Secret Keeper Girl

Black Friday means fighting the crowds for some, but for the Gresh Family it brings the hunt for the perfect tree. This year, I actually talked Bob into a smaller one. Six feet. Tiniest we’ve ever had! Stormie was sure to tree a cat on the Kuhn’s Farm…a tradition for her. We discovered a hole the size of Jupiter in Robby’s jeans. And…well, here’s my favorite photo from this year, taken just after Bob let the tree fall onto Autumn! You can “friend” me on facebook to see the whole album of photos (but not the hole in Robby’s pants.) Let the Christmas fun begin, Secret Keeper Girls! 

Why is it that family photos are never what you think they will be? Today, we had one. I posted a sign on the front door so everyone had one week’s notice to be on the front porch at 3:45, dressed and beautiful! Everyone was supposed to wear red. No one told me until 3:50 that “only dad has red shirts!” So, we ended up in white. Then, of course, we HAD to have Stormie in the shot. It went downhill from there. Check it out.This one (below) is actually my favorite!But, alas, this is the official family photo. Almost boring, huh? Â

Posted by Dannah Gresh, Creator of Secret Keeper Girl I’m delighted to say that we have officially survived swimwear shopping 2009! The girls choices? Lexi, who is our water skier, selected a Nike sport tankini top with a swim skort bottom. Here’s the suit (though she selected it with red accents).

 

We bought Lexi’s suit at Dick’s Sporting Goods in State College, but you can buy it online at kohls.com or at nike.com.

Autumn, who we just adopted in China 18 months ago and who had never been in the water before, isn’t much of a swimmer. We’re working on it. She is so brave. It’s been a big fear to overcome, but we throw her in the water with a life jacket and our beloved dog, Stormie, to hold on to and she’s overcoming her fears. We bought a suit this summer with a touch of faith that she’ll get her face wet! It is a tankini top with boy-short bottoms.

We bought it at Kohl’s in State College, but you can buy it at kohls.com.Now, on to the smattering of letters I’ve been getting and that I want to give voice to. A good handful of folks have been kindly letting me know that they don’t think what I posted is “modest.” They would rather we avoided swimsuits altogether. I think this is an important part of our dialogue. Here is one of the well-presented letters:

 Dear Dannah, Thanks for all your efforts on modesty and purity. My wife and I love yourbooks and share them with others whenever we get the chance. I hope you won’t be offended if I express my feeling that the “modest”bathing suits pictured in your email were anything but modest. I understandthey are relatively modest, but from the male point of view they exposed waytoo much leg and present a strong temptation.   I was very happy to see you mention the need for a coverup. I would justask that perhaps you make it more clear to your audiance that: NO modernbathing suit is truely modest; these are just the least immodest choicesavailable; it is essentail to put on a coverup as soon as you get out of thewater. Otherwise I fear girls and women will be decieved into believing theyare modestly dressed in such suits –not intentionally decieved of course. You may want to suggest what we and many others do. My wife and daughter, 30and almost 5 respectively, both wear board shorts and longsleeve sun-protection swim shirts as their swimsuits, not just as coverups. Wefind this is the most modest option out there and Land’s End and L L Beanhave plenty ( OK some) of stylish options. I know it is hard, and again I thank you for your efforts!Your fans…

So, let me be clear. This good friend of my ministry doesn’t think swimsuits are modest! Neither do I! Swimsuits are not modest. Period. Nothing about them is. My husband and I sat in my home office and struggled with what to post and what to say about swimwear because I’m asked so often to address it. As we suspected, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people who would rather we didn’t buy swimwear at all. (By the way, I would love you to post those thoughts here rather than email me. It’s good for everyone to hear your thoughts.) I understand. I want to give you voice. I just also want to be truthful and honest about where we are as a family. We wear swimwear.Here’s the deal. I’ll repeat what I said in my e-blast and blog post a week ago. Let me set up the scenario. We have an old boat that my husband bought for nearly nothing with hardly any miles on. We make up for its first few easy years of mild use, by using it hard in its retirement years. We ski, jump off of cliffs, swim with our labradoodle, and defy death with our 8 foot raft several times each week. My girls wear board shorts and t-shirts or tank tops until they get into the water.  Then, they change into life preservers, which cover more than a t-shirt and often keep their shorts on when they get in.Thanks for being kind and sensitive to where I’m at on this. It’s  not easy to be here publicly. But I think this conversation is important. There are a lot of Christian girls reaching for bikinis this season and I’d like to see them reconsider.

Posted by Dannah Gresh, Creator of Secret Keeper Girl My husband knocked my socks off with a surprise trip to New York City to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Not just any old trip, but a “themed” trip. The theme was a secret and he was going to offer me clues the day before we left. On that Monday morning, he showed up at my bedside at 7am with Starbucks. He said: “I got you a tall caramel machiatto. Does that mean anything to you?” I sat up straight in bed: “It’s the drink that Meg Ryan orders in You’ve Got Mail!” He didn’t expect me to get it so quickly. He had this prepared in case I never did get it:

He took me to every romantic site in the movie. (I can’t tell you too much because I’m going to blog about the details for our teen bloggers at lies young women believe dot com.) But suffice it to say that it was the most romantic 20th anniversary celebration you can imagine! He posted photos on his facebook page as we experienced it, and friends were all grumbling about how hard they’d have to work now that their wives have heard of this romantic celebration! (He tried to make it go down a bit easier by sharing that he almost chose “Space Balls” as the movie!)

Below we are at the grande finale of our celebration. He took me to a little restaurant across the Brooklyn Bridge called  The River Cafe. It was perfectly wonderful. The flowers in this place were immaculate. Bob told me that the restaurant had their own florist on site to make special arrangements. We sipped on lime sodas at the bar and waited for our seat by the window to overlook Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. It was worth the wait. When we got to our table instead of a lavish center-piece, I was greeted by a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils! I cried! In the first scene of You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan that he’d like to bring her a “freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils.” It may just be the most romantic gift he’s ever given to me. More than this gift said, “I love you,” it said: “Dannah, I know you!”

It is good to be known. 

Here’s to twenty more if the Lord allows it!

 

It is tradition. We have to conquer the forest. My favorite Christmas tree conquest was the year Robby was 3 1/2 and Lexi was just days from delivery. (Her birthday is December 28! ) A blizzard hit the mountain, but Bob was determined we would not leave until we  had our tree. When we finally got it, we fought our way back to our car with barely any visibility…Bob lugging a tree and me waddling behind him—nine months pregnant and carrying a crying three-year-old. Robby and Lexi were in far sillier form for this year’s tree hunt. Look at them now! Stormie, our wonder dog was also in rare form as she picked her own tree branch to carry home.  And then, she “treed” a tiger cat! We were so proud.  (I’m sorry if you are this cat’s mom. I trust she made it home safely after this traumatic photo was shot.)     Of course, when we finally got the tree…look who did all the work!     I carried it while Autumn acted as photographer! (Just kidding. My Bob does all the tree-lugging along with Robby’s help! In fact, I think that dirty look he is giving me in the photo is actually his non-verbal skills kicking in to say, “Are you kidding?”)I  just love traditions. In fact, I love them so much that one of the gifts I am giving this season is a book I highly recommend by Noel Piper called “Treasuring God in Our Traditions.” It has re-awakened my heart to the precious value of establishing and keeping traditions. They are glue for a family. What are your Christmas traditions?