december gratitudes.

Today, I am . . .

• doing a fair job of balancing life & work.
  
• blogging again & feeling good about it.
  
• relieved to have finally completed a project I've had hanging over me since mid-November.
  
• concerned about my daughter's extreme internalization.
  
• loving this non-sequitur fashion tip from my son (almost six): "Black is good for nail polish if you're going to die."
  
• needing some alone time.
  
• worried about holiday weight gain.
  
• wanting to spend some one-on-one time with my husband.
  
• tired － seriously t-i-r-e-d － of seeing 3 a.m. (& later!).
  
• proud of my now-traditional Christmas morning cream-cheese-pull-apart rolls.
  
• already thinking about 2009 & how I want to be/what I want to do/what I want to make of it.
  
• still amazed Barack Obama will be our American President within a month. Wow.

For all this & much more, I'm grateful.
Life is good. :)

a maven of mirth worth remembering.

With a name as plain as Betty James, you'd never guess she came up with a name as world-renowned as Slinky.

Betty James named her engineer husband's toy creation 65 years ago; by Christmas 1945, the Philadelphia Gimbels department store had sold the first 400 models within 90 minutes at the price of $1 a piece.

According the Associated Press:

[James] beat the odds as a single mother in the late 1950s to become a successful executive . . .. She took over management of James Industries, Inc. 14 years after the company was founded, after her husband left her to follow a religious cult in Bolivia. Richard James died in 1974.

Initially, James would leave her six children with a caregiver from Sunday through Thursday while she oversaw operations in Philadelphia. But in 1965, she moved the company to her hometown of Hollidaysburg, [PA], where, though sold in 1998 to Michigan-based POOF Products, Inc., it remains today.

By the time of her death November 20, 2008, at the age of 90, Betty had been inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, and over 300 million Slinkys and Slinky variations had been sold in her lifetime. In a 1995 AP interview, she offered her perspective on the classic toy's spectacular success:

"I think really it's the simplicity of it," Betty explained. "There's nothing to wind up; it doesn't take batteries. I think also the price helps. More children can play with it than a $40 or $60 toy." Even now, Slinkys retail for only about $4-5.

And who can ever forget the catchy Slinky jingle? Here you go, kids of the '70s (love the carpeting):



And here's my favorite faux commercial, clearly derived straight from the Slinky original (no disrespect intended to the dedicated, ingenuous, persistent, successful and fun Ms. James － just had to share):

four-star first.

I may be a little late, but it's not like her final little five-pointed friend is going anywhere . . . Waaay-high feminist fives go to Ann Dunwoody, who on November 14th became the first woman in the U.S. military to hold the rank of four-star general.

Dunwoody, 55, comes from five generations of military, and though she grew up wanting only to teach physical education and raise a family, her rock-'em-sock-'em roots got the best of her during what she intended to be a two-year detour with the Army. Thirty-three years later, Dunwoody explains her change of mind: "As a soldier, you can continuously serve. It is a calling to be a soldier, and there is a great sense of pride and camaraderie in serving the greatest Army in the world."

A Virginia native, Dunwoody has, over the course of her career, served in: Fort Sill, OK; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Drum, NY; Alexandria, VA; and Fort Lee, VA. She deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1991, and to Uzbekistan for Operation Enduring Freedom I in 2001.

Dunwoody's military decorations include three Legion of Merit awards, two Distinguished Service Medals and a Defense Superior Service Medal. Among her notable firsts, she was: the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division in 1992; the first woman general officer at Fort Bragg in 2000; and the first woman to command the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee in 2004.

In June, Dunwoody was nominated by President George W. Bush for promotion to four-star rank, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July. The promotion is particularly impressive since, by law, women are excluded from combat jobs, the typical military path to four-star rank.

Present at Dunwoody's pinning ceremony was her 89-year-old father, Harold Dunwoody, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and highly decorated three-war veteran, and her husband of 18 years, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Craig Brotchie.

