Greetings and salutations! Three weeks ago I ordered a pair of earrings for a friend of mine as a gift. I thought three weeks was plenty of time for them to arrive before the party, but when it got closer and closer to the date (and my package remained stuck in customs in British Columbia) I began thinking, “oh… no”. I started to wonder what I could possibly do to salvage the situation. Do I give her the gift of nothing (surprise!)? Do I tell her the truth? Do I find her a new, less than ideal last-minute gift and just keep her gift for myself? I seriously considered the latter.

What I did, instead, was I added a few smaller items to her gift and I included a photo of her earrings to let her know that it was still in the mail. This got us thinking though: What happens when the package doesn’t arrive in time for the event? So, we crafted a printable Mad Libs style 'I owe you' note that you can add to supplement a gift that just didn’t arrive in time because, let’s face it, it happens.