My little brother, Russ, made this Give easy for me.  He still lives in the house we grew up in and, in fact, is currently fixing it up to put it on the market in anticipation of getting married this summer.  I can only assume that somewhere in the midst of renovations and cleaning and tossing (much like we’ve been doing here), he found this portrait of Garfield which I painted as a kid.  (Garfield looks fat and sloppy in the painting because that’s how Jim Davis first drew him, not because I was a bad artist…. just wanted to make that clear!) So Russ thought it would be clever to wrap this thing up and give it to me for Christmas. We gathered the family together last night at another brother’s house after the 6:00 PM church service to eat and exchange gifts.  I have to admit, this Christmas has been a bit stressful with my current mindset of radical downsizing so that we can get ourselves ready to head to Haiti.  I keep thinking of December 25th representing two steps (at least) backwards as we are trying to reduce clutter AND save money.  I tried hard to find MICRO-gifts for the kids.  It was my idea to get Dats (age 9) the “spy watch”.  (It was Melissa’s idea to get Ida (age 7) the ginormous Nerf dart gun!)  Also, Melissa and I decided to do nothing beyond stocking stuffers for each other – which had the dual benefit of cutting down on stuff around the house AND cutting down on the stress of shopping prior to Christmas.

So when I unwrapped the Garfield painting, I was relieved to see something that could be immediately dumped in the trash without even making the trip back to our house!  But when I voiced my intentions, my niece, Lauren, claimed the painting for her own.  (Why???)  She said she liked “vintage” things … or maybe it was “retro”, I don’t remember – all I heard was “ancient and tacky”.  Well, it’s hers now and that’s kind of nice:  Great art is timeless and meant to be enjoyed for generations. Merry Christmas! P.S.  I was able to give the weird carved black thing (Day 45) to Russ and Alecia and all the adults gathered around (after the kids ran off with their new presents) and prayed for their relationship.  It was very meaningful – I am glad we took the opportunity to do it.  We don’t pray often enough with extended family.  In fact, the last time I remember praying with family members (beyond saying grace at mealtimes) was when my Dad passed away over 7 years ago – Kristine (my sister-in-law) led in prayer as we stood around his bed just after he had taken his last breath.  It was a powerful and spontaneous spiritual moment and that prayer arose (I believe) not out of some sense of duty but rather out of a recognition of God’s very real presence in that room in that moment.  We should pray more.

This is going to be a Christmas gift for my younger brother and his fiancee and it’s something I was always supposed to give away.   Of all the things I have given away (and all the things yet to be given) this has to be one of the most “mystical”.  For all I know it could be decades old and already passed through dozens of hands. I don’t think my brother has seen this blog yet (at least he’s never mentioned it), so hopefully I’m not spoiling any surprise.  I have to tell you a bit about my brother because he is living a fairly miraculous existence at the moment.  His last twenty years have been … how should I say this … messy.  I wouldn’t want to share in too much detail in a blog here… without his permission … but I don’t think he’d object to my saying that two divorces and a physical weight shooting well over 300 lbs would qualify as “messy”.  And it wasn’t just the bum relationships and the lack of physical fitness, either – he had drifted far from any belief in God.  Then about two years ago (I think), in the midst of his second marriage coming apart, his life started to turn around.  Over the course of that year he dropped 140 pounds – and it wasn’t some fad diet.  He lost weight the old fashioned way: ate less, ate better, and exercised more.  He started walking, then biking, then running.  He’s even run a couple of mini-marathons now – in very respectable times! And then a year ago or so came an even more important turn for the better in his life:  he rediscovered a faith in God.  He got involved in a local church and he seemed so much more open to the spiritual side of life.  The change in his spirit over the past year is almost visible. Finally, just over the past few months the last piece of his transformation seems to have fallen into place.  He allowed a long time friendship (from all the way back to high school days!) to blossom into a romance.  His fiancee seems fantastic – a caring, godly woman with a good sense of humor – and she fits right into the extended family.  I think this will be the woman he grows old with.  They are planning an August wedding and he has asked me to give the message during the ceremony.  It will be an honor to do so.

