A guide to thank you notes

When planning any type of event or celebration, a thank you note is an element that is just as important as the invitation. There are lots of traditions surrounding the writing and sending of thank you notes. It is important to become familiarized with these traditions to help write the perfect thank you note. When should you send thank you notes? Thank you notes can be sent for any occasion where guests offered gifts or services. In many cases, such as a wedding if guests brought a gift or simply attended the wedding, it is proper to send a thank you note for the guest being a part of the special event. A celebration or special event typically takes quite a few people to keep things organized and just simply to get things done. A thank you note is the perfect time to recognize all that friends and family have done to help make the occasion special. What should thank you note contain? Thank you notes can come in a variety of styles and themes. While some thank you notes will have thank you written across the front, it is traditionally accepted to send a blank card. This leaves more room for personal messages. Thank you notes should always be hand written. A typed or template thank you message is too impersonal and does not genuinely convey thanks to guests. Thank you notes should coincide with the theme of the event. A good idea is to purchase thank you notes at the same time as invitations. This will save time in the long run and help to keep a consistent theme. Why are thank you notes important? Thank you notes are important to show appreciation to guests, friends, and family. Thank you notes should be sent promptly following the event. It is helpful for those writing the notes to do so quickly so the events are still fresh in the mind. Thank you notes give people the opportunity to sit down and write out thoughts on paper to guests and when hand writing letters, people typically are able to express feelings that cannot be conveyed simply by a verbal thank you or a phone call. Thank you notes are the finishing touch to any event. Whatever the event, whatever the reason, sending thank you notes should not be pushed aside or forgotten. It is the guests who help make the event, and it is the guests who shape the guests of honor. Without the guests, they would not be who they are.

Welcome christmas

Christmas is the most mysterious holiday! Christians celebrate it all over the world. It is too special holiday as all the traditions were handled down from our grandparents and parents. From November nobody forgets that Christmas is coming. Colored lights decorate many town centers and shops and artificial snow painted on shop, cafe windows. In streets and shops, 'Christmas trees', real or plastic evergreen 'conifer' trees, are also decorated with lights and Christmas ornaments. Shopping centers become busier. Speaker systems in them play Christmas 'carols', the traditional Christmas Christian songs. Very often groups of people sing these carols raising money for charity. By mid-December, most people decorate their houses with Christmas trees, colored lights, make different decorations around the rooms. Some people decorate their trees with apples, nuts, and candles as it was in earlier times. In many countries, most people send Christmas greeting cards with many wishes to their friends and family, and these cards are hung on the walls of their homes then. Traditional Christmas cards showed religious pictures - Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story. Today pictures are often winter pictures, jokes, Father Christmas, or romantic scenes of life in past times. 'Father Christmas' (or 'Santa Claus') has become the human face of Christmas. In the pictures we can see the old man with long white beard, red coat, and bag of toys. Children are taught that he brings them presents the night before Christmas (or in some countries on December 6th - St. Nicholas' Day), and many children up to the age of 7 or 8 really believe this is true. The history of Santa Clause begins with a man called Saint Nicholas. He was a Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the 4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. One day he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking, which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings. For many people it's too interesting to know: how did Christmas start? Since about 400 AD Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. 'Christ' means 'Messiah', the title given to Jesus. Unfortunately the real meaning of Christmas is often forgotten. It has become a non-religious holiday! More children believe in Father Christmas, not in Jesus. Christmas Day is a holiday with eating, drinking too much and watching TV and other activities. But the real Christmas story is found in the Christian Bible. After Jesus was born there were some wise men who came to look for Him, from an area which is now in either Iran or Saudi Arabia. Admittedly there were three wise men (or three Kings). The story said they had seen an unusual star in the sky that told them of a birth of a special king. For bringing honor to the child, the brought rich gifts: gold, frankincense (a resin which burns with a beautiful smell) and myrrh (plant oil with a very strong sweet smell). These gifts tell us three key things about Jesus: Gold - a gift fit for a King, Frankincense - burnt in worship of God, Myrrh - a sign of mortal humanness, used to bury the dead. Jesus lived too difficult life. He was and is 'everyman' for us all as He came to identify with every racial group. Christmas cards from different countries often show Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the landscape of that country, and with the racial appearance of that nationality. "No other person has had such an effect on human lives as Jesus. He came back to life again, and millions say they know Him today as a friend and helper in their lives. You owe it to yourself to find out more about Him. Is He who He claimed to be? Can He help us in our lives today? You have nothing to lose! Christmas is the time to stop and think about these important questions". Merry Christmas!!!

How every woman can celebrate mother s day

Copyright 2006 Mary Foley Recently I read something in the book “Uppity Women of Ancient Times” that made me pause: “Slowly, very slowly, women became individuals, people whose consent mattered.” So, the wise women of old are telling me that before others will take me seriously, I’ve got to be my own person, someone who takes herself seriously. When I value myself as a Bodacious Woman, others notice and value me back. (The “slowly, very slowly” part is killin’ me, though. I gotta speed this puppy up!) It turns out that thousands of years later this same “I value myself first and then others value me” gave birth to our modern day Mother’s Day in the United States. It all started with Anna Jarvis who thought her individual ideas and actions were valuable and should be recognized. Better known as “Mother Jarvis”, Anna organized women’s brigades to help injured men during the American Civil War, not matter what side they were on. She continued to be active in the community, including helping resolve post-war conflicts between opposed neighbors. She took her nurturing “mothering job” seriously and demonstrated her belief that mothering went beyond child rearing. Then, in 1878, Mother Jarvis’s daughter heard her comment during a Sunday school lesson, “I hope and pray that someone, somewhere will found a memorial mother’s day. There are days for men but none for women.” A few years later her daughter, also named Anna, petitioned current and past Presidents, along with other prominent men, to do just that. In 1907 the first Mother’s Day was celebrated in Grafton, WV and Philadelphia, PA. By 1914 the national Mother’s Day holiday was born. Mother Jarvis’ dream had come true. What I love about this story is that Mother Jarvis fully embraced her individual worth in society and spurred other women to do the same. As more and more women believed and acted this way they became a “people whose consent mattered.” In this sense, Mother’s Day is a day for all women. What we think and do matters, as long as we believe it ourselves. So, on Mother’s Day let’s honor the women of ancient times, the women of our American history, and our own mothers who esteemed being female and contributed to women being “people whose consent mattered.” Let’s do our part by being women who value ourselves, cheer each other on, and make a difference. Now that’s bodacious!