One of our coworkers recently shared with us an interesting blog post from Mental Floss.  As you can probably tell, we’ve been thinking about Christmas cards for many months now.  So, today I thought we’d take a step back at look at how the tradition of sending a Christmas card first started.

According to the Mental Floss post, the first commercial Christmas card was sent by London’s Sir Henry Cole in 1843.   Sir Cole asked his friend, John Callcott Horsley, to paint a card with an image and a brief greeting.  The card, which featured the greeting “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You” replaced the individual Christmas greetings that Sir Cole and others regularly send to friends and family during the holidays, and that was the beginning of a long-standing tradition.

By 1875 mass-printed cards had almost completely replaced hand-written greetings in both Europe and the United States, and over 2 billion Christmas cards are currently sent each year!

With the 2008 Summer Olympics beginning next week, now is the perfect time to teach your kids all about the cherished tradition, the history of the games and all the fun sports they may not already know about. You could even find Beijing on a world map together, look up kid-friendly articles about the Olympics in National Geographic Kids or create some homemade flags and streamers to wave while you watch the games at home.

To really get in the spirit of the games, throw a Summer Olympics Party! You can easily transform these patriotic summer party invitations to reflect your Olympic theme. Then, set up fun relay races for kids and parents alike, and hand out ribbons and homemade medals to all the participants. Head over to the park and try pairing classic games like three-legged races, marshmallow eating contests and limbo with traditional track and field contests like the long jump, a Frisbee shot put toss and a team relay race.

By highlighting the fun of Olympic sports, the history of the games and the amazing way that athletes from all over the world come together for one spectacular event, you might just inspire your little ones to run, jump or shot put for the stars!

Did you know that 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day? The first Mother’s Day was celebrated by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia at the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church. On that day, Jarvis passed out more than 500 carnations to each mother in the congregation – a white carnation was worn to honor deceased mothers and a pink one to honor a living mother. This custom quickly caught on and spread throughout the country and in 1914 President Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day as a day to honor mothers whose sons had died in war.

Today, Mother’s Day has expanded into a day where we honor all of the mothers in our lives. This can extend beyond our “moms” to our grandmothers, mother-in-laws and any other inspirational women who have made an impression on us.

How do you plan to honor all the moms in your life this Mother’s Day?