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With every stack of greetings extracted from my mailbox, I hope for the best. Maybe the majority of those to whom we sent cards this year will receive our wishes by Tuesday. Yes, once again, I was in the line of procrastinators nervously hoping that the postmaster still had holiday stamps available just a day or two ago.

Each year, when I receive personalized photo greetings or special-order works of art, I vow to begin planning our family holiday cards in August. I have even gone as far as looking for our Santa caps while packing for the beach so we can all pose for our holiday family Christmas greeting photo in front of the majestic ocean.

In my family photo fantasy, the gentle breeze blows everyone's hair ever so slightly. Rosy, sun-kissed cheeks and bronze skin create movie-star appeal. Digging through the red and green plastic tubs in the depths of the attic, hoping to find the white faux-fur trimmed red felt caps, I just know we are on the path to our best-ever holiday cards.

After wasting hours looking for the holiday hats, I always give up. Arriving at the beach and slipping -- OK, stuffing myself -- into a bathing suit, I am comforted that our picture-perfect plan fell through. There was no way I was going to pose in a bathing suit and Santa hat for a picture that all the relatives and friends would receive in December. No need to ruin everyone's appetite at the height of the food season.

By September, I am convinced that a snapshot of the kids dressed in holiday duds is the way to go. Everyday I think about calling to schedule a photo session. By early October, I convince myself that I can take the photo myself and then upload it to the printer in time to order our holiday photo-cards.

You would think that I'd know by now that getting all three kids together in the same room at the same time in October is virtually impossible. Breakfast is the only meal for which my children show up at the same time when school, sports, band and other activities prevail.

Since my kids eat before they jump in the shower, a picture of them at breakfast might actually be scarier than a family photo that includes me in swimwear.

For a brief moment, I entertain the thought that we could be one of those people who sends everyone a photo of pets in front of a painting of a fire crackling in a fireplace, flammable stockings dangling dangerously from the mantel, and decorated tree with wrapped presents spilling forth just inches from the flame.

I have nothing against holiday pet photos. I just get the sense that if we went that route, everyone would think all of our children moved away and transformed into ungrateful "relatives" who barely keep in touch, unless they are strapped for cash.

By November, I am thinking a nice card stuffed with school pictures, for which we paid so dearly, is the way to go. It's the way we've gone for years. It's our tradition, really. It's what relatives and friends have come to expect.

Having settled the card dilemma, I cease to worry. That's when I begin to procrastinate. And that is why I find myself in line at the post office in the 11th hour, hoping I will not have to use Liberty Bell stamps again, fantasizing that next year I will upload a cute picture taken this Christmas to the post office Web site and order personalized holiday stamps to go on the personalized holiday cards I will make time to create next year.

I am comforted in the knowledge that I am not alone. When I did get my cards out a few days ago, I ran into a friend who had not yet begun writing hers. She said she is not worried. Her family and friends will not mind that they are late, as long as they don't arrive "postage due," like that one year.

And then there is my aunt, who wrote "Happy New Year" in all of her Christmas greetings one year. That was the year she didn't even begin working on them until Dec. 30. If memory serves, I believe that was the same year I called my grandmother to make sure she had not fallen ill after not receiving her holiday greeting. As it turned out, she was so busy bowling, attending craft classes and painting still life that she never got around to sending Christmas cards.

So you see, just because you haven't received a card from someone special just yet, you shouldn't assume that you have been overlooked. However, it is perfectly acceptable to conclude that life is just so hectic that the cards are simply late.

But they are in the mail.

Micki Bare is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C., and author of the book, "Relative Expressions." She lives in Asheboro with her husband and three children. Her e-mail address is mickibare@inspiredscribe.com.