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Holiday Help from Technology

Image by Lyn Millett via Flickr

Technology Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is too late to offer any Thanksgiving holiday tech tips -- here's one for next year, though: brine the turkey! A time-honored technology to avoid dry white meat. Anyway, I thought I'd jot down a few notes about technology in the service of holiday celebrations. In my house, we celebrate a secular Christmas, so that'll be the focus here. Adapt and modify as needed if appropriate for whatever near-winter-solstice holiday/celebration/festival is your favorite.

Shopping:
I like gift-giving, and I like finding just the right gift for someone. But I find it increasingly impossible, and so gift-giving, unfortunately, becomes yet another chore - a bunch of checkboxes to check off. (In fact, last year I was such an automaton about it that I didn't remember that we'd agreed 'no gifts for the adults' with my ~nieces parents, and since they were on my list from the previous year, they were on my list again, and I churned through and ticked off getting gifts for them. Oopsie.) Now, once in awhile I'll see something earlier in the year and think "perfect!" It's great if the person for whom I think the gift is perfect is already *on* my list - but in cases like that sometimes I'll just get it anyway. Generally, though, I try to make a small focused list of recipients. My advice is to do the same. Focus on making connections and getting in touch (cards, maybe), but keep the gift frenzy to a dull roar. Prune the list as much as you can. Both the 'who' you feel you need to buy for and 'how much'. Then shop online as much as possible. I like going to stores, shopping centers, and malls during the holiday season to enjoy the decorations and festive air (if I'm not already completely stressed out), but I try to avoid *having* to go, because that just kills the fun completely. So I try to do the bulk of my gift-buying online and then I just enjoy browsing a bit in the fancy decorated shops.

Music:

A Working Mom's Thanksgiving Thoughts: Telework, Traffic, and TSA

Work Wednesday

The day before Thanksgiving last year, I confessed that I hadn't started cooking despite the looming dinner deadline. I termed this Turkey Day delay my "trouble with a capital T." (It all turned out fine, of course, especially this divine maple pecan pie with a wheat-flavored crust from Bon Appetit.)

For this year's Thanksgiving post, I'm blogging about three other T's. Telework. Traffic. TSA. (You'll see at the end how they all relate to the holiday.)

First up, telework. Last week, Congress finally passed a teleworking bill for federal agencies. The bill is now awaiting the President's signature. According to the Washington Post, the "measure establishes a policy framework and a set of procedures essentially creating the assumption that telework is permitted, rather than something workers must fight to get." That's good news for many reasons: teleworking decreases congestion and traffic, helps attract highly-qualified and technologically savvy workers, and allows parents to balance work-life responsibilities more easily.  And it may save the government money in the long run. My agency already has a telework program, and on the occasional days that I telework I'm as productive if not more productive (no interruptions, no meetings in far flung federal buildings) than I am when I'm in the office.  Of course, I don't think I'd want to telework all the time or even most of the work week - I like the camraderie of my colleagues and I do think that there are some things that are best done face-to-face. (In reality. Not virtually.)  But all in all, I'm thankful for this bill. And it couldn't have come a moment too soon . . . .

Because of all the traffic. I don't know if its all the people driving around in search of the perfect pie but the traffic in my corner of the DC-metro area has been horrendous for the past few days. It hasn't been pretty and the last two evening commutes have been astoundingly ugly. On Monday, it took me nearly 1 hour and 30 minutes to drive the 9 miles between my office and my home (not counting the 10 minutes it took to retrieve my son from his school).  Yesterday, it took me 25 minutes to go less than one mile in a usually zippy stretch of my commute.  So, I'm already out of gas even before my husband, kids, and I hit the road (along with about 42.2 million other Americans, up 11% from last year) for the endless, oppressive drive to New Jersey, where my husband's entire family is gathering this year. I am looking forward to the celebration, though. Truly.  And, of course, driving's better than flying this Thanksgiving, right  . . . .

Which brings me to TSA.  There's little point in writing anything about the Transportation Safety Administration's newly-introduced full body scanners or aggressive pat-down protocols: no matter your view it's been said already.  In recent weeks, the backlash against the TSA's new airport screening procedures has been intense.  I'm just glad that I won't be beached in some airport while the "opt-out" boycotters slow down the usually slow-moving security lines . . . .

