From the Platonic cave of amazing thank-you notes
Yesterday, I received a delightful thank-you note in the mail from the White Russian, her partner Drummer, and their toddler for the holiday gifts I got her and the fam. Yes, the winter holidays. Yes, it’s now the middle of March. But if you’ve ever looked at the calendar, cringed, and thought, “Well, it’s too late to send it now, I guess that’s that,” enclosed please find an example of how you can dig yourself out of that hole.
Reproduced with permission:
Dear Aunt Sadie,
Please excuse the appalling tardiness of this note. Thank you again for the awesome holiday gifts. On the bright side, Drummer finally found where he hid your chicken all those months ago. It was completely by accident and he didn’t find the other thing he was looking for but you can’t have everything. Please let us know when we can take you out for birthday noms.
Love, WR, D, and S
It’s got everything, that note: apology complete with Edwardian vocab (“appalling”); hen reference; funny story. I was reading this and imagining Drummer rifling through couch cushions looking for a baby sock and turning up a vintage ceramic hen salt shaker instead all, “Oh, fine, obviously then.”
I won’t change anyone’s mind with this, and if your cohort doesn’t send/care about thank-you notes, it is what it is. But if you do care, and have often wondered when it’s too late, 1) it’s never too late, and 2) when in doubt, throw in a line about chickens. It doesn’t have to make sense.
Tags: ecce gallus domesticus etiquette friends
That’s wonderful. We received a thank-you note from our new mail carrier several months after we’d given her a holiday gift, right around the time we’d started grumbling about how rude she was turning out to be. It was suitably self-effacing, gave a brief explanation (though not an excuse) for her lateness, and gushed over the gift. It was the first very late thank-you note we’d received (usually they’re prompt or nonexistent), and it both mollified us and, like your marvelous example here, showed me that it really is never too late to send that note.
Hey, all the scientific Latin from the taxonomic names in The Great Influenza isn’t, er, influencing your tag creation, is it?
Excellent thank-you note.
Awww. Ceramic chickens and thank you notes! They waltz in adorability.
Oh, and did I mention that the fact you are “Aunt Sadie” makes it, like, the K2 of Adorable?
Ixnay.
Excellent advice – I agree it’s NEVER too late!
Appalling is Edwardian vocab? I realise I’m from the British-English speaking world, but I had no idea appalling made me sound quaint and proper. The things one learns on Tomato Nation.
This makes me feel less bad about our late wedding gift thank you notes. (Though ours did not involve any ceramic hens unfortunately.)
A friend in my former life put off her wedding thank-yous for over a year. Then she became pregnant and was forced to get the wedding thank-yous done before she sent the baby shower invites. That WAS appalling.
I have a horrible feeling I just submitted a half-written comment. Sorry if so and try again….
I remember, years ago, you posting something about thank you notes along the lines that a relative of yours never thanked your mom for something, and that decade later, if a thank you note arrived, that your mum would just say ‘about time too’ and everything would be OK. Did I imagine that?! I want to link a friend to it if it does exist. I’ve sent her this entry already :) Thank you either way!
That did happen (it was a friend, not a relative), but I don’t remember where/if I posted about it…if you find it, throw us a link!