My Gift
I’ve been a part of online communities for so long, it’s hard to remember life without it. I can recall running to RadioShack in the early 90s to hook my then-smoking hot computer to the small but growing America Online in order to chat with a group of triathletes. Connecting with people of like-minds has always been one of my great passions. However, being a part of communities online means that our communities offline have to be balanced. Over 15 years later, I’m still trying to work the balance of managing relationships online without it affecting my relationships offline. It’s not that I’m bad at it. Actually, I’m good at it! But it’s work. And my gift to my children this Christmas was going to be a work-free mommy.
Today is the last day I will Tweet until the kids go back to school on January 4. I won’t peek, lurk or wish-wash my way into Twitter. I’ll mostly avoid all other social media sites as well. I have already removed all social media apps from my iPhone. I’ll reinstall them in a couple weeks. And with few exceptions, I plan on being radio-silent in my online life. Being fully engaged with my children during their time off from school is the best present I can think of to give them.
Hey, Twitter: See you on the other side of the decade.
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My Girl’s Spirit
Telling off Santa
I never saw it coming — my little 6-year-old, sweet as can be, full of life and laughter — that my daughter would take out Santa Claus. But she did. And how. Approaching Santa, my daughter asked him a question in Spanish, at which point he was unable to answer. And when he did with something like, “HO! LA!” she called him out. Full-stop.
Looking over at the hoopla, I saw my girl, hand on one hip, pointing with the other, giving Santa a talk. “You are a FAKE!,” she told him. “Santa knows every language in the world of every child in the world and you can’t even understand me!” Then, with all the conviction in the world, “You are a faker, faker, baker.”
I tried to stop her, but there was little I could do. A girl on a mission is unstoppable. I feebly asked her to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. In response she said, “If you know when I am sleeping and know when I’m awake. If you know when I’ve been bad or good, then how do you not know what I want for Christmas?” Shit. Score one for the first grader.
Eventually I got her to sit on Santa’s lap. She did it under protest, and only after I conceded that she was right, the Macy’s dude was not Santa.
As we left, he called her back and gave her a tiny pin. She snorted and said, “Santa gives candycanes, not pins. And anyway, your beard is too short.”
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Chopping Down the Tree
… must have been pre-tic bite on the girl.
Chopping Down the Christmas Tree
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Tree Climber Saves Christmas
You’ve heard me blog and beg and plead and look to you to help us find someone to light the local tree. The extraordinary Straun Edwards from Trees 360 Degrees did indeed light the tree for our community and the San Jose Mercury News’ Sharon Noguchi covered the event.
Read the awesome story here!
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A Good Guy for a Good Cause
As many of you know, our annual Community Tree Lighting Ceremony is Thursday, December 3 at 6:30 p.m. As more of you know, I nearly lost my skull worried over the actual *lighting* of the tree. It’s a bad economy, we all know it. But no lit tree in our town? Really, I need a scotch just thinking of it.
But the tree will be lit and the community will have it’s tradition. This year, we won’t be using a cherry picker or crane to hang our lights —instead, Straun Edwards, arborist and owner of Trees 360 Degrees will deck the tree by doing what he does best: climbing! Our angel wears spikes in his shoes and is a whopping 6-foot-8.
Tomorrow my tree lighting angel will hang the lights. You know where I live? Then come out to see Straun 45-feet sky-high in the neighborhood tree tomorrow at our local elementary school. That’s right, Mr. Edwards’ donation is to *litearlly* climb the giant fir tree outside the school to hang the lights for the tree during the holidays.
We fly home tomorrow to watch Straun climb the tree (kids are freaking out, they think he is SpiderMan). I’m grateful to him beyond what he knows for a cause more important that he could ever guess.
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Side Gigs
