The cards that arrived yesterday were still on the table in the entryway and I put the new arrivals down in the same spot, pausing to look at some of the pictures friends had sent of their families.
I noticed, next to some of the cards, a small, attractive little picture frame holding a picture of a nice-looking couple and their two children. I had no idea who they were. This happens sometimes. I will stare at a Christmas card family picture for a good long time doing my best to recognize a face and remember a name but it won’t come to me. Lucy will come in and pick it up and say, “Oh, honey, I can’t believe you don’t remember them. That is Roland and Gertrude Frankentoot and their kids, Conrad and Brenda. Remember, Roland was my college roommate’s sister’s uncle’s father’s cousin from Baltimore. You met them five years ago when we ran into them in the airport in Paris. Surely you remember?” Umm…yeah. Sure.
But I don’t and she can’t believe it and so when I saw this picture next to all the other cards I was determined to figure it out on my own before she came in and had to tell me. I spent several moments looking at it, even carrying it over to a window where the light was better. I was thinking that whoever sent this had gone to a lot of trouble, mailing it in a little frame and all. It was at this point my wife came in and asked me what I was looking at. I was determined to at least take a guess so I held up the framed picture and said, “Isn’t this that family in Seattle we always hear from at Christmas?” Lucy came over, looked at the picture, and started to laugh. She said, “Honey, that is the picture that came with the frame. I got the frame yesterday and just haven’t had a chance to put one of our pictures in it.” And then I noticed, in tiny little print at the bottom of the photo, the words, “Place Photo Here – © 2006 Hallmark Cards.”
I’m making an appointment with the optometrist.
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