My older younger brother (think before you ask) recently joined Facebook and asked me to sign up in order to share his photos. So, reluctantly, I did. Surprisingly, I found the interface to be infinitely more intuitive than Myspace which I hate but joined in order to communicate with my grandson, Dakota, while he was in Europe with his soccer team. I know, lots of folks love Myspace, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bloated, clumsy clunker.

Anyway, between the two, Facebook appears to provide a smoother user experience and a better sense of humor. For example, I found this post on the site’s own blog somewhat amusing. Apparently, some folks aren’t choosing a gender in their profiles, an omission that has caused some problems for Facebook’s language translators, so much so that they’ve asked members to kindly select one or the other. Of course, not to appear insensitive to users who haven’t yet decided which gender they want to be, Facebook has granted an exception:

“We’ve received pushback in the past from groups that find the male/female distinction too limiting. We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed.”

The male/female distinction is “too limiting”? How so, I wonder. What other distinctions might there be? Anyone?

When we vacationed last July with Cindy and Ray, Cindy had just bought a mobile GPS to help her navigate our Sacramento>Carmel>Yosemite>Folsom road trip in case our cars became separated. As I recall, she had some problems with it… beginning with getting it to stick to her windshield and later with its disagreeing with the fancy schmancy GPS in our car. So when I saw this Randall Munroe ‘toon, I immediately thought of them… and the wonderful memories came rushing back.

It seems like only yesterday… such a cute little guy, all smiles and giggles… I called him “Slick” and helped him learn to walk in front of our 4-plex apartment near Mather AFB where I was stationed… He was our first born… Yet today, somehow, he turns 45… with a beautiful family of his own! Is that possible?

Time passes far too quickly. I yearn to turn back the clock, to hold on to those precious early years… but then I would have to wait too long to know the fine man he has become… Happy birthday, Son!

It’s sometimes difficult to believe but, like us, our children do grow up. And when they grow up with good character, a keen sense of humor and, most importantly, kind hearts, they make their parents proud. Today is youngest son Jamie’s 37th birthday. It seems like only a few short years ago that we were laughing at the way his diapers drooped when he played in the little wading pool in our back yard - he was a trend-setter even then! And now he’s grown. He’s still cute and funny but, thank goodness, he’s no longer wearing droopy drawers!

“Lights please…

‘And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” - Linus Van Pelt

A tradition Dawn and I look forward to each Christmas season is “The Singing Christmas Tree” at our church. We went Saturday night a week ago and agreed it was the best performance we’ve seen. Of course, having seats in the 6th row helped, but the theme this year - Christmas celebrated around the world - was especially enjoyable. It’s the Tree’s 51st year in production and more than 25,000 people see and hear it each year. The church membership includes so many talented performers, and the production is done so professionally, we’re always amazed. We’ve already bought our tickets for next year.

Another traditional holiday event for us is attending “A Peter White Christmas” in the Gazetta Grand Ballroom. We went last Thursday night, enjoyed fifth row seats and heard some great Christmas music performed by Peter White, Rick Braun and Mindy Abair. It’s always a nice evening this time of year and helps keep us in the holiday spirit. We forgot a camera, so we grabbed a couple shots with Dawn’s iPhone. I’ll post them if they’re decent. The iPhone is great, but the camera is “iffy” when hand held in low light.

I say every year that you won’t catch me near a shopping mall during the holidays, and most years I’ve managed to steer clear of mall crowds. But despite my resolve, Dawn and I found ourselves in the “crunch” of it this season. I’d thought we were pretty much finished with Christmas shopping - we started well before Black Friday - but there were still a few straggler items we needed to procure so, much to my chagrin, we were out “in it” last night.

The worst part for me is always the standing in line; I’m a particularly poor “line stander,” especially if I’m alone. But Dawn was with me last night and it wasn’t bad at all. We got in, grabbed what we needed, and got out. And now we’re finished!

After wrapping up the shopping, we drove through some of the neighborhoods known for elaborate Christmas lights and decorations. We haven’t done that the last couple years and we’ve missed it. The homes in the “Fab 40’s” were especially well done. It was a wonderful way to tie off holiday shopping. After a relaxing dinner at Tahoe Joe’s, we drove home to watch “White Christmas” but fell asleep before it even started.

