.a kind of Christmas card.........

A blip today for my friend kip.
He's a fan of UK stamps so I couldn't resist this one today, the second class special Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamp.

We still have the snow, every thing is frozen and I was up at 6.15 to scrape the ice off the car so the Boss and the Daughter could get to work. Then I sneaked back to bed for a couple of hours (but don't tell anyone or they'll think I'm going soft). I also scraped the Boss's car tonight so she could go to the supermarket. It hasn't moved for three days so it was pretty icy, but the two of them are having a bit of a party at work so they decided their contribution was to be chocolate Rice Krispie cakes. Did we have any chocolate, or Rice Krispies , or cake cases? No we did not so off they went.

We usually go away for a few days before Christmas with our friends D & V and B & S, last year was Barcelona. We decided against it this year, trying to save for the new baby, but the others went off to Zurich. Got a text this morning.........they're stranded, flight last night cancelled, hoping to get a flight tonight at 9.10! Got another text tonight at 8.30, they're at the gate.....but no plane available! Don't know when they'll be back, but we have a meal for 8 booked for Thursday evening and at the moment there's only 4 of us going to make it!

Today's strange Christmas fact............Why we send Christmas cards.

In the 18th century it was the tradition to send hand written letters to family, friends and aquaintances every year, and the postal rate was 4 pence per item.
Sir Henry Cole was vexed by this tradition and asked his friend John Horsley of the Royal Academy to design a simple Christmas greeting card, also in 1840 the first postage stamp (the Penny Black) was introduced reducing postage cost to 1 penny per item. In the 1860's a cheap method of colour printing was developed and in 1870 a special half penny postal rate for cards was introduced and the Christmas card took off. They weren't universally popular, a letter to the Times in 1877 condemned them as "a social evil", but they were here to stay.

Das vidanya until tomorrow.