Saturday, December 12, 2009

....across the room to say THANK YOU....

CHRISTMAS! What a celebration! Everybody wants to be in on the festivities and many who don't even believe in the real reason for this celebration get completely absorbed in the giving and receiving of this special season. Personally I am amazed at the way the people of our city get involved to make sure everyone has a special Christmas by donating food and gifts to be distributed by various organizations.
Most of my gifts have been sent by now and I have been the recipient of a few gifts myself by now. That brings me to the reason for this post. Some months ago we sent a wedding gift because we had not been able to attend the wedding. It was a gift of money. A month or so later I realized we had not heard from these people by way of a telephone call or a thank you note. Since we had just received a call from a charitable organization we had donated to six months ago to inform us they received the cheque just that day I began to wonder if our gift had been received by this couple. I contacted them to find out that they did not receive it. A few days later a very tired looking envelope ended up in our mail box. It looked like someone had used it as a coaster for their coffee cup! In fact it looked so bad I had to buy a new card to send the gift again. That is one reason we need to send thank you notes but not the main reason. I don't know how many gifts I have sent by now and never received a thank you of any kind. I'm left to wonder whether the gift was ever received and I can't help but wonder if it was even appreciated. The gift I received yesterday was a good reminder of how much time a friend will invest in finding something really special, wrapping it in pretty paper and sending it to my house. A gift of money is someone saying "I want to give you something you would really like, so here is some money so that you can choose it for yourself". Whether it is a gift of money or a gift chosen by someone I think it deserves to be acknowledged. There is no substitute for a hand written note (everyone loves mail!) but a telephone call is a great way of thanking your family and friends as well!
May you enjoy the gift of giving and receiving and let's all remember to say "THANKS"!

1 comment:

Jobina said...

will do Mom, will do.