My father always told me that as shortly as the final guest leaves a party thrown in your reward, to begin publishing 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 gifts is still there wrong of you for the next 24 hours, if you’re a good person! When people take the time and endeavor to go through the trouble of buying you a thoughtful present, the least one can do is take their individual time and effort to publish them a kind note on a exquisite 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 right away.

Even though 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 commence out her thank you notes. She had established me, as the maid of honor, to form 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 ordering it off and placing it off until the unavoidable happened. She named my mom hysterically desperate, claiming she lost the list of gift givers and their gifts that I had so thoughtfully written out for her and had no idea what to do. My mommy took this as the perfect opportunity to launch into speech mode and tell all of us the meaning and obligation of keeping lists and staying organized-not to mention writing thank-you notices within the future 24 hours of the party.

Eventually my sis found the listing and each guest received a beautifully hand-written note on a composition of my sister’s new, personalized stationary, but a very fundamental lesson was learned that day: always listen to your mother because when all is said and done, they actually do know greatest.