writing lessons from holiday letters

As I clean up after Christmas, I'm struck by the richness of teaching materials sitting in my card basket--those heaps of Christmas letters.  First lesson--don't make the family name plural with an apostrophe!! 

The greeting isn't from "The Simpson's"--it's from "The Simpsons."  Family names are pluralized in a pretty regular fashion:  one Smith, two Smiths, the Smith family; Ann Jones, the Joneses, the Jones family.  So simple. 

(njs)