I love mail, real mail, not electronic mail, though that is fun too but real paper in an envelope with a stamp mail that isn't a bill or junk.
The last couple of days have brought me some sweet letters and notes from friends and family in the form of good old 'thank you' notes. They arrive in my American mail box that I painted light brown with white and pale blue spots. They are hidden amongst the bills and junk but they are there. I love to come home and grab the mail from the box and bring it into the house, shuffling through it like every other person in the world. Bill, flyer, flyer, junk, oh, real letter!
I love them and read them while I'm standing at the hall table. I love them more if the card is pretty or comes in a colourful envelope. I am easily pleased really, as it isn't so much the contexts of the note as the fact that there is one in the first place.
I truly believe in the art of the 'thank you' note. Not just for presents but for other times too. Dinner parties, being helpful, a stay over. I try very hard to employ my children in this art as well. Boy Rooster was actually the first in the family to finish and seal up his 'thank you' notes which made me a bit suspicious but he swore that he had really written something in them. The fact that he addressed one of the notes 'To The Cousins', was disturbing. When I asked him if he really thought it would get there, he seriously asked what else he should put on the front. Not every child is made for higher education but if they can write a nice 'thank you' card, they are going to get somewhere nice in life.
I was very pleased to get a note from the daughter of a very good friend who I always give little gifts to. She is a teenager and I like to try to find her something humorous. This year it was a funny card full of Christmas scratch lotto cards. It was a great 'thank you' card as she won a bunch of pounds back!
Another card I got was to thank me for the Micheal McIntyre book I gave her. It was the second one she received but muchly appreciated anyway. I got two myself so know how she felt. It is very funny though.
So, time to go now and finish up my 'thank you' notes to friends and loved ones for their thoughtful gifts, drinks parties and such.
Happy New Year
An American mom living in the English countryside in an old listed property with her rooster and two chicks. The chicks are testing their teenage years on me and the rooster has a "farming" fancy now. There are three dogs, my feathered friends and a few other things wondering around the property...
I agree, thank yous are special.
ReplyDeleteI had a cunning plan this year; I got the babies to make extra cards when they were making their Christmas cards in Oct, Nov. (They made delightful line-drawn reindeers, some more abstract than others, with red pom-pom noses glued on.)
The extra cards I used as the thank you cards although it was still painful to get the writing bit done. All our thank-yous were sent before December was out! Wow, never been that efficient before!
I agree, there's NO excuse in my book not to send them. I get fed up when I pu tlots of effort into choosing, buying,wrapping, sendign presents, to get no reply. I htink it's just plain gd manners. Sadly it doesn't seem to b etaught as such any more. Iknow I sound ancient & prob am, I'm 44! Bu tthis isn't fashion, it's courtesy
ReplyDeleteLou, it sounds like you have started the New Year off on the right foot. What a great idea!
ReplyDeletePL in T, it does take so much effort to get, wrap and give the right gift. It is never too late to teach the young common courtesy.
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