Cookies help me find Christmas

A little considered fallout of divorce is "Who Gets Christmas?"
Christmas had always been mine before the big "D." From Snow Villages, homemade cookies and candies, homemade presents, and most importantly ... FAMILY. It was my time to devote energies to those that I love. I really wanted to create a magical time filled with memories.
After divorce ... "So, this is Christmas!"
I still wanted my kids (even though grown) to continue to experience the traditions they grew up with, and I knew that lay in Montevideo with their dad, not with me in the cities.
To complicate tradition woes: My sister had always had Thanksgiving, an event we really looked forward to annually. This year, the tradition went with them to their new winter home in South Carolina. Now, I felt a sense of obligation to bring my side of the family together, especially for her two daughters who would be experiencing their first Thanksgiving away from their parents.
After 12 years of my struggle to find a new holiday tradition that could include a blended and extended family, it came this year in the form of COOKIES!
Our first cookie bake, decorate and take event was a successful blend of frosting, candy do-dads, and our families,. (The homemade pizza's weren't too bad either.)
This, I hope, becomes a tradition that grows each year.
The hit of the day was Molly's replication of Grandma Winslow's sugar cookie!
What fun.

I Caught Black Friday Fever

Joanne Fabrics Wal-Mart

'How am I going to get out of here.'

That was the comment I heard from a fellow traveler as we weaved our way through the meandering line of people, with filled carts, who waited patiently to check out at Wal-Mart as the clock approached 7 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 27.

Black Friday — never have I participated, and never did I think I would. But, as a news reporter, I had to do it sometime, and this year it was it. So, my trusty sidekick, Chan, and I set out around 5:30 a.m.

The dark morning revealed empty streets ... that is until we hit Highway 42, near the Apple Valley shopping district.

The backuped traffic and filled parking lots at and near Wal-Mart intimidated me! I wasn't ready. I needed time to ease into this experience. So, off to Joanne Fabrics ... yes, there was a line. Good deals on a popular cutting devise for scrapbookers was enough to bring the first few people in line out at 1 a.m. to set up camp for the 6 a.m. opening. Yup. They were laughing and having a good time.

Next, off to Target ... seemed weird to see the empty Cub Food parking lot adjacent to the crammed lot that housed the "Bullseye" and Best Buy customers. Just two days before, Cub was as chaotic as their neighbors are today.

With all the good deals at Target, I forgot my reporter duties and did quick cart-wheelees as I made my way to the items on my shopping list. ... I caught Black Friday fever. As I got to the checkout, I started emptying out the cart, not onto the counter, but to the clerk for placement back in the store. "Sorry," I said, "I kinda got carried away."

Whew! That's now over! I'm going back to bed. But, I had so much fun, I'm ready to do it again next year.

New media, new opportunities

Yesterday I attended a great Minnesota Association of Government Communicators conference on new media and its applications for government communicators. I plan to spend some time reviewing the tips and tutorials on http://social-media-university-global.org/. While many people still do not have computer access, let alone FAST speed, the Internet allows us to uncomplicate complex issues by using video and audio as well is as the written word.

The ties that bind: Grandma Paukert

Last night’s dinner with cousins Barb Smith and Doug Lovejoy brought out shared memories of our Grandma Paukert.
We are among the “junior and senior” first-cousins in the tribe of oh … not sure …. 75? We remember the 1950s, the significance of girls wearing a square scarf folded into a triangle on your head with the knot tied at the chin; we remember the days of BIG cars, drive-ins, saddle shoes, GANT Madras shirts with the back tabs, that were collector’s items for girls. (I wonder if I still have my collection somewhere?)
We have shared memories of Grandma Paukert at that time, the matriarch of a family of 11 who lived her later years in a two-story house in Owatonna, within walking distance of the Catholic church. We “juniors and senior members of the second generation, were preteen or early teens and, although there were few times we were all together as a complete Paukert unit, we enjoyed even the anticipation of each other’s company.
Grandma’s house — the smell of apple butter and old lady; her waddle due to arthritis; her sagging boobs; her dark-colored housedresses; her long, yellow-grey hair, braided and pulled back in a bun; her love of card games, soap operas and never-ending crochet projects.
I don’t remember ever kissing or hugging her — Paukert’s aren’t known for physical displays of affection. I don’t remember her ever telling me stories, after all “hard work” was our mantra. But I remember her home being a place of warmth and safety, a place where family connected.
Every two years, a Paukert family reunion is held, but there’s fear that as the children of Elizabeth pass on (there are only three sisters living,) and as the “senior- and junior-”aged cousins move to retirement, the younger generation (whose numbers are too many to count) may no longer be interested in the Elizabeth-family-ties.
The chain would break.
Too bad … but I guess that’s the way it’s meant to be.
Now, as a grandma, I realize how important it is for me to create my own smells and experiences for my grandchildren … for their children- my great grandchildren- I will most likely only be a string of memories from their parents.