There are some people, I find, who are very good at writing thank you letters, there are others who are not.
I fall very much in the second camp, which I’m not at all proud of but would not be such a cause of shame if only my friends were all in the camp with me.
Sadly, they’re not. I have several girlfriends who are so prompt at writing thank yous that if you invite them round for dinner the letter arrives almost before they’re out of the door.
However, there’s one couple in particular who are notoriously good – or bad, depending on how you look at it. They’re renowned for it. The kind of people you’re almost embarrassed to have over – and certainly embarrassed when you’re invited back.
For the past years, they’ve been safely over in Australia so the problem has not occurred, but last year they moved over here and we suddenly have to confront the fact that we inhabit different worlds when it comes to writing thank yous.
All is fine for the first couple of times because they come to our house, but then the promised return invitation arrives – and my mind is already on the thank you letter before we have even got there.
Anyway, we have a great night, we go home, I make a mental note to write a full and proper thank you letter the next day and…well, you know the rest. It is always top of tomorrow’s list of things to do and that is where it stays.
After a while, it gets to the point that it’s embarrassing – and at this point, I should say that they have only gone and made a bad situation worse by sending us a letter thanking us for coming!
A mere card will no longer do – unless I manage to get the postmark backdated and blame Royal Mail for its late arrival. (Seriously, why don’t Royal Mail offer this as a service to all of us tardy present-givers/letter-writers?)
And then one night I am sitting at home on my computer (I know, I know - I should probably be writing letters) when I come across the perfect solution on India Knight’s Posterous blog; personalised M&Ms.
You can now buy packets of them with you choice of message (or even a picture) printed on the individual sweets. And so that’s what I do – I order a packet of M&Ms with Thank You on half of them and Love Mandy on the other and send them to them.
And I can at last relax. Well, I could because almost before they have dropped through their door, my phone rings and it’s them thanking me for the wonderful thank you present…
Click here to order personalised M&Ms...