So here’s the deal with this black carved thing…  It was given to Melissa and me during our engagement by a young African guy who was working at a summer camp where we volunteered for a week.  I can’t even recall his name now and I’m not even sure what African nation he was from, but he said this object held cultural significance.  It represents two people joined as one and it is supposed to be given specifically to an engaged couple.  When given, the groom-to-be is supposed to grip one figure and the bride-to-be is supposed to grip the other and then the giver prays over them both for their future as a couple.  Once married, the couple is to find another engaged pair to whom they can pass it on.  It’s really a beautiful tradition and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  Anyway, this carving has been sitting on our shelf for over ten years now (whoops!), so it is definitely way past due to be given away.  I am wrapping it tonight (in another Christmas box which Melissa is willing to part with).  Hopefully Melissa and I will find some quiet time alone with the happy couple in the midst of our family gathering on Christmas Eve to pray for them.  I’m pretty sure the prayer is the most important part of the tradition!

A student came up to me at school today (our last day for the semester… yay!) and said, “You still got that Coke box?  I’d like to buy it for my mom for Christmas – she collects Coke memorabilia and she was born in Chattanooga.”  So he gave me $30 for it… and that goes into a fund to get us to Haiti this summer. 

Tonight I found an octagonal tin from Germany (which came filled with “Nurnberger Oblatenlebkuchen”).  For the last ten or fifteen years, though, it’s been filled with random buttons (the campaign-style buttons, not the zipper-alternative-type buttons).  The buttons range from a vintage Nancy Reagan Era “Just Say No” button to a “Grundy County (Illinois) Corn Festival 50th Anniversary” button (September 23-27, 1998).  I used Facebook to offer the tin to a former student who has taken several years of German class and the buttons to Interested Party #2 from last night.  I need to start wrapping up some of my random possessions to give as Christmas gifts! I’ve got a blog to recommend tonight:  mshaiti.blogspot.com.  It is posted by Matt and Stacey Ayars who oversee the Emmaus Seminary in Haiti.  You should especially read their post on “Haiti Fatigue” – it is excellently worded and very thought-provoking.  Check it out at http://mshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/12/haiti-fatigue.html !

As I write, this particular Give (maybe Sell!) is still in process.  I think I might have found a new avenue for my project to Give, Throw or Sell at least one item each day:  Facebook.  All the junk that I threw away yesterday (Day 42 – which I will get caught up on tomorrow perhaps) was contained in an old, flat Coca-Cola box.  It’s a wooden box – the kind they used to carry 24 bottles in.  This one has markings on the inside which read “Chattanooga 1970”. 

I guess I need to check on line to see if it has any value before I go giving it away!  (I’d hate to see it pop up on Antiques Road Show in a few months and be worth a couple of hundred dollars.)  [Minutes pass…]  Whoops!  Just checked out Ebay and someone is asking $55.00 for one that is Chattanooga 1977!  OK.  Now it’s getting complicated.  You see, I offered it on Facebook as a give away and now I’ve got three people interested in it!  The first one (an old high school classmate) did ask how much I wanted for it.  The second one just wants it because it is free.  (You won’t believe this, but she’s the older sister of the boy who wanted my typo plaque a few weeks ago because IT was free – Day 16!) [Correction:  No, she isn’t the older sister … I don’t know what I was thinking!  Her little brother is in the same class as the plaque kid, though.]  And the third is a junior high student whose dad collects Coke stuff – he was still looking for a Christmas gift for dad (although he’s not planning on spending $55 apparently!).   He LOLed when I put the Ebay price on the comment thread. I just dropped the Ebay price on Interested Party #1 – we’ll see what her reaction is.  She’ll probably LOL too.  Lately I find myself torn between giving things away and putting the effort into selling things.  Giving away things is fun and it is freeing (no pun intended).  It just makes you happy to make someone else happy – and who doesn’t love to get free stuff??  On the other hand, we kind of need every penny we can get in order to get ourselves to Haiti – and some of our stuff actually has some worth beyond sentimentality.  Why not sell it and start using any funds raised to pay off debts? IP #1 is suggesting I try putting it on Ebay.  (In other words, ‘ain’t no way I’m handing you more than five bucks for that thing.’)  Let me ask the Boss what I should do … [Seconds pass…]  Melissa says Ebay it.  I need to tell IP #1 that I’m going to be an “Indian Giver” (although I’m sure that’s a politically incorrect term nowadays).  [A few more minutes pass]  IP #1 was very gracious about allowing me to back out!  I still feel guilty though…. Reminds me of a line from Emo Philips:  “Know what I hate?  Indian givers… no, I take that back.”

