Christmas Gift Idea #1

The title of this post would imply I have 

a series of gift ideas all mapped out.

Um, not so much.

But it does show the optimistic attitude with which

I present this idea. 

A few years ago my mother had the idea that she would

prefer not to get gifts of "stuff."

She asked us all to give her gifts of donations.

Time or money, either was good.

At first it was intimidating but after some thought

each family was able to come up with ideas unique

to them.

I'll share the one we gave my mother the first year

now and will hold out some of the other ideas in

hopes of many moments of happy blog reading

for the future. 

heheheh...

My grandfather had an affinity for 

The Salvation Army.

I'm not sure of the origin but I do recall a family tale 

involving it, my grandpa and my brother.

So our gift to my mother was the four of us ringing

the bell at a few different times during the

Christmas season. 

I had in mind buying a bell and wrapping it up as

a token of our gift but I wound up with 

something better.

We were such enthusiastic bell ringers that 

we actually rang a bell right off it's handle.

Yep, gave mom that busted up bell.  

OK, well, in the spirit of full disclosure, 

this is not the bell. 

This is not even my photograph. 

But the bell we busted up looked like this when we got it :o)

And I like visuals.