Happy New Year...Now Give Me Your Dimes!

Happy New Year! I hope you had as much fun saying 'good-bye' to 2007 and 'hello' to 2008 as I did. I don't want to brag...but my celebration involved the handing out of dimes. No...really.

It's a family tradition of one of my dear friends. She & her family make paper hats on NYE and then Dad hands out dimes to everyone as a token of prosperity for the new year. Nice, isn't it? Awaken your creative side with a craft project to kick off the evening before wrapping it all up with a dime as a wish for wealth, monetary and otherwise, in the new year. Well...I'm sure it could have been nicer if I didn't accost all of her guests demanding they hand over their dimes as a donation to the 2008 Penny Project. Although, most of them did so willingly...and then my friend ended up giving me the rest of the stack so I'd leave alone those who wanted to hold on to their dimes (sorry Amanda, I got excited at the prospect of getting a 10-penny donation from you all at once. I played your domino game...the least you could have done was give me your stinkin' dime). But I digress...it was a lovely tradition. And better yet, it worked! Prosperity abounded as I set off on my first walk to work on January 2nd.

In addition to starting off the 2008 penny spreadsheet with $1.10 in the donation column (thank you party goers), I found TWO dimes on my first walking commute of the year. And on top of that...I found 21 pennies. 21! I couldn't walk a block without seeing old Abe smiling up at me. It was an embarrassment of riches. Ok, that might be overstating...it came to a grand total of 41 cents...but that's a lot for a single walk to work! A great way to kick off the new year!

And of course, the thought of prosperity in the new year made me thankful for all that I already had over the past 365 days. 2007...what a lovely year. And even lovelier was the discovery that my friends could be so supportive of my quirks and obsessions. ("No, seriously guys...I want you to start picking up the pennies you see in the gutter." "Ok, so there's these codes on the bottom of the Coke lids...can you send them to me when you drink them. Or even when you see one on the street...can you pick it up?") Yes, the Penny Project has taught me many things...but the best lesson was that something as small as a penny can make people smile, bring together friends, and help us all remember that sometimes the best gifts do come in small packages! Every time I see a penny now, I think of all the people who have contributed and played along with my silly little social experiment. I think we've done the penny proud...now let's see what we can do in 2008!