Thank you, oh no, thank YOU!

Though trying to be more green, I have to admit, I am a total geek for note cards.
I bought these recently at Home Goods (another store I should stay clear of 'cause their merchandise is just too fun to browse through, wonder at, and purchase.) I also bought a box of cards printed with red and white cherries to use at school. Our colors are red and white, so they're perfect!
See? Geek.


I've read that etiquette allows if someone gives you a gift and you say thank you directly to that person, you don't have to write a thank you.
I think that's weird.
So I don't follow that guideline (and truth be told, it is not how I was raised).
But, then again, I love writing thank you notes.
Why?
One, stationery is just too pretty not to share.
Two, it's just a nice thing to do.
Three, when I get a gift of any kind, I am so blown away that someone cared enough to think of me and select a gift, I feel compelled to thank them with written words.
Four, I even write thank yous when people take me out to dinner or make me a meal.
My flaw, my fault, something I'm working on?
I like getting thanks. Actually, I crave thank yous.

This is a huge crack in my character.
When I give a gift, I should gift from the heart, not to be thanked. And I do give from the heart. I never give a should gift, I give a want to gift. But I struggle mightily with the need to receive a thank you.
I do.
In 2008, Brad and I went to a friend's wedding, we sent a gift, and no thank you ever came. Part of me worries that the gift never arrived (though I did track it on-line, and it did say "delivered", but we had an Old Navy package that was "delivered" last winter, and I never received it). I have to be honest, the bigger part of me is cranky that I didn't get thanked.
I am so not proud of that attitude.
I spent almost 90 minutes selecting a baby gift recently
(oh my gosh, I hemmed and hawed over that one, I walked the entire store twice, picked things up, put them down, exchanged sizes, pondered how to wrap it, read every baby book on the shelves, wondered would an outfit be better, a book?),
and I got a one line thank you email for that.
I wondered if the people who were able to make it to the baby shower got handwritten notes.
So do people just expect gifts? Is that what it is?
Or...


Am I a thank you prude?
I've been to showers where the mother of the bride or new mommy-to-be hands out envelopes and asks the guests to address their own thank yous. That blows me away in a whole different way!
So as someone who is closer to 50 than 40, I wonder if I'm just old-fashioned. But then I think of my friends Art and Jeanette who have sent me, over the years, dear little notes that have expressed thanks for gifts and have included thanks for friendship. In fact, Jeanette just handed me such a note in church earlier today.
So it's not just me being an old fuddy-duddy (unless they are young fuddy-duddies), or is it?

My question, now that I've bared an ugly bit of my soul, is:


Do you like/expect thank you notes too?

Now, perhaps bending my own rules...
My friend Pam, a firm believer in thank you notes herself, left this in my mailbox on the first day of classes last week. What a delight to see a treat in my box on a crazy day. Such a crazy day, that I have yet to thank her.
So...
Pam, who regularly reads my blog, how many etiquette rules am I breaking now by posting a bloggy thank you?
This chocolate was a sweet find because it's funny (funny chocolate!), but mostly because it's from YOU!
I love you, my friend. Now everyone knows it.
Thank you, oh and a card is in the mail, too.