"No," I answer.

"Eventually our friends will scratch us off their lists," he gripes.

Compiling a list of names and addresses for holiday-card sending is right up there with cleaning out the hall closet. My uncle Bud's home address is still in my address book, and he died in 1978. Our friends who have divorced, remarried, divorced and remarried again still live with their first spouses in my address book.

And the lists don't end there.

I have e-mail lists and 14 years of tattered school rosters, all of which I have yet to assemble into one Big List. Heck, I'm still on the letter "C" for entering friends' phone numbers in my cell phone directory.

My friend has a list of addresses specifically for holiday-card mailings. If she doesn't receive a card from you that year, it's bye-bye. She's made an exception for her non-card sending friend -- me. She's afraid that if enough friends scratch us off their lists, we'll be cardless. So she vows never to scratch us.

Unfortunately, it's already happening. Last year I used the wire Christmas tree cardholder as a door ornament. One family in particular seems to have inked us out -- the Coxes.

It's just as well. It's not as if we plan to visit them in Alaska. Besides, I'd grown tired of reading their annual family newsletters -- about their travels all over the world and their perfect kids.

They need to find the period key and eliminate the exclamation point key.
<i>Greetings, Everyone!

James Sr. and I recently returned from Tuscany! We are proud to announce that Adam has earned a coveted spot on the U.S. Olympic ski team!

After an extensive evaluation, psychologists and educators have declared little James Jr. gifted!

And Susie made the finals on "American Idol"!

Happy Holidays!

The Cox family </i>

After they finally quit sending cards, it made me wonder why the Coxes kept us on their list for 20 years.

Each year when it came time to dispose of their photos, I felt guilty. For instance, the year they dressed all in white. There they sat atop driftwood, on a sandy white beach, the blue ocean in the background. Or the photo of them gathered around a roaring fire, the snowcapped mountains seen through a window. One year I even taped a photo of James Jr., on the refrigerator when he won his first spelling bee at age 3.

Today, when the mail came, I received several holiday cards. One from a realtor, one from a man running for political office and one from the Gap, offering $10 off my next purchase of $100 or more.
But still no card from my girlfriend who promises never to scratch us off her list. Maybe we've finally reaped what we've sown.

To find out more about Mimi Kopulos, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.
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