"No one is more surprised [by this honor] than I － except, of course, my husband," Dunwoody quipped. "You know what they say: 'Behind every successful woman is an astonished man.'"

Astonishing? To some, maybe. But definitely amazing for us all.

copy-worthy.

One-hundred-and-two years later, Xerox is still proving itself a leader － and a corporate patriot.

The Let's Say Thanks project － created and sponsored by Xerox, the copy company － gives everybody with Internet access a free and easy way to make sure American troops overseas have an inkling about how grateful we are for their service and sacrifice.

Just visit www.letssaythanks.com, choose one of the postcard designs (selected from a pool of entries from children nationwide), pick an already written message or write a note of your own, and click "send." Xerox does the rest, printing your postcard and mailing it with others in care packages sent by the military support group Give2TheTroops.

No, you can't dictate which soldier receives your postcard, but who cares? Regardless of how you feel about our country's current military actions, I don't know one person who doesn't wholeheartedly support and greatly appreciate our servicewomen and men, and the hard job they do to help keep our country safe and free.

All you need is about 30 seconds － please go to www.letssaythanks.com today, and express your gratitude to fellow Americans who earn it every day.

buying for a better world.

For those of us still traveling the evolutionary continuum from giving presents to giving presence for the holidays － in other words, everyone for whom it still 'tis the season to buy stuff － here's a wonderful new website for acquisition: worldofgood.ebay.com.

World of Good by eBay is an online superstore hybrid of, well, eBay and World of Good, a fair trade wholesale business. Essentially, the partnership is trying to do for the mothers of Africa, Asia, India and Latin America what eBay did for their U.S. counterparts, promising to sell more fair-trade goods than have ever been sold in one spot before.

At the website, you can search for products benefiting a particular cause, read artisans' bios and check third-party verifiers for specific items. The site also links to articles, blogs and bulletin boards － it even has its own Facebook group.

From cause-positive coffee to eco-friendly earrings to a serious selection of sustainable stocking stuffers, World of Good is worth a good look.

give presence.

I'm no Jesus freak. A Christian, yes. But much to my Lutheran parents' chagrin, no longer a church-goer. I've essentially reached the conclusion that the church is a good venue for people to affirm their faith and to build community, but isn't necessary for nurturing a relationship with God. I sort of think of church like Weight Watchers － you go to the meetings for introspection, inspiration, rededication and a sense of not being alone on your path.

Still, I'm intrigued and inspired by Advent Conspiracy. This movement, launched two years ago by five pastors, was originated as a resource for churches to more fully engage in authentic worship and giving at Christmas. It's about bringing Christmas back to basics. Quoth the homepage:

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope and revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams and shopping lists.

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again? Welcome to Advent Conspiracy.

So, while I'm no Jesus freak, I definitely believe in what Jesus was all about, which was peace, love, giving and treating each other like you want to be treated. So I love the simple concept behind Advent Conspiracy: Worship Fully. Spend Less (money). Give More (time). Love All.

This year, they say, Give Presence.

You don't need to be a Jesus freak to see that's the meaning of Christmas.

Watch the cool video on YouTube.

get gratitude.

I believe gratitude is a miraculous force. So does Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta, which is why he penned a post about ways to incorporate gratitude into your life. Some samples:

Have a morning gratitude session. Make it a daily ritual to take one minute in the morning to think of the people who have done something nice for you or to think of as many things as you can in your life you're grateful for.

Having a hard day? Create a gratitude list.

Don't get mad; get grateful. Whenever you find yourself ticked off at someone, pause, do a little deep breathing, and try to think of reasons you're grateful for him or her.

Show gratitude to your significant other, rather than criticizing.

Show gratitude for your children, rather than kvetching about them.

Facing a life challenge? Try to see it as an opportunity for learning, growth and improvement. There's always something good to be found within the difficult or tragic.

Concludes Leo: "There's no doubt in my mind the simple act of [regular] gratitude . . . will change anyone's life, positively and immediately."