With money tight this year, we made a lot of gifts and, quite surprisingly, found that despite the work involved, we really enjoyed it. It helped us regain some of the true spirit of Christmas that we sometimes misplace when it’s all about shopping. Sure, most of what we’ll be giving the grandkids is “retail”, but much of what we’re giving the adults in our family are things we made ourselves. Dawn especially outdid herself this year, making several gifts that reminded me how truly amazing and talented she really is. She worked hard on them but was proud of what she’d accomplished when she finally finished.

We’ll be having our Christmas Eve dinner and family tree at Steve and Lori’s home again this year and we’re really looking forward to spending the evening surrounded by the kids and grandkids. Our family gets together with some regularity and it’s always fun, but Christmas is our favorite time to be with those we love.

It’s like Linus says: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Maria, a friend and neighbor of daughter Shannon, does an amazing job every year decorating her yard for Christmas. I photographed it last year because my youngest grandson, Connor, was one of her featured “angels.” You see, the central theme of Maria’s decorating, and the thing that makes it unlike any Christmas decorating you’ve ever seen, is angels and other holiday figures she’s constructed and to which she’s affixed photographic faces of neighborhood children . It’s amazing, beautiful and quite unique!

Shannon and I contacted KOVR’s Dave Bender last year to get Maria’s yard featured on his annual “Twelve days of Christmas” feature where he broadcasts the weather from beautifully decorated houses and neighborhoods over a twelve night period leading up to Christmas. Dave’s schedule last year was full, but he promised to include her this year and Wednesday was the night. I wasn’t able to be there, but I hope to photograph the display sometime during the next week and will post new photos then.

Meanwhile, to get an idea of what Maria does, flip through the 2006 album. She’s truly an amazing artist!

The Thanksgiving Day Run to Feed the Hungry is Sacramento’s largest “fun run” and a major fund raiser for the Sacramento Food Bank. Now in its 14th year, the event this year drew more then 21,000 participants who either ran the marked 10K (6.2M) course or walked/ran a 5K course through the streets of East Sacramento, raising more than $500,000 in pledges.

My 14-year-old grandson, Dakota, ran the 10K for the first time this year and finished 14th in his age group and 404th overall! He posted a very respectable chip time of 47:49.6 (48:21.0 gun time) and a pace of 7:43/M! Good job ‘Kota!

I think he plans to make it an annual event. And I don’t need to tell you how proud we all are of him. If I can drop some weight, I may train for next year’s run myself. I’ll be 65 then and who knows, maybe there’s one more 10K in these old knees of mine…

I’ve posted links to video of the entire race (in several clips) and overall race results. A new 10K race record was set this year by Alene Reta of New York City who posted a chip time of 28:37.4. Wow!

Congratulations and thank you to all the participants who dedicated part of their Thanksgiving holiday for this very worthy cause.

Like many of you, Dawn and I will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with family. But this year, with our house still under renovation and with the size of our family, we collectively decided that, this year, we should let someone else cook the turkey - and do the dishes! So we’ll be among the thousands of families that, for one reason or another, will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant.

Oh, I know, it’s not the same as sitting around your own dinner table and saying, “Pass the gravy.” But, except for Dawn and I, none of our family have a table that can accommodate all thirteen of us. And this year, we’ll have three additional guests! So we’ve picked a nice restaurant we know will do a first rate job and, when we’ve all eaten our fill, we’ll just push away from the table… and leave the cleanup to someone else.

Of course, the best part of the holiday for us, besides the magnificent dinner table, is having my family together. We’ll miss James this year - he’ll be celebrating with Liz and her family - but there’s always something wonderful about having family come together, give thanks and share a fine meal. I love the family part the most.

Lori introduced a new family tradition a couple years ago where we all wrote down the things we were thankful for during the year to be read aloud at the dinner table the following year. I doubt the setting this year will be conducive, but I hope we do it next year. It’s a great tradition! Dawn and I have so much to be thankful for and making “Thanks” part of our Thanksgiving is what it’s all about. And a great way to begin is to remember how it all began.

