ATTENTION 21 DAY CHALLENGE FRIENDS:
D'oh! I messed up my post on Rhonna's blog...please click here to get to Day One of 21 Day Challenge!!!
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I have advertised lately that money is tight for the Gellers. I mean, we're not going to be losing the house or the car any time soon and c'mon, Glen does have an airplane that he keeps in a hanger so I actually probably sound silly and selfish when I say things are tight. But in our world, we have had to trim a few corners to make sure we can protect our investments (the house, the plane, the car).
A GOOD THING our tight budget did was that it forced us to cut WAY BACK on Christmas this year. We bought Miranda a few goodies (bless her heart -- her list consisted of under garments, a few carefully chosen books, and an Slingshot organizer for school) but Glen and I did not exchange gifts like we usually do. Santa brought us both a couple of books and he brought me a gift certificate for Victoria's Secret (again with the undergarments!) but that was it.
About a week before Christmas, I was listening to a radio station and the DJ was talking about how her husband was out of work ...that got my attention! She was saying that they didn't have money for their usual Christmas this year ...I turned it up at this point! Listeners started calling into the station and gave her ideas for gifts that cost pretty much nothing. One of those ideas was something called "52 Memories." You take a jar and write out on 52 separate slips of paper memories that the family has shared together. Well I decided to take that idea and turn it into something a little different. I wrote out on 52 slips of paper "Reasons Why I Love You." I thought it turned out pretty darn cute, even if I do say so myself. I gave this to Glen for Christmas and he said it was his favoritist gift! Mission accomplished! :-) Instead of folding each slip of paper, I curled them so it looks like ribbon (I think). I used some construction paper that I had around and a large canning jar leftover from when I tried to can green beans. Made some funny little tags and here you go...
Glen opens it up each Sunday evening and pulls out a slip, reads it, and I elaborate on why that's one of the 52 reasons why I love him. So far, the reasons he's pulled have been:
42. I love you because you treat me with respect.
26. I love you because you take care of the cars.
And last night he pulled:
10. I love you because you support my veganism.
I did this for Glen because he makes me so very happy.
Okay so having gone through this super lean Christmas, I want to say that this ended up being a VERY NICE Christmas for Glen, Miranda, and I. For some reason, I burnt out VERY early in the season (probably from hustling to make journals for the bazaar) and once I resigned myself to just kick back and not be stressed about trying to make homemade gifts for my dear family (can you say overachiever?) and go with the flow, I really enjoyed it all. It was at THAT POINT that I finally got around to doing a bit of decorating (never did buy a tree though). All in all, I LOVED the minimal Christmas. I was able to dedicate more time to doing nothing. I LOVE doing nothing and being quiet. It's in the quiet when I do my best thinking and realizations and appreciations. And then the culmination of all this being that I hung out all day in my little art studio in my jammies on Christmas day with the people I love SO MUCH napping in the house. On that day, the quiet in this house never sounded so good. :-)
Bye bye for now! Can you name a reason why I love YOU?
Michelle,
I love you because when we were little and played "big office" you always let me have the bigger desk and most of the supplies.
I love you!
Posted by: simone | January 10, 2006 at 01:11 PM
Dear Shell Shell: You love me because you see me through the eyes of a loving sweet angel girl!! I love you because when I leave this planet, I hope I find myself on a higher plane; but no worry, because it has always been heaven on earth to live here with you and my other children.
I just recalled last evening that I am probably one of the few mothers who was ever called to come to the school (in Cudahy) for a conference with the teacher because my little girl was so smart and scored so high on the intelligence tests. I didn't know what to say except to assure the teacher that I did realize how exceptional you were and that we did have books in our home, etc. The one thing that had most impressed the teacher, she told me,was that this sweet shy little girl (YOU) had amazing abstract reasoning abilities--more than many adults! I haven't mentioned that to you for a long time, but just wanted to jog your memory in case you had forgotten. So have no fear of algebra!! All My Love from Mommy
Posted by: Mommy/Grandma | January 12, 2006 at 04:34 PM
Hmmm, could you love me for being in the world, in your life and your heart as you are in mine? Lucky me for having the honor of being your one and only big sister (as well as the big sister to two!) with a quality here and there that you value, as you have told me infinity times! But most of all, I think you love me for my ability, when I think of, see you (or read your blog!), to sense and savor your tenderness and purity of heart, spirit, and passion for life that you are so good at finding time and words to express to us all! Love Eternally, Me
Posted by: renee | January 18, 2006 at 03:10 PM