The Christmas Card Calamity

I have never been a giver of Christmas cards.  I didn't have those "acquaintences" that weren't close enough to require a gift but not scarce enough to warrant nothing.  Well this year there are a few people, my mom's soon-to-be-in-laws, friends of either mom's or dad's, my previous employer, Mark's boss and his wife, the preacher and his wife who handled Mikaela's service, these are all people that I wanted to send a little card to to say, hey, Merry Christmas, thinking of you.  Sweet and simple, right?

Fuck no.

See, I didn't really think this through when I started writing out the cards.

"From our family to yours-"

Simple.  Pleasant.  Heart-warming.  I like it.  I use it as a greeting, in every card.  It has a nice ring to it.  Then a sweet little hello and what-ya-know thing inside, hand-written of course.  Simple.  Pleasant.

Then I get to the signing of the card, and all hell breaks loose inside my brain.  See, this is where the calamity comes in.  Signing it "Mark, Sheila, and Ladybug" is nice, but I want to write a last name.  First names only seems so... Improper.  It's a somewhat formal thing, in my mind, to write out a family Christmas card.  I can't write out 3 different last names.  I don't go by my married name anymore, I use my maiden name.  Aleigh, of course, has her daddy's last name, and then Mark a last name of his very own (as these things usually go).  So my choices are, leave it first names only and informal and improper, or write out 3 first names followed by their respective last names.  That seems a little lengthy, wordy, time-consuming, and odd.  I mean, nobody else does that, do they?

"With love,
Jim Smith, Jane Doe, Junior Lastname"

Odd.  Lengthy.

Then, the hardest part.  I don't want to act like Mikaela did not exist.  However, I don't want people to get the wrong idea if I were to sign her name to the card as well.  What's the protocol for this?  If we were just the people who signed "The T***** Family" this wouldn't be a problem, but I am listing each household members first name, and I feel like by not including Mikaela's name and I am sending a message that I'm not thinking of her, that I don't want others to think of her, that she is in the past.  That's not the case what-so-ever.

What I also do not want, is to be that person that is "dwelling" on something that is, in fact, becoming the "distant past".  I don't want these people to read this card and feel awkward, or uncomfortable.  I don't want them to think I'm seeking their pitty or attention either.  I mean, is it appropriate to include a person's name on correspondence after they are deceased?  Not typically, but this would have been Butterfly's first Christmas and I would have been proudly inscribing her name on everything possible.  I don't have that opportunity.  Is it wrong to want to include her at least a little in something??!!

Ugh.

Never again doing Christmas cards. Never ever ever.

Bah-Humbug.

From Our Family To Yours - Merry Christmas!!!