My father always told me that as shortly as the last guest leaves a party thrown in your honor, to begin writing the thank-you notes right then and there. Everyone is fresh in your mind and the gratefulness that one gets after receiving a bevy of presents is still there inside of you for the next 24 hours, if you’re a good person! When individuals take the time and effort to go through the trouble of buying you a serious present, the least one can do is take their individual time and effort to publish them a kind note on a beautiful piece of personalized stationary, expressing their gratitude. It shows a lot of class and decorum on the gift receiver’s part to get them out straightaway.

Yet my mom can be a tad pushy, after my sister’s bridal shower, she was all over my sister like a bee on honey to get out her thank you notes. She had installed me, as the maid of honor, to make a neat list of all gifts taken in order to make it easier for my sister to publish all of her thank-you notes on time. She kept putting it off and placing it off until the unavoidable happened. She named my mom hysterically crying, claiming she lost the list of gift givers and their gifts that I had so thoughtfully wrote out for her and had no thought what to do. My mom took this as the perfect opportunity to launch into speech mode and tell all of us the meaning and obligation of keeping lists and remaining organized-not to mention writing thank-you notes within the future 24 hours of the party.

Eventually my sister found the list and each guest received a beautifully hand-written mark on a composition of my sister’s new, personalized stationary, but a very significant lesson was learned that day: always take heed to your mother because when all is said and done, they really do know greatest.

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