The Happy Little Mail Truck

Every time I see a mail truck I get incredibly happy. And you know what's even better? That satisfying "thud" as your mail lands in your mailbox, and you get to go out and pick it up. This has been one of my favorite things to do since I was a child. Every time I hear the mail come I rush to go and get it so that I can hold it in my hands. Sometimes it's something cool, like a free sample, a magazine or a product to review. Other times the box iis filled with bills, which is not quite as much fun. Then there's the best kind of mail of all, the personal letters and cards.

I try to remember to send personal notes every once in a while, because it's just too easy to email or text these days. I used to write tons of letters growing up. Every summer I would go away to a ballet summer program, get addresses from new friends and write to them throughout the year I even had a couple of pen pals who I never met from around the world. I kept every letter I received so if you sent something to me twenty years ago, I've probably still got it somewhere.

I've noticed recently that my three year old son gets just as excited as me when the mail comes. I think that along with my love of chips, I've passed the love of mail on to him. Whenever the mail comes, he exclaims "Yay! Get mail!" and then rushes to put his shoes on. Then we go out together to pick it up. If there's a package, he runs and gets the special "package opener" for me and can barely contain himself as I tear open the box. And call me crazy, but I actually love it when we're going away and I get to put the mail on hold, because then I come back to a whole pile of stuff that I get to paw through.

Whenever I get a magazine in the mail, I have to tear out all the inserts before I can read it. I get that from my mom. Now my son is obsessed with getting the mail like his mom. How about you? What kinds of things have you passed on to your kids?