“Writing letters” is one of those cultural divide topics between older and younger members of an audience. It’s the kind of thing that sounds strange, like getting internet minutes in a box of cereal or needing to return overdue VHS rentals to Blockbuster. But some people, like your hypothetical Gran-gran, love receiving letters since they are bursting with sentimental value.

But here’s the problem: We live in this wonderful digital age where our machines do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to writing, creative expression, and thinking in general. After years of relying on technology to compensate for your linguistic shortcomings, trying to write a letter by hand might feel like trying to run a marathon after spending an extended period of time on crutches.

So here’s a fun little challenge that’s great for the holidays: Write a letter to someone you love. Not a Hallmark card. Not an e-mail or a text or a Xweet. Ink on paper and then figuring out how to do something at a post office. Buy stamps and whatnot.

And then don’t be surprised when the carefully written letter full of love goes missing because USPS operates on a fire-and-forget system where they throw mail out into the ether and don’t actually track how much of it goes missing.