Hurrah for Norad! Bah-Humbug to Crate&Barrel

As I sit here on Christmas Eve and reflect on the final countdown to the Big Day, I want to mention something fun that has warmed my heart and something that has not.

The Coal in the Stocking Award goes to ...

Crate & Barrel, who refused to host any charitable evening events this year, for reasons that are completely non-obvious.

For the last 3 years, I had attended the Doorways Holiday Gift-buying Event at Crate & Barrel in Arlington, Virginia. The event was always PACKED. The registers were running non-stop. The event was always held a weekday evening. It is inconceivable that C&B would have made anywhere close to this amount of money on a 'normal' evening, so it is very unclear why they discontinued this support.

But as several of us were discussing tonight, we made no purchases at Crate&Barrel this year. The only reason we purchased anything the past years was because of the charity event. We are all hopeful that they will restart the practice next year.


The Stocking full of Toys goes to ...

NORAD's Santa Tracker! What a great way to entertain and teach a little geography, too. Watching the site, and its incredibly cool tie-in to Google Earth absolutely entertained an entire household of kids and adults alike at my friend Joanna's house tonight.

Merry Christmas, and may God Bless Us, Everyone.