Romantic Gifts Under $40

A DAY AT A TIME

Submitted by: PeaVine

A few years ago, my son gave us a photo scanner for our computer to us for Christmas. With that available, I came up with an idea for Valentines Day that was probably my most romantic gift ever for her.

With the availability of the scanner, I decided to make her a calendar for the year 2000. Granted, it would have been nice to have had it available for the full year, but the timing just didn't work out. Working privately in our computer room, I created a calendar for my wife for the full year 2000. I had special pictures taken to depict each month with highlights for our marriage. At the time we had been married 22 years.

I had a special friend that helped me by taking pictures that could be scanned. I guess if we were current with technology, we would have just used a digital camera, but we weren't so the scanner was very helpful.

As an example of the pictures taken for the calendar, January was a picture of me throwing a snowball....we had a snow storm that dropped snow in an area that doesn't see a lot of snow. February, I dressed up in a special outfit with a teddy bear and a rose as props for her "Valentines" gift. March is our anniversary month so I had a picture of us together for that month. Each month had a seasonal theme and the calendar showed special days in our lives highlighted on the calendar. August was a special month because it is "rodeo" month in our town.....I put on my wrangler jeans and had a picture taken at the rodeo grounds. My wife loves the "wrangler buns" look!

After each calendar page was completed, I had the pages laminated and then bound into a year long calendar. She kept the calendar at work and allowed her to see me each time she looked at it. She often tells me it was the "best" gift she has ever received....and it cost me less than $25. Even though the year 2000 is past, she still keeps the calendar close by at work, so she can look at my special pose for each month...even the ones in my Superman costume.

Romance doesn't have to be expensive, the calendar was evidence of that.