in a totally different social and financial world to us. When they bought their latest new boat and wrote about how it was being kitted out and how their house extension doubled the size of the house and added a whole new floor and their planned sailing around the world.... well there was no bragging or upmanship but I think they just didn't realise that some of us don't have the same standard of living and having so much wealth constantly coming at you when you are in the lower end of employment, kind of made me not want to keep in touch. I wasn't jealous so don't accuse me of that, but there was just too much difference between us. And as Wend says, all the news about their kids and their wealth and success.

I just can't send out that sort of stuff because I hated receiving it.

just remembered - my lovely OH was in Pendyrus Male Choir and they did lots of overseas tours, quite a few to the States. The one US tour they did went to Niagara and they were hosted everywhere they went.. The family Lawrence stayed with had about twelve children, some their own and the rest adopted and all the adopted ones were different nationalities. They sent a Christmas card with a round robin letter with a piece written by each one of the family - every one had done something "worthy" and they all felt "very blessed" - they all did charity work and excelled at every subject they studied. Well we had these for a few years and then my OH sadly died but the card kept coming, along with the round robins, in spite of the fact that I had told them Lawrence had died.

I had never met these people, although I was grateful to them for accommodating him for a few days. Well in spite of me writing twice to tell them he had died they would not cease and the final straw came when the letter included a piece "written" by the family dog, a black labrador called Velvet!!! That was it - I had already told them I found it upsetting to receive these cards and letters so I put it in black and white and told them never to send me another one and they never did!!

I had visions of this saintly too good to live family loading up a truck at Christmas time with sacks of these letters to send all over the world

No, I don't write ONE letter to all. Maybe it's because I have worked in offices, but this kind of letter reminds me of a "Memo to All Staff" - inter-office memo - and to get one tucked inside a Christmas card, makes me feel a little insulted that I should be considered as one of many, rather than as an individual.

:-D Ann , sorry to laugh but at least I've never added any comments from the dog, wonder what our gerbil might say though lol..... "boring here, fed up with the wheel never gets me anywhere, they never give me enough sunflower seeds and I swear those 'chocolate' buttons are getting smaller" :-D

from what I recall the dog related his house guarding duties!!! sad innit!!!!

Dear Everyone

We have adopted 3 Siamese kittens this year. They came from Lampeter and speak Welsh. John takes them for a walk every morning and listens to Beethoven through his headphones.

We had lovely holidays in Porthcawl and Tenby this year. Rained incessantly.

John is in his final year of work and is looking forward to his retirement when he hopes to travel and spend more time on GR Community Chat Board.

Hope you have a lovely Christmas. Look forward to hearing your news <3 <3

shove off John :-D

My cousin and I used to exchange handwritten annual letters, to pass on family news. My mum and her mum (sisters) rarely spoke to each other, but wanted to know what the others family was up to. :-)

We tend to send cards to people we are already in contact with on a regular basis - no need to do a Christmas round-up.

AnnC :-D Will send you my full version. 10 pages, with a personalised start and finish. My daughter has just spent £90 on her guinea pig at the vets. That is only one of the many highlights :-D