{"id":7061,"date":"2021-04-14T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7061"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:02","slug":"birthday-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7061","title":{"rendered":"BIRTHDAY GIFTS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today was number 53 for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

I’m never too thrilled about birthdays, but I decided to use this one as an opportunity to focus on all the gifts I have received from the Lord and the people He has surrounded me with.<\/p>\n\n\n

Here’s a sample:<\/p>\n\n\n

Gift 1: I have a student with whom I have recently locked horns with in class a few times – resulting even in some detention time. First thing this morning she gave me the biggest laugh of the day when she handed me a gift bag with this inside:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

That’s a pretty gutsy move! Hilarious.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Gift 2: My family got me a new camera. It even has a built in phone.<\/p>\n\n\n

I had gotten a new phone just last summer but it has been such a disappointment. The camera on it really only functioned well in bright sunlight when the subject held perfectly still. But I hesitated to replace that lame piece of tech so quickly because that seemed so indulgent. But, thankfully, birthdays are made for indulgence!<\/p>\n\n\n

You might be seeing more Instagram posts from me again now …<\/p>\n\n\n

Gift 3: Time with old friends.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Bob and Jill were back in Indiana for a family wedding and Melissa and I were thrilled that they worked an evening with us into their schedule. And bonus points for the timing.<\/p>\n\n\n

They are always such an encouragement to us and tonight was no different.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was number 53 for me.\u00a0 I’m never too thrilled about birthdays, but I decided to use this one as an opportunity to focus on all the gifts I have received from the Lord and the people He has surrounded me with. Here’s a sample: Gift 1: I have a student with whom I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7064,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions\/7064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}