So where you been?” asks no one in particular yet he uses this as a cliché intro to talk about a thing.

Skroode has been quiet for…a month? Really a month? I have to apologize for that. The life, she demands our time and this last month was an occasion where I had to answer the call.

This time of year is busy for a lot of people. A tradition in our house is The Christmas Card. Sometime back in 2003 we started making card to send. That year I reached a point where I was having a long arduous time finding any card I liked in the stores. I had been making cards for holidays for my wife long before we were married, so we decided to make our own.

So this is year 13 and every year since November means ‘time to come up with an idea’. So this year skroode took an unplanned short break as I pulled a card together from the “I guess this will work” idea to “Thank God it’s done” printing. It’s a simple ink/watercolor/pencil/whatever else is in arms reach affair.

The front:

christmas2015_front

Then of course, the inside:

christmas2015_back

We include a little image on the back, like the things you find on the cards in the stores as a small bonus joke. There was Discussion this year, as the first idea was judged “probably not quite right for many of the audience”:

christmas2015_b

I don’t think anyone wants to walk Great Great Aunt Ida through the humor there. So we went with:

christmas2015_a

Colored by the kids. They don’t realize it but this is so I can foist the whole thing off on them in five years.

So thanks for your patience. Things will be back on schedule after the holiday. In the meantime, here be the Christmas 2015 skroode.

If you are of the curious sort, here are the cards from 2008, 20092011, and 2012.