Wait! The Washington Post has weighed in on our Thanksiving route.  According to Dr. Gridlock (WaPo columnist Robert Thomson), Thanksgiving travelers should fear the toll boths in Delaware (which are currently under construction) more than an airport pat-down.  He writes: "The Delaware toll plaza was born bad, but this week may be the worst in its infamous history as a major East Coast bottleneck." And, driving his point home, he elaborates: "If we did a poll, I think Delaware would win in a landslide. The pat-down is over faster. Driving through the I-95 toll plaza in Delaware this week could take hours."

Aaagh! Oh, well, at least there's a fourth "T" at the end of the journey. Turkey! (And, even though it doesn't start with a "T", pie.) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Photo by Daquella manera via flickr.com.

Feast Not Famine

Therapy Tuesday
Photo by: DCJohn

Thanksgiving is two days away. It's a time when we can engage in one of the seven deadly sins, gluttony, without the guilt. It's like a free pass. It's also a stressful time of year. You are either travelling to get somewhere, preparing a meal, or preparing to eat. For us, we prepare to eat. We start at my in-laws at lunch and eat. We then continue at my parents house and eat some more.

Thanksgiving is a time for reflection. Certainly the title speaks to that: we think about all that we are grateful for. Family, food, friends are common themes. For me, I'm grateful for health. On its face, not a strange thing to express gratitude about. I'm indebted for my mental health. November 28th marks the one-year anniversary of the most nightmare-ish day of my life, which capped off a week of hell previous to it. It was the day that I had to deliver a child that would not survive. It was both a birthday and a death day, a few hours later.

So I come upon this year's Thanksgiving with some trepidation. For me, like for many, this holiday is a reminder of what is lost. Loved ones that are no longer able to share in the feast (whether they are dead or estranged). It can be a holiday of "what-ifs". My intention is to somehow mark this anniversary. It's certainly not one that I come to with any amount of excitement. In fact, it's almost a "Kickoff" to 5 difficult weeks. At the end of December, I will mark the one year anniversary of the due date of a child I miscarried last year. The beginning of January marks the due date for the daughter I will never know, as she and her brother are in a much better place together. (At least, that is my hope).

I will enjoy passing the turkey, the stuffing, and the trimmings. I will relish the desserts of the holiday. But as I eat, I know that the hole in my heart will not be filled with food. It will remain a reminder of what cannot be. And hopefully, it can serve as a bookmark for what is yet to unfold.

Not Quite the Whole Enchilada

Meal Monday

I grew up in Texas, so I've been known to get a bit fanatical about proclaiming the superiority of Tex-Mex cuisine over all other foods. So many delights to choose from--burritos, tamales, puffy tacos, flautas, chiles rellenos, soft cheese tacos--which is why they invented the combo platter. But I reserve my most irritating, quasi-religious fervor for the jewel in the crown of Tex-Mex, the cheese and onion enchilada with chile con carne.

But I have to disappoint you today, because this blog post does not deal directly with the King of All Foods, but instead, its meeker and slightly more healthful cousin, the chicken enchilada with red sauce. I just  can't be held responsible for the cases of gastric upset, both adult and juvenile, that might occur if I unleash the Herrera's-grade recipe upon the masses of the uninitiated here. But if you're intrigued, Homesick Texan has a pretty good base recipe (though you still have to add your chili con carne to it to make the real deal, and yeah, that's after the lard).

Here's a fairly simple recipe that Texans and non-Texans can agree upon. It's mild enough that my son will eat it, not too terribly bad for you, and basically involves dumping a can of this and a jar of that into a crock pot. I like to make this recipe on the weekend and divide up the 12 enchiladas for quick meals later in the week.

How to Keep Kids Busy Over the Holidays

Startup Sunday

Guest Post by Caitlin Douglass

It's the most wonderful time of the year, when two of the biggest holidays come around, and everyone is off from work and school. Well, maybe not everyone. If you still have a lot of work to do during the holidays, you need to find ways to keep kids busy. If you're a freelance writer, or you write and manage your own blog, that content isn't going to write itself while you take a week off for your children's school vacation. Or maybe you're a virtual assistant, and your clients are relying on you right now to keep their busy holiday schedules straight, and plan their holiday travel. So how can you keep the family occupied while you keep working?

Get them out of the house

Those words sound nice, don't they? Let's be honest. Of course you love your family. But there are just some days when it's not enough to keep kids busy -- you need them to be somewhere else so you can complete your to-do list. Kids reminding you for the thousandth time that they really need a Kung Zhu hamster this year, and can't possibly go back to school without one, or a husband coming in every five minutes,are distractions to put it mildly. Get them out of there.