The Modern Day Thank You

My love for stationary goes way back. I have saved many handwritten letters from my Grandmother and her sisters, my mother and my own sisters from various occasions and reasons. I have often bought boxes of notes and letter press cards because they are so beautiful, but have only sent a few. I also have boxes of gorgeous Thank You notes that have been collecting dust. 

It's not that I am ungrateful for things I have received, or a stay at some one's summer house, or a great night hosted at some one's home. It's just that with today's means of communication being instant and easy with e-vites and e-cards, I am much more likely to bang out one of those instantly and press send directly into your email box. There is just as much thought and gratitude behind it. Promise.

This year, as my children and I have received many Christmas gifts from relatives, I wrestle with the idea of the handwritten thank you card. I want to say I will sit down with both of my kids after school this week and have them hand write thanks-yous for all the gifts they received. Things is- fat chance of that happening. By the time it is written, I dig up a stamp, sits on my kitchen counter for a few days, then on my car dashboard for a few more, and my postman takes it along it's diesel-fueled journey to your home, it will be weeks before you open it. Then I know exactly what you will do with it. You will savor the sweet package in your hand, carefully tear open the seal and read the 2 sentence note of gratitude from my child. You will then toss it. Hopefully you will recycle it. But you basically toss it. It's ok. I do it too. 

So this year, I thought I would try to be a modern mom and use technology to best suit my busy life. This year I am having my kids send digital thank yous. They will pose with the gift they received, write a quick note and press send. I feel ok about it. It's better than no card at all, you get a recent photo of my adorable kids and I'm saving paper- right? Take a look a these 2 samples:

There are so many photo editing apps out there to manipulate the photos, 

add text, stickers and frames, but my two favorites which I used on the photos above are:

Red Stamp

Aviary

Let me know your thoughts.