Last year I blogged about having a “Buy Nothing Christmas“. (For clarification, we didn’t actually do this last year, but I blogged about it.) Well, times are tough this year, especially for a couple members of my family. So, we (my sister, brother, and I) decided to have a “Buy Nothing Christmas” among our families. This means that instead of buying gifts for my nieces, nephew, parents, and siblings, we’re going to get creative with our gift giving.

Initially, a few family members were struggling for ideas, so we came up with some suggestions:

• search for gifts on your local freecycle
• search for gifts among things you don’t use in your own house!
• make a gift (Note: We did agree we could spend money on supplies to make gifts.)
• give of your time
• re-gift an item you received from someone else but don’t need/want
• redeem credit card points for gift cards or other gifts
• ask friends and family for items sitting around their house that they want to get rid of

I’ve had a blast “shopping” for these gifts, and so have the others. My brother found a friend who had a bunch of “princess” stuff they wanted to get rid of – perfect for his 5-year-old niece who is so into princesses these days. Many of the items were brand-new! I was able to get a $50 gift card to Red Lobster simply be redeeming some credit card points. My sister-in-law is giving my girls manicures and pedicures (at home) — wow! (We’re exchanging over Thanksgiving since my brother and his family are visiting now and won’t be here at Christmas.) And I videotaped my girls reading children’s stories (like Goodnight Moon), which I then burned onto a DVD to give to their almost 1-year-old cousin (along with the books, which my girls have outgrown).

Now I do have to admit that at first my girls responded with, “What? No presents?” (What can I say, they are normal kids.) But after we talked about why we are doing this and what they might receive instead, they got pretty excited about the possibilities… me too!

P.S. Monica at MommyBrain is collecting ways to save money at Christmas. For more tips like this, check out her blog.

P.P.S. We’re not doing a total “buy nothing Christmas” — so far it’s just with my side of the family. But I’m hoping it’ll spread to the other side next year .

Over the summer, three volunteers from Waveplace spent three months at Campo Alegria teaching children from our elementary school in Buenos Aires how to use the XO computers, furnished by One Laptop per Child. The course involved 22 children learning to create visual stories through computer programming. About a month ago they entered ten of Campo Alegria’s childrens’ stories into a worldwide contest. Judges from seven continents voted to name students from the Campo Alegria program winners of both 1st and 2nd places!

Adam (the full-time staff member at Campo Alegria) writes, “News traveled via word of mouth and soon after the pilot program had ended, the government tracked me down to ask me to head up an intiative to train 3,000 children across Nicaragua on the same technology. Of course I said “Yes” and last week we held our first class for the 40 schools selected… We are in talks with Wavepoint about them coming back down to Nicaragua to work with us on training the schools in depth on specific software for computer programming, math, and writing.”

Check out this video that was created to highlight the Nicaraguan Wavepoint pilot program.

Recently, I’ve had lots of conversations about social media with my non-technology friends. Everything from the ins and outs of Facebook to the purpose of Twitter is being discussed over casuals dinners, at the kids’ soccer games, at the bus stop, and even in the grocery store. This tells me two things.

First, social media has finally arrived. Technophites have claimed for years we were in the “age of social media,” but when my 50-something mom gets a Facebook account, I can finally agree. Enough said.
Second, social media works. No matter how my non-technical sister makes fun of me for using Twitter and updating my status on Facebook, the point is this: she’s listening, and she’s not alone.

Twitter (and the status line on Facebook, which is very similar in concept) is the ultimate in fly-on-the-wall communication. (If you’re not familiar with Twitter, read more here.) You answer the question “what are you doing” in 140 characters are less, and that message (called a “tweet”) is sent to anyone who is “following” your updates.

Many people ask why I tweet. My answer comes from a basic human need for communication. I work from home, without the benefit of annoying co-workers to interact with all day. While I don’t miss the annoying part, I do miss the human contact. I follow the Twitter updates of many designers in the Baltimore/DC area and absolutely love the feeling of being a part of a bigger design team that this provides.

On Facebook, I enjoy keeping in touch with friends, both old and new. Both Facebook and Twitter allow me to participate in a large community of folks… (here’s the beauty of it) when I want to. I can simply sit back and watch the chatter, or I can dive in and comment. It’s like sitting on a couch at a party where everyone is standing and chatting in the middle of the room — you can stand and join in when you want, or just watch if you prefer. But all along, you still get to feel as if you are surrounded by lots of chaotic activity. It’s a wonderful balance for someone like me — someone who feeds off other peoples’ energy, but needs the alone time to produce.

We all knew that regardless of yesterday’s election, half of the American people would be disappointed today. And so it is. But as we told our children this morning, we must put the negative campaigns behind us and support the man who now is poised to lead this country.

But over the past eight years, many of those who were disappointed by the election outcomes chose instead to ridicule and look down upon man elected to lead this county. The Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece about this very topic in today’s paper that reads, in part:

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty — a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Now I pray we can all come together to support Mr. Obama because we all know he’s inheriting a multitude of problems–problems that were rooted long before the current administration. Instead of those bumper stickers saying, “Don’t blame me, I voted for NAME”, I’d like to propose a new saying:

Click to read more: www.prayingforbarack.com

Note: I received this via email, and decided to share it with you. I am not the author.

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read “Vote Obama, I need the money.” I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a “Obama 08″ tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference–just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need–the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient needed money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.