She probably wouldn't answer me without expecting something in return.

Because we understand that christmas cards are trivial nonsense, which only tell people things we could reasonably assume they already know anyway. I mean, you send a card to people saying 'I hope you have a happy christmas'. Are they going to assume that if you don't send them a card saying that, it means you'd rather they had a miserable christmas and spent new year dead in a ditch before being discovered on the 5th of January, your corpse having been nibbled by stray dogs? They'd have to be pretty paranoid if they did. Thus they are entirely redundant and can safely be ignored in favour of things that actually matter.

And also the fact we're not so utterly shallow as to believe not sending a card to someone who has sent you one is some kind of massive faux pas. we just absolutely do not keep those kind of social scorecards.

Yours,

The Grinch.

Oo er Mrs