The first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, starred the Pilgrims, Squanto and the friendly Wampanoag tribe led by Massasoit, who celebrated a bountiful harvest and the promise of making it through the harsh New England winter. Here are some lesser-known facts about that first Thanksgiving in 1621:

Squanto was a Patuxet Indian who almost single-handedly saved the first Pilgrims from starving to death. He taught them how to catch eels and trap fish during their spring run, plant corn and pumpkins and trap beavers. He helped the Pilgrims despite having been captured and sold into slavery by an English sea captain. According to Peter Marshall and David Manuel in The Light and the Glory, Squanto was shipped to Malaga, Spain, where he was rescued by local friars, and eventually returned to Plymouth, where he discovered not one member of his tribe was left alive.

During that first Thanksgiving celebration, the Wampanoags brought to the feast fat wild turkeys and introduced the Pilgrims to a local delicacy called popcorn. Next time you enjoy some at the movies, thank the Wampanoags, not Orville Reddenbacher.

They celebrated that first Thanksgiving in October, not November. In 1941, Congress issued a national proclamation setting our observance of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

During the winter of 1621-22, an influx of new settlers eventually forced the pilgrims to live on a daily ration of five kernels of corn a piece. At the next Thanksgiving, Marshall and Manuel noted, “the first course that was served ‘…on an empty plate in front of each person were five kernels of corn… lest anyone should forget.’”

We have a lot to be thankful for, as those first pilgrims did. And for all its faults, we live in a country where we can write, speak and worship freely, and where we can attempt to right wrongs without being thrown in jail or exiled. Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Well, where there is no thankfulness, people sour, slowly, like leftover cranberry sauce. We need Thanksgiving, if for no other reason than to remember that while there may be only five kernels of corn on our plate, there are still five, and that the promise of harvest is only a season or two away.

For all the blessings bestowed upon us, Thanksgiving should serve as a day of thanks and praise. But I’m afraid some of us have lost sight of the holiday’s intended purpose.

Sure, most of us will gather tomorrow and share in the “bountiful harvest” with friends and family. But too many of us will see it as what sadly has become a day dedicated to sports and retail pursuits. We’ll settle in front of the television to watch football or strategically plan Friday’s trip to the mall for the big “Day After” sales.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that not all my Thanksgivings have resembled a Norman Rockwell painting. But I’d like to think that, as I get older, my thoughts will focus on what’s really important. So with that in mind, here are a few things I’m thankful for this year.

I have a wonderful family. I’ve been blessed with caring, honest, hard working parents, great brothers, a beautiful and loving wife, four wonderful children, four terrific grandchildren and a wonderful extended family, all of whom love me unconditionally. Yet I am mindful that there are many less fortunate.

I’m thankful for my career. Building my business has been a source of enjoyment and pride over the years and I’m thankful that I’ve been able to influence and provide a livelihood for many fine people over the last 36 years.

I’m glad I live in California. We enjoy a relatively mild climate, magnificent parks, countless pristine lakes, majestic mountains and the Pacific Ocean with some of the most beautiful coastline anywhere.

I’m thankful for the roof over my head. The recent fires in southern California were a reminder that there are people who have no permanent place to rest theirs. No one who stays warm and dry night after night should complain when there are others who have no place to sleep.

I have more than enough to eat. It’s sad to think that, while so many of us are worried about our growing waistlines, there are many who are dying of starvation or are uncertain when they’ll see their next meal.

I’m glad - and proud - I’m an American.

I’m thankful that there are men and women who have and will defend my rights as an American. You don’t have to agree with the war in Iraq, or any conflict in which the United States has ever been engaged, to know that our military will always be there to protect us. Supporting our troops is critical if we are to continue enjoying the freedoms we too often take for granted.

And I’m thankful for a lifetime of good friends. I’ve had many over the years, some who have passed on but are still with me in spirit, some with many miles between us but with whom I still enjoy a connection, and a dear few who are like family, as close as friends can be. For those I am especially thankful.

