History of The 30 Rock Tour

During a visit with my grandmother, she told me a story about a time she was very ill. She was confined to her bed for about three months as a young wife and mother of young children. As I can only shudder to imagine what one did on bed rest for three months before cable TV and the internet, I am sure staying positive was difficult even for my joy filled grandmother.

Some ladies from her church came up with a brilliant idea. They gave her a basket of gifts, and each day she got to open one gift. As she was telling me this story, it wasn't the gifts that she received that were so valuable to her, it was the excitement of having something to look forward to each day that the gifts brought her.

I was so struck at the incredible thoughtfulness of this gift.

The story stuck with me for weeks. And slowly, an idea started to formulate into a plan. What better way to celebrate an upcoming birthday than to open a present every day leading up to your birthday?

My dear friend Amber had a 30th birthday coming in the next several months, and so I shared my idea with two of our other friends Tami and Lisa. We all agreed it would be great fun to start a tradition for when each of us turned 30. For the 30 days leading up to your 30th birthday, there would be a gift to open each day. And so the 30 Rock Tour was born.

Amber documented each day of her 30 Rock Tour on her blog, and it was such fun for each of us to celebrate along with her.

In November, my dear friend Heidi was also about to move into the third decade of her life. There are a lot of things that you aren't able to share and enjoy as friends when hundreds of miles separate you, but I was determined to not let the miles separate Heidi and I from celebrating her 30th birthday with a 30 Rock Tour of her own!

So now, the torch has been passed to me. I can honestly say that I have never been SO excited about turning 30!

Somehow, without me knowing about what was going on, Amber, Heidi, Tami, Lisa and who knows who else, have taken my 30 Rock Tour to a whole new level. Not only where they coordinating from different states, but for each day I am opening a gift and an envelope. In each envelope is a letter from someone wishing me a Happy 30th Birthday!

The first gift I opened was a scrapbook that only had one page in it. The page reads, "Celebrating You" and has room for me to slide each of the letters into as we go through this tour. The first envelope had a letter from my precious friend, co-worker, and sister in Christ, Kyla Sbrusch.

I can not even begin to imagine what kind of surprises these girls have up their sleeves over the next 30 days!