"Oh, I'd have wrote you if you hadn't written in your journal. It could have worked today or tomorrow. There are two perfectly content house elves basking in the glow of a job well done after helping me rush about and put on the finishing touches this afternoon. It looks like they took care of the path for us as well, I had half expected to have to make you trudge through snow." You couldn't exactly give a house elf gifts for a job well done, but she'd be sure to praise them next time she saw them. Just because they were servants didn't mean you couldn't be properly appreciative when they did well.