As I glanced at my kitchen calendar this morning, I noticed I forgot my cousin Daniel’s birthday last week.  Sorry Daniel!  I usually like to send cards to people for their birthdays but have recently found myself settling for leaving messages on a Facebook wall or sending a super poke full of balloons.  If I’m feeling really industrious, I might seek out an e-card with songs and animation.

But this doesn’t seem quite right to me, like it’s not putting enough effort into making sure those I love get their well wishes.  Part of the problem is that my mother places great importance on the sending of cards for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, sorry your cat scratched you…you get the picture.  The other part, though, is that she’s right-I love getting cards and notes in the mail, even if I only look at them long enough to see who sent it then toss them into the recycling bin.  Of course, a more personal note included is even more lovely (Thanks, Rach!) but sometimes, I find myself at a complete loss for what words to say.  For a while, Ben and I were making our own cards through the magic of PhotoShop and Word and sending those out, which was fun and I think people enjoyed.  Ben lost interest though, and he doesn’t think the ones I make are entertaining, which makes me lose interest and so those cards just don’t seem to be getting made now.

So what do you think?  Do you still like getting cards and/or notes in the mail on occasion?  Do a million “happy birthdays” lined up on your social networking walls give you that same little smile that opening up a piece of personal mail does?  Or does recognizing your birthday do nothing for you at all and you could do without any of the above?

I’m not trying to make a list of people’s preferences, per se, just wondering where we all stand on the oh-so-pressing issue of sending greetings in this online world we live in.