Kathy does almost all the work for Christmas, but the job of getting the Christmas cards out the door falls on me. There is a creative process and a production process. It seems like every year there is more technology involved than the year before.

A few weeks before Christmas we all start talking about what might be on the card. Once we get an idea narrowed down, everyone is invited to offer creative input. This year, Kelly and Claire helped finalize the content with Kathy and Danny offering a critical eye. Alas, Nicole was trapped in Athens working at the UPS store.

Stout is the newest (and smallest) member of the family, so he got the focus.

Tools & Materials:

AppleWorks Database. Holds names and addresses. It has a list view for auditing and an Avery label view. I incorporate a graphic from the card into the label view.

Office Depot Labels: 1″ x 2 5/8″. OD2100. ((Avery 8160.)

HP 930C printer.

HP 45 (Black) and 78 (tri-color) ink. The process typically involves a reload somewhere in the middle. We were near 0% on ink when we started.

AppleWorks Drawing. Holds the card template. 2 pages, one for front and one for back.

iPhoto (Mac). Holds our library of photos. We exported the photo of Clyde and Stout.

Graphics Converter (Mac). Used for resizing graphics and doing light touch up.

PaintShop Pro (Windows.) Used for more complex graphics manipulation. A poor man’s Photoshop.

Microtek ScanMaker X6. Used to scan in hand sketches and the family photo that Mom gave us. This is the professional photo hanging on Mom’s wall that she took a picture of with her Canon digital and had printed at Sam’s.

The new range is in, and Kathy has had more fun using the new features than I have getting a new Macintosh. One of the features is a digital probe. The probe has a large stereo plug (as in headphones) on one end and a pointy metal probe on the other end. One end goes in the top of the oven at the front. The other end is inserted into the unroasted beast.

We had a little mini-Thanksgiving dinner last night, featuring a probed and then roasted beast. Kathy set the desired target temperature, and the oven cooked until the temperature was achieved. The advantage is that you neither overcook or undercook using the digital probe.

I’m amazed the rubber coated probe cable didn’t melt. Stout was amazed at the large window where he could watch the cooking process.

Stout has watched every step of installing the range. I think it all appeals to his instincts as a terrier to go under ground looking for critters. His favorite part was helping me reach under the installed stove to hook up the electricity and gas lines. I spent much more time doing this than I wanted because we had a leak. Turns out the instructions that said “apply teflon tape or putty to all male threads” left out the key phrase: “except flared threads.” The flared connections rely on the pressure created by the flare to make the seal, and the putty actually worked against this pressure, allowing a leak.

Kathy, Claire, and I are now professional tile cutters and installers, too. We had to cut 2 1/2″ tiles to go along the back of what is a deeper range than the one we had before.

I’m also now a hack carpenter, because the cabinets had to be cut 1″ wider, and because this is a slide-in range (vs drop-in), I had to cut out the bottom parts.

The other crisis was that the gas pipe Danny and I installed had to be moved over three inches because the back leg of the stove wanted to go where the pipe was. I had failed to see the allow 3″ gap in the install instructions we had copied off the internet. Fortunately the way we put the pipes together, it was pretty easy to drill a new hole and swing the pipe into the new position.