Yes, I’m indeed fortunate. Sure, I’ve been given my share of mountains, but the climb has always been worth the effort. Life is good. I’m a very thankful man.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For her birthday, I had arranged for Dawn (and I) to participate in an authentic Japanese tea ceremony, something she has wanted to experience for many years. As a special honor, ours was overseen by Sekino-sensei, the 93-year-old teacher at Nichi Bei Kai in San Francisco, and hosted by her daughter-in-law, a master of tea ceremony. John, a senior practitioner, acted as her assistant as well as our interpreter and teacher.

Tea ceremony (茶道, chadō - “the way of tea”) is a traditional ritual based on Taoism (Daoism) and influenced by Zen Buddhism in which powdered green tea is ceremonially prepared by a skilled practitioner and served to a small group of guests in a tranquil setting, in our case a traditional tea room. Since a tea practitioner must be familiar with the production and types of tea, with kimono, calligraphy, flower arranging, ceramics, incense and a wide range of other disciplines and traditional arts in addition to his or her school’s tea practices, the study of the tea ceremony takes many years and often lasts a lifetime. Even to participate as a guest in a formal tea ceremony requires knowledge of the prescribed gestures and phrases, the proper way to take tea and sweets, and general deportment in the tea room. Although Dawn and I had done some research on the subject of tea ceremony, each of the three major schools conduct their various ceremonies differently, so we relied heavily on John for instruction and guidance.

A significant part of the experience is becoming acquainted with the tools (道具, dōgu) and components used in the ceremony. There are many, but briefly they include a large iron pot which, in winter, is set into a recessed hearth and used to heat the water; a long bamboo ladle (hishaku 柄杓) with a nodule in the approximate center of the handle, used to transfer water to and from the iron pot; the tea caddy (natsume 棗) containing powdered green tea (matcha (抹茶); the tea scoop (chashaku 茶杓), usually carved from a single piece of bamboo or ivory and used to scoop tea from the tea caddy into the tea bowl; the whisk (chasen 茶筅), carved from a single piece of bamboo and used to mix the powered tea and water; and, of course, the tea bowl (chawan 茶碗). The best bowls are thrown by hand and some are extremely valuable, even priceless. Frequently named by their creators or owners, or by a tea master, bowls over four hundred years old, like the 16th century Black Raku chawan pictured below, are in use today but are used only on unusually special occasions. We were honored to use such a bowl in our ceremony.

Integral to the Japanese tea ceremony, and by far the most difficult part for me, is seiza, the basic position from which everything begins and ends. Both the host and guests sit seiza style, basically kneeling and sitting back on one’s feet, and maintain the position during the entire ceremony. All the bows performed during tea ceremony originate in the seiza position. If one isn’t used to sitting in this position for long periods of time, it can be quite uncomfortable, even painful. It certainly was for me, although Dawn had little difficulty.

Because ours was a somewhat formal ceremony, both our host and her assistant wore kimonos and we, had we owned them, would have been expected to wear kimonos as well. Dawn was the honored guest and so sat in the first position, with me to her left. She was served first and was the one to whom fell the honor of requesting permission for us to inspect the utensils before they were put away.

Our experience was memorable, enlightening and educational, a treasured glimpse into an ancient custom and culture. We were welcomed into another world and treated as honored guests. It was a wonderful and humbling experience!

Following the ceremony, we watched a student learning the intricacies of serving “thick tea.” I took the opening photo before we departed - left to right are John, our host’s assistant and our guide; Sekino-sensei, the school’s 93-year-old teacher; Dawn, the birthday girl and guest of honor; our host, Sekino-sensei’s daughter-in-law; and a student observer.

Today is my wonderful wife’s birthday and I want it to be as special for her as she is to me. So we’ll be spending her day in San Francisco doing things that she wants to do. We’ll visit the Asian Art Museum, spend time in Golden Gate Park, and experience an authentic, private Japanese tea ceremony conducted by a teacher of the ancient art of tea. And we’ll have lunch in the City and dinner somewhere special when we return. Happy birthday, Sweetheart!

Many of you may not know Dawn, so here are a few photos (click to enlarge). World, meet Dawn. Dawn, world.

Dakota, my second grandson, is in Oregon this week visiting his other grandparents. John is a fireman there and, some years ago, revived this beautiful old fire truck. He’s taken Dakota for rides on it many times over the years but, this week, look who’s driving!

Thanks Lori!