What Do I Do With Them?

What do you do with 5 boxes of birthday cards? Yes, I have saved every card I have ever received over the last 7 or 8 years. I have to say I saved them since eternity, but I do remember weeding them out at the turn of the century. In cleaning out the closet, my husband plopped the boxes on my bed. I started with one box and was a mess and had to close up the others. Seriously, what do I do with them? Some cards are easy to throw out. If I can’t remember who “Chris” is or I don’t recognize a handwriting, why keep it? But it’s not those cards I’m talking about. Yes, I will keep all the Mother’s Day cards and handmade birthday cards from the girls, but that means I have to go through every card to find those. It’s the cards from him that I can’t throw out, but I can’t keep. It’s the flowery ornate Mother’s day cards where he writes that I am the most wonderful mother and that the girls are so wonderful because of me. It’s the anniversary cards the say “Grow Old Along with Me.” It’s the birthday cards that promise foot rubs and dinner. All empty because I never got that. He could talk the talk, but he couldn’t walk the walk. I do believe he thinks I am a wonderful mother. I get that. But the rest is empty. So do I throw them away? And if so, would someone come over (with a big friggin’ bottle of wine) and help me?

UPDATE: After crying over the boxes the first night and leaving them alone the next, I started in on weeding them down the next night. (Trash day the next day) I remembered two things. First, married or divorced we were thinking about moving and would have to be cleaning up such things. And two, if you looked at the stack of cards from my husband, you would think I was a heinous bitch because there were no cards from me. Is it because I didn't send him any over the years? Noooooooo! It's because he didn't save them. So why was I saving his? In the end, I saved a box of Mother's Day and Birthday cards from the girls and a box of letters from very dear dear people (godfather, teachers, students). I used the remaining hat boxes to hold my other stuff I need to move with me next month. And I feel great.