Yesterday was kind of busy and the day got away from me and there was only one thing given away … but it counts.  The three oldest kids and myself are in the local production of the Nutcracker ballet.  No… I don’t wear tights OR prance around on stage.  We are in the party scene at the beginning of the show.  Anyway, last night was dress rehearsal and we had to be on site by 6:00 (the Drama Queen (age 8) didn’t finish practicing her part until 10:30 PM!).  In between the end of school and the start of dress rehearsal, we had a quick visit from Meredith, a young lady who is a missionary with OMS.  We met her just a few weeks ago and our little Princess (age 3) fell instantly in love with her.  So Meredith was on her way to Louisville to visit some family and on her way she stopped to have dinner with us and then she also curled the Drama Queen’s hair.  Before dinner, Melissa gave Meredith a box with an angel ornament inside.

Now this was no ordinary cardboard box – this was one of Melissa’s Christmas boxes.  They are meant to put gifts in (I guess), but Melissa uses them mainly as decorations, and never before has she given away one that she is attached to.  So that’s why this counts as a Give.  (We’ve got several more that could go!) I also use this as the Day 40 Give because it affords me the opportunity to tell you a bit about Meredith and to request your prayers for her.  She was all geared up to go to Taiwan to work at an orphanage as a fulltime missionary.  She spent the last five months or so getting ready for this big move and was supposed to go just three or four weeks from now but she just got word that her visa has been rejected.  She’s not sure that it is worth the time or effort to appeal and try again, so she is currently looking around to see if there is some other orphanage in some other country where God might be wanting to place her.  She has a remarkably good attitude about the whole thing – she says the location wasn’t the important thing, she just wants to share God’s love with orphans.  Please lift her up and pray that God would reveal his will for her in an unmistakable way!

I think I’ve been carrying this cross around for at least ten years.  (And I’m talking about a literal cross, not some figurative, spiritual cross … it’s been in a box.)  It’s made of PVC pipe and it is designed to hold grape juice.  It was a prop for a mime skit that I used to perform in my youth ministry days.  It was a pretty cool skit and I would tell you all about it if I could remember how it went!  I do remember that one actor played the role of Mary and another plays Joseph and they open a gift box labeled “From God”.  Inside is a loaf of bread which Joseph tenderly removes and hands to Mary who then wraps the loaf in a cloth and cradles it in her arms like a baby.  It’s a powerful image, especially since the juice is in the cross awaiting the end of the skit, leading into a communion service which makes use of that same bread and juice.  I remember it being a quite powerful drama … I just don’t remember IT. I’m sure there’s someone out there who can remind me how the skit went exactly and what song we used as the background music.  (And even which youth group I used it with!)  Melissa could probably remind me, but she’s busy right now and I don’t want to bother her.  She will be glad, though, to see that the cross is finally gone.  I found it several weeks ago in the garage, brought it inside, and it’s been floating around our house ever since… until she banished it to the back deck a few days ago.  I kept thinking, “I put a lot of work into this cross – making sure it was leak-proof and sturdy – surely I can find some use for it myself- or find someone who could use it…”  It’s a shame to toss it, but that’s the way it goes.  What bothers me most about it is how bad it shows my memory to be!