the thank you note process
We recently closed a huge chapter in our lives…and can all breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Every Single Thank You Note Related to Maya’s Birthday Has Been Mailed.
Maya wanted to celebrate her birthday with people more important than her parents, so we headed to Madame Tussaud’s where we hung out with Albert….
Think I’m being dramatic? I’m really not.
And if you had to follow up to make sure your 10-year-old executed 30 grammatically acceptable thank you notes, you’d understand why.
A very pretty girl named Anne…
So this process really shouldn’t have been so hard. Especially since I basically handed Maya all the information on a silver platter.
1. I compiled a list of every gift and the gift giver’s name.
2. I provided the address of every gift giver.
A really tall guy who plays basketball (sorry I have no idea who this is)…
All Maya had to do was create the note, address the envelope, slap a stamp on it, and place it in the outgoing mail.
Here was the problem though: Maya remained in LA on Spring Break for 10 additional days after I returned to NYC for work.
That meant that by default, Ali had to guide this process along.
Some guy from Mad Men (sorry I don’t know who this guy is either)….
Which obviously meant that the entire process came to a standstill.
Why, you ask?
How could the process possibly be stalled when I’d provided all the necessary pieces of information in my very detailed, well-formatted, and thorough list?
A Bollywood star…
Well because I FAILED TO LEAVE ALI AND MAYA 30 ENVELOPES.
An of course there isn’t a single store in Los Angeles that sells those.
And my hero Steven.
In conclusion, getting Maya’s thank you notes out the door was as difficult as brainstorming a solution for Ali’s coat.
Since I’m trying to look at the bright side, however, I’m pleased to report that Maya’s notes are in the mailbox and NOT on the floor.
So, there’s that.
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 
Oh the Thank you Notes, I remember getting the Glams to do those – IMPOSSIBLE!! Only 10 days is pretty good. Now it’ll be counting down to Christmas Thank yous!! 😉 GG
It was almost impossible! Maya sure made it that way….
Wow I want there for my 17th Birthday. London. Happy Birthday to beautiful Maya. Hopefully she will be able to continue with the celebrations with Haagen Dazs in London😀
Maya wanted to go to Madame Tussaud’s in London, but she had to settle for the NYC version. 🙂
Lol. Ok next time hopefully.
I used to be obsessed about the kids writing thank you notes, but recently I’ve noticed no one else does it and it didn’t seem worth the endless pain. ParentFail, but one on a long list…!
Don’t feel bad…we all have our own Parent Fail. For me, it’s plural (FAILS).
Sounds about right!! The pictures were fantastic and so distracting! I loved this entry.
Thanks FIP! And thanks for reading.
Ugh! Getting my kids to write thank you notes is always painful but is one of those life skill/lessons I want them to learn. My teenagers reaction to putting pen to paper would make you think I was asking them to sharpen a quill and unroll parchment but hopefully they will learn a mass umail isn’t always the way to go.
*email
I laughed out loud at this one…quill and parchment paper! I love it.
I usually get text thank yous…Ali tells me I should stop expecting anything else!
Omg you made her write the addresses too? It would take us a full year.
I wrote the addresses out…she just had to copy them onto an envelope! Not too bad, right?
Well, they’re done- – I guess that’s something!! I confess I never wrote a thank you note until I was 18. I’d never even heard of the concept before then (apparently I was raised a barbarian). This is a great skill for Maya to have 🙂 I had to laugh at the lack-of-envelopes roadblock, though — that sounds exactly like something Peter would do!
Completely unnecessary roadblock, as they usually are when Ali is involved! Sorry you have a clone of my husband. 🙂
Thank you notes suck! Haha. It took us three months to write our wedding ones and that was after a lot of pushing from our parents.
I think the wedding notes took us a year…and the one’s Ali was responsible for? I don’t even know if those actually went out. 😦
Growing up in a different culture (Europe) it was enough to Thank a person or call to Thank a person. You didn’t have to write a note thanking them again. Personally I hate them and then I am not sure if I should write a Thank You note for the Thank You note. Somehow I think this American phenomenon is to support Hallmark stock. LOL. Joking aside it is still a big part of etiquette so I better get over my angst.
I think a whole lot of American holidays support Hallmark! But I always have Maya make her own Thank You notes, so we avoid that problem.
I had no idea that TY notes aren’t common in Europe. That gives me a new perspective!
Love the pics meena, and loved our v sweet thank u note:) we were right behind u on those, I can totally relate….only thing that saved us we had like 6 opposed to 30;) miss u guys!! Xo
Shani sent us the best TY note…we cracked up over it! Loved it.
Miss you too. 🙂
At least she can write them now. I sat and wrote TYs all last wknd for Dean because I forgot to send the evite noting that gifts were not necessary. Next time I’m going to con one of the older boys to write them for me if I forget. Maya looks cute! I think of her on her birthday always.
So nice to hear from you. I hope that you are doing wellâ¦send pictures if you get a chance. Would love to see how the kids are doing.
30 Thank You notes! That’s a lot of gifts and one lucky girl. I guess the silver platter was missing one thing and of course there are no places to buy envelopes in LA. But of course!!!
Office supplies are hard to come by in LAâ¦.I never knew that until now! 🙂
I hate saying this but I never sent out thank you notes for my wedding. Sad, I know given that I was 30.
I think we forgot a few here and there too…I still feel bad about it!
Oh wow I’m impressed you had Maya write out the addresses too…glad it got done, even though it took longer than planned ;)!
Me too K! Me tooâ¦
I have a love/hate relationship with Thank you notes. Better late than never! 🙂
Absolutely…but I still hate being late! 🙂
I can’t believe you still get Maya to write thank you notes – we gave up on our kids doing that many years ago!
I will make her write notes forever…
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