Perhaps it’s because my family is so big (my parents both have lots of siblings and lots of children), or maybe it’s because we all like to talk — a lot… But we have some interesting and hilarious discussions. To hit a few points of conversation at last night’s Christmas Eve gathering and tonight’s Christmas gathering:

• Internet dating tips from my 40-something uncles, including “Don’t even consider anyone without a picture,” “If they’re obstructed by a peice of furniture, don’t waste your time,” “There’s something wrong if they’re waaaaay in the background, and you just see a tiny dot,” “Always meet for coffee or drinks during the day… Meeting for dinner is just asking for trouble,” “Anyone with like 20 photos of themselves thinks they’re hot stuff…,” “Everybody lies,” and more.
• Spanish lessons for the whole family from Brandiann, including apparently saying “Yo” as in “Yo tengo” or “Yo necessito” or “Yo anything” only serves to emphasis the “I”. It’s redundant/unnecessary. It also makes you sound self-centered.
• The finer points of Spanish insults from Brandiann and my dad (who picked up some terminology during his stint many years ago driving cab in Southern California). Since you couldn’t be there, I’ll point you to the comment left by my sister a few weeks back.
• The trade secrets of selling meat from a truck, courtesy of my little brother. Need I say more?
• My younger cousin telling us that apparently if you shoplift from Wal-Mart and the value of the items is less than $25, you get to keep it. I don’t think I’d take my chances, but the discussion prompted by this kept us laughing.
• Now that the youngest “kid” among the cousins is well into high school, we have resigned ourselves to the kitchen kids table, leaving — for once — empty seats at the adults table in the dining room.

That’s just a sampling of the random conversations that occurred. Also, much discussion focused on my career/job prospects, my cousin’s new camera (which I literally spotted from across the room with my innate “new technology sensor”), and teaching my grandpa to use his new DVD player.

Tomorrow is our annual “Christmas Dinner” at Papa Joe’s in the valley. That means three consecutive nights with the extended family. But it’s fun, especially this year as I realize soon I won’t be able to attend our regular Sunday night dinners. (Not that I made many this year because I worked from about noon to 2 a.m. on Sunday’s supervising the Stater.) Nor will I make it home for every Easter, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc. holiday to see them as often as I do now. So it’s nice to kind of round out the year spending lots of time with them.

I just hope I don’t make a repeat of the year before last, when I had to leave to go to the emergency room for stitches because I, apparently, can’t cut a roll. I still have the scar on my finger.

The cutest thing happened last night/this morning.

I got up to go to the bathroom at about 5 a.m. I walked past my nephews’ room and noticed the light was on. I chuckled but walked on. Then, my 11-year-old nephew (who claims to be too big to believe in Santa) cracks the door and in the cutest, most innocent voice goes: “Santa?!” It was adorable.

Apparently, he and my 7-year-old nephew had both been up since 3 a.m. Now, my little brother used to wake every one of us kids up bright and early on Christmas, but we usually at least waited until dawn.

As a side note, it doesn’t even feel like Christmas when there’s no snow on the ground. This is Ohio. Where’s the snow? The weather gods couldn’t even humor me enough to have snowflakes fall and melt on impact. Nope, it’s just any other dreary December day outside. I may be the only person, but I happen to like the snow. So this is a major bummer.

My nephews, who both received shiny new bikes this morning, would probably disagree. Most years, when you get a bike for Christmas, you have to wait four months to use it. Not today. Within half an hour they were out riding around. (That was before they lost interest in it and moved on to another new toy.)

As for me, I have a few gift cards and several new books. I now have at least two dozen books waiting to be read. (Mostly they were from this semester when I bought them but didn’t have time to read anything, but I’ve added at least half a dozen in the last week.) Oh, and one of those gift cards is to Borders, where I’m sure I’ll promptly add more books to my queue.

Merry Christmas.

I came across an article, A Primer on Electronic Communication, at Inside Higher Ed that discusses basically the way you should approach professors when making first contact with them. From some stories I did this summer where I needed expert advice from academia, I don’t think I did too bad following the general guidelines. Also, I think these guidlines are worth remembering for anyone you contact:

• Write a clear and descriptive subject line.
• Address the person politely.
• State your reason for contact.
• Introduce yourself.
• Explain what you have already done.
• Restate your question, elaborate if necessary.
• Say thank you and sign off with a formal signature.
• Read your letter.
• Get in touch again in a week if you receive no response.
• Think about the larger context.

Seems like a few universals for e-mail professionalism, especially when contacting potential sources.

So, as some may recall, I previously posted about why nobody would buy an MXZ saw because nobody sits around thinking, “If only I could cut through that cinderblock.”

Well, apparently, I’m wrong.

I checked the stats on this site today and saw one of my refers was a Google search. The words entered? how to cut cinderblock. LOL.

What would you think if you were driving down the street and saw this guy hunched over a few inches off the ground, moving his head across the pavement while spewing water on the ground?

You’d probably think, “What the hell? This is why I live in the suburbs.”

Or, you could think, wow, it’s a cool new trend called “spit art.” Somehow, I don’t think it will catch on. But even so, you do have to admit, though gross, it is kind of impressive.

So, as I previously blogged about the NY Times ongoing series American Album, this MSNBC multimedia project (Vanishing Americana) is another reminder of the power journalists have to tell the untold or un-thought about stories. Seriously, when was the last time you considered the average age of barbers? (It’s 57.) