1. After quite a lot of detective work on the children, little María confessed. Then we hurried to the container and the funniest thing happened.

2. However, you're wrong there, and the story that follows will account for my delay.

3. I am so sorry I have taken so long to answer back. You must have thought I was very ungrateful to you both.

4. However, her 7-year-old daughter María was naughty enough to hide the envelope in her anorak.

5. On that day, my neighbour Rosa happened to open the door next to mine on her way to the park with her 3 kids. She started to talk to the postman.

6. Dear Isabel and Louise, I finally got your present but I got it two weeks after my birthday.

7. It was only a few days later, when I arrived home one evening that my neighbour opened the door and told me about the postman. She went inside to fetch the envelope but, incredibly enough it wasn't there.

8. Actually, , when the postman explained that he had brought that envelope for me, she was kind enough to keep it for me till I arrived.

9. First, when the postman brought the envelope home I was away on a short holiday in the Canary islands. I went there to do some scuba-diving in the magnificient reefs whose underwater life is still breathtaking.

10. In short, one can't say that receiving presents is an easier thing to do than sending them!

11. Thanks a lot for being such caring friends ! Love, Tom.

12. Since we could not see into the bottom of the container, María offered to slide through the top opening to try and find it among the rest of the cardboard. She disappeared inside before the puzzled eyes of the people passing by. After a few minutes her large eyes sparkled with joy when she produced a creased yellowish envelope which I opened just to find your two precious presents - still intact - inside.

13. Later on, as they walked towards the park, she dropped the envelope through the top opening of the container with recycled paper, without her mother seeing this.