The Missing Christmas Cards

Looking for misplaced items in the house.

Most things in our home “have a place” but occasionally it will take me awhile to notice something is missing.

Like recently after reading that a favorite quote of Mr. Rogers is from The Little Prince — “L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux” — (What’s essential is invisible to the eye), I remembered how much I love that book and thought I should read it to my children, ages 10 and 7.

But it was not located on my shelf, in alphabetical order as it should have been. No need to panic; I have books stored all over the house and sometimes by genre or aesthetic on a particular shelf. I quickly located my copy of The Little Prince, worn from having read it so many times.

Recently though, the Christmas Cards were another story.

Every year since my husband and I were married, going back to 2006, I have sent out Christmas Cards. When the season is over, I take the card, punch in two holes, and add them to rings to create a “flip book” of our family Christmas Cards. They are stored in a black-and-white wooden box in the basement, which is also where the kids sleep.

I went to retrieve the cards, thinking I might like to look through them. The family photos have had a variety of photographers and locations over the years, and I thought I might like to reminisce over prior years.

I opened the box and there were no cards.

I asked the kids if they had taken the cards out to look at them, and forgotten to return them to their place. Both shook their heads no.

It was entirely possible that they had looked at the cards months ago and just not returned them, since I rarely pull them out myself. I demanded that the kids scour their rooms looking for the cards, including looking under the bed (which opened and entire new can of worms in what was found). No cards.

I looked under the nearby furniture — couch, dresser, and bookshelf. I looked in a cabinet where we store other photo albums, wondering if they had been mistakenly put in the wrong spot. No cards.

Feeling slightly panicked, I emphasized to the kids that we had to find the cards. That I would have no possible way of…