Boomerang Christmas Card, Part 1

Won Over By Reality

by Tim Bayer

WEBSTER NY—(Weekly Hubris)—12/6/10—Quick back-story: My friend, Kevin, has always taken delight in poking fun at my frugal lifestyle. I was invited to Kevin and Kim’s wedding and, as a wedding gift, instead of actually buying something, I shot and produced their wedding video. (It turned out to be the right choice anyway, as they loved the result.)

To keep the frugal stereotype alive, instead of purchasing a wedding card, I grabbed the Christmas card pictured below . . .

. . . and inscribed it as follows:

Joke over—or so I thought.

Apparently, my frugal ways had had an influence on Kevin and Kim. At Christmas, the card found its way back to Cherry Hill Lane. The every-other-year, back and forth continued until December 2005, when my search for the card produced nothing! I was HORRIFIED. I was upset at having lost the card and, of course, it wouldn’t be frugal actually to buy a new card. (I’m nothing if not consistent!) Depression began to set in.

Then, the magic of Christmas struck.

In early December, I opened my mailbox and, inside, was an envelope from Kevin and Kim—the card was not lost! The reason I hadn’t found it was that it had spent the year with Kevin and Kim. WhooHoooo! Here is the inscription when I got it back:

In December 2006, a quick Google Maps search of Kevin’s address produced an aerial photo. A little Photoshop work, and Kevin and Kim received the following warning inside “The Card”:

In 2007, the card boomeranged back to Webster—but it had been desecrated! The edge of the card had been bent over so it would fit in a standard, legal sized envelope. I laughed out loud when I saw the card and read the cramped inscription on its edge (“Like I’m gonna spend $ for two envelopes!”)

The reason for the legal-sized envelope was because Kevin and Kim used a legal-sized envelope to send out the family Christmas post-card picture. The family picture duly accompanied my trusty wedding/Christmas card:

It is interesting to me that, despite popular belief, frugal can be contagious!