December 2011 - Stay N Alive

Christmas Traditions (Stay N Faithful)

This is a re-post from my more personal blog, Stay N Faithful. I thought due to the timeliness, it was worth sharing this bit of my life with you as well. Please enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

As I finish up the night, stockings all hung, presents wrapped and under the tree, I can’t help but reflect back on all the traditions my family has participated in over the years. Christmas, in my family, is about tradition, family, and loving one another as we reflect on all the years we have spent with each other.

In my childhood, we all had stockings, made from patterns from my grandmother that my Mom made. My Dad even had his own stocking, made by his grandmother that he would hang alongside ours. We didn’t have much money growing up, so we’d spend Christmas Eve usually as a family, some times going over to someone else’s Christmas party and others just enjoying time with each other. We’d always, as Christians, read Luke Chapter 2 and eventually our traditions wound up with us opening up one gift from a sibling that night. I’d then have a sleepless night pretending to sleep when I really couldn’t, wishing the night could go faster.

As I got older and even though I knew, in my heart, that Santa Claus wasn’t real, the Spirit of Santa Claus was still there, and I still secretly wanted him to be real. I’d imagine all night long, what if my parents themselves had just stopped believing in Santa but he really did come? Yet I still wasn’t quite sure how all the presents got there in the morning. I also enjoyed adding to the mystique and happiness, the story of Santa Claus brought onto my younger brothers and sisters faces and enjoyed keeping the story alive for them. Even today I enjoy playing Santa and keeping the story alive in my children’s lives, with “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.” I think the Ballet, “The Nutcracker” sums up that fantasy well – it’s the essence of what being a child is all about, and again goes back to traditions, and remembering our childhoods as we grow old and how innocent we were.

As a child, on Christmas day we would wake up, usually way too early waiting for the designated time our parents set to wake them up and open up presents. By that time I usually had scoped out approximately what Santa had laid out for us at night and was eager to open the new presents. Our Mom would always make us eat a full breakfast so all the candy from Santa didn’t spoil our meals, and we’d get at least something healthy that morning (even if it was sugar cereal, as we usually enjoyed). For Christmas dinner, we would usually have a ham, some times turkey. After spending time with our new toys and presents, we’d often go see a movie or go do something special together as a family. For us, Christmas really was about family.

Now that I’m older, I find similar traditions permeating my own family into the lives of my wife and kids. Every year we visit my in-laws (my parents live all the way in Boston so we don’t see them as often as we would like). We open presents from the in-laws, have dinner, and spend time with my wife’s parents and siblings.

We then spend Christmas Eve as a family. Just as a child, we read Luke Chapter 2, and this year we even watched an amazing presentation of Luke Chapter 2 set in ancient Israel produced on the iPad (very few words – really amazing! Go check it out now!) by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think this itself will become a new tradition for our family.

We then finish the night with a piano recital by each of my kids (they are taught piano by my wife, who plays beautifully), a trumpet solo by me, and a beautiful piano solo from my wife. We end the performance with a couple songs we sing with each other and top it off with “Silent Night.” We have a family prayer and everyone rushes to bed, trying to beat NORAD’s Santa tracker on Google to when Santa is supposed to arrive.

Then begins the present wrapping and visit by Santa. As we’re wrapping presents, my wife and I enjoy watching traditional Christmas shows. Some times we watch “A Christmas Story”, with its own portrayal of tradition and youth from the view of a child. Other times we watch midnight mass, enjoying the ancient Catholic tradition that goes back to early days of Christianity and the spirit that is felt there.

Lately I find myself watching a production of my Grandpa’s, “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas”. This new tradition shows the view from an old, lonely man (played by Jimmy Stewart), and his own desire to get the most out of Christmas, despite his lonely circumstances. I like it because it makes me think about others that could be like him in the world, and those that may not have family with them to celebrate these traditions each year.

Even as I write this, I’m starting a new tradition. In the background I’m playing back-to-back episodes of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Music and the Spoken Word” Christmas specials. This has become near and dear to my heart lately as I’ve had a few opportunities to help out the choir in their social media efforts.

I think Mr. Krueger said it best when he said the purpose of Christmas was to love one another. As a Christian, our tradition is that Christ himself suggested the same. In fact, as I reflect on Christmas traditions and going back to my own childhood, I can’t help but remember Christ’s own direction, “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Even Christ himself, who in our tradition is the Savior of mankind, came to the world as a child, and asked us all to reflect on that.

May you all remember your own childhood traditions as you go about this Christmas. My hope is that, believer or not, we can all take the Spirit of Christmas to heart, becoming as little children just as Jesus Christ did in Luke Chapter 2, as my own family reads every year. I believe there is much to be learned from each others’ traditions, and hope me sharing mine can help instill a little tradition into each of your own lives this Christmas.

May you all have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year this season, and may you all experience wonderful traditions in your lives.  Hopefully the videos shared in this post give you more to think about this season of giving, and reflecting back on our own childhoods and traditions.

3 Common Sense Tips for Holiday Travel (Stay N Abroad)


With many of us hitting the road and the skies during the next week, here are a few common sense tips to make traveling a little easier.

Tip #1–Check the Weather

This should be obvious, but many of us get so locked into our plans we forget to take the weather into consideration. One memorable year, an uncle of mine insisted on leaving as scheduled despite a severe storm. The consequence–he was stranded on a shutdown 1-80 in Wyoming. He ultimately made it home a day late–same as if he had waited until the storm was over before leaving. If flying, make sure to check before you leave for the airport and keep in mind that layovers can be problematic because of weather delays.

A Walk Down Path Takes You Home Sweet Home

I’m no stranger to the power of social networks. I have 3 books on Facebook and 1 on Google+, and have built an entire business around Twitter. So far, the majority of my current career is built around bringing attention to people and brands through social media (of course, while making them more personable).

As a result, I’ve built what some consider to be a considerable audience in the process. When I speak, there’s a good chance people hear. When I share, people of all types receive, comment, and share my posts, many that I’ve never met. This comes at a cost though. Now I have to think twice when sharing pictures of my kids. I have to think carefully the personal, religious, or political posts I want to share, or when I just have a thought I want to get out of my mind. To be honest, I can’t really share “me” as much as I like. That’s why when Path recently did a Pivot towards being a “smart journal”, I listened, and boy do I feel at home!

When I first started using social networks like Twitter, and eventually Facebook when they allowed people to post status updates (yes, Twitter offered that first, technically), I used them as a journal. Twitter, for quite some time, was a way for me to let my wife know what I was doing. I even used it to share the birth of my 4th child to my family. As someone who keeps a journal, but doesn’t have the opportunity to update quite often enough, I found these sites a great way to keep an archive of my life, 140 characters or so at a time.

Unfortunately I’ve lost the ability to do that though. Facebook and Google+ have lists and privacy controls so I can target updates to lists of close friends and family, which I use, but I find there’s a barrier there that makes me have to think of just one more step, one more learning curve, to allow me to share my most personal updates with my close friends and family. That’s where Path comes in.

Path — The Smart Journal for Your Life

Path, originally just a photo sharing app for the iPhone, has rebranded to become a journal for your life. There’s one caveat though: it only allows up to 150 friends. This makes you think – “before I accept this friend request, do I really know this person?” or, “Am I okay with this person receiving my most personal updates?” With Path, I don’t have to think twice before posting – I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what I’m about to post will only be seen by the people I want to see it, so it’s much easier to share.

On Path, nothing is public. Nothing is visible to “everyone”. Everything on Path is limited to your personal, real friends network. That’s what makes it powerful! It’s actually what Facebook originally intended to be!

Path Makes Your Journal Automatic

Path isn’t just about sharing though. There are really simple ways to share photos, with Instagram-like filters (even premium ones you can buy!). There are ways to share really short videos of what’s happening around you, and even filters for that. You can attach a location or friends that are with you. It’s very feature-rich! Path is much more than that though.

Path focuses on automating your life’s activities. As you travel from place to place and open the app, it notes the cities and the areas you’re in (you can turn this off if you’re uncomfortable with it). As I traveled from Salt Lake City to Anaheim to go to Disneyland, it noted that automatically for me. You can note when you sleep, and when you wake, and it will automatically notify your friends and yourself the temperature and weather outside when you wake up. It will also tell you how much you’re sleeping. They’re even rumored to be working on solutions to integrate devices like Fitbit to automatically track your health, sleeping habits, without any interaction from you.

Path Integrates Into Your Private Circles


I’ve know Dave Morin, founder of Path, since he was at Facebook and was one of the key players to launch Facebook’s developer platform to the world (which in turn likely made Facebook the powerhouse it is today). He knows the power of integration. The cool thing about Path is that when you share outside of Path, it doesn’t just share to the world. It uses Facebook’s privacy settings to only share with the people that are in your Path friends list. This means only they will see it on Facebook.

I can anticipate many other integration points in the future – there is all kinds of information they could be learning from your various social profiles around the web and adding to your Path journal automatically for you. Imagine photos from Facebook getting added automatically for you, or places you visit being added automatically. Or what about Foursquare checkins? Who knows what they could add in the future – I’m excited to see what happens!

If you’re looking for some peace and quiet in the world of public social media; If you’re looking for a place you can feel much more secure about what you’re sharing online; If you’re looking for a way to journal your life, and share with your most intimate friends and family, go check out Path right now. I see a bright future for Path, and it will only take you home!

Path is available for iPhone and Android devices. Go download it and give it a try. If you know me look me up!

Legoland – It’s Not About the Rides! (Stay N Abroad)

In case you didn’t read the title–Legoland is NOT about the rides. Though Legoland does have enough rides to fill an entire day (and then some), the rides are not unique (with a couple of exceptions), aimed almost exclusively at the 4-9 age group, and frankly your child would be equally happy going to a local amusement park–at least as far as rides go. Also, the ride policy on kiddie rides is borderline absurd. On some rides, children under 48 inches must ride with a guest over 55 inches (that means an adult or teen must ride with a 6-year-old on kiddie rides). This policy is not just for roller coasters (which would make sense), it is for rides like the Safari Trek, a simple jeep car ride along a track. Babies are not allowed to ride in laps on many rides making it particularly difficult for families with multiple young children (we have 3 children under 48 inches). Ironically, our under-48-inches 7-year-old who could not ride Safari Trek without an adult could drive the Volvo Cars by himself on a course that does not have a track. Uh. . .

Christmas Recipes From My Daughter (Stay N Cooking)

The following was just posted on my daughter’s cooking blog – try it out and let me know what you think!:

Ho Ho Ho here is some awesome christmas recipes from santa!!!

Awsome frosting tip! frost a cookie ( for starters preferably a oreo) with white frosting and drop 1 drop of red food coloring in the center of the cookie and be carful and make swirls out of it on the cookie.

5 Different Ways to Tour Disneyland (Stay N Abroad)

It has become an American icon–Disneyland (or Disney World). Even budget conscious large families often plan at least one trip to a Disney property. It’s magical. It’s memorable. Parades, Fireworks, Rides, Characters that come to life. It is also long lines, long days, and quite a blow to the bank account. Entire books are devoted on how to beat the lines, the heat, a cranky toddler, etc. And I recommend you read one before going on your trip. But to get you started, here are my 5 ideas on picking the right the tour for your family.