To Say Thanks...

We seem to live in a world where complaining is easy, but saying "thank-you" is done less and less. Maybe it is because I spent years in customer service or as an administrative assistant or maybe it is because I am trying to be true to what I feel, but I try to tell people when I appreciate a job well done or when a kindness touched me.


As I mentioned on Monday, we had a fabulous Easter Sunday at the home of some friends and I've been wanting to find a little something to give to the hostess to let her know how much we appreciated her opening her home to our family. It occurred to me that the bright dish towels I found earlier today, combined with a candle in a coordinating color, were just the perfect Spring something. When I knew she'd be stopping by late in the evening to pick up her daughter, I put everything together with a card letting her know how much fun we had and surprised her with it when she arrived at our door. I can only hope she feels even a little bit as special as she made our family feel last weekend.

What do you think? Do you give little gifts when you can? Does it make you feel special to receive little gifts? How do you say thank you?

Thank You Letters

Do you write thank-you letters? Do you have your children write thank-you letters? We write thank-you letters in our house whenever we receive gifts. I was raised that it was just the polite thing to do. Sometimes it takes a heck of a lot of badgering to get the kids to write their thank-yous and other times, they shock the heck out of me. This year, Buttercup decided to shock us all by getting her thank-you's written on the 26th! That means she got them done well before I did. Can you believe it? A nine-year old voluntarily writing all her thank-you's the day after Christmas? I was stunned. Not so stunned that I didn't encourage her to lord it over her brothers in the hopes that competition would do some of the hard work for me. Unfortunately, that didn't work - darn it!

So, while I was shown up by my 9-year old daughter (I am sooo proud!), I, too, am done with my thank-you's. She used fairy stationary she found in her room and I used these awesome Olliephant notecards that the awesome Penny at Sew Take a Hike made up. I added the "Thank You" with a rubber stamp. I even made my own envelopes with Penny's template. Aren't they cute? So, if you're keeping score, the ladies in the Nagle household are done with their thank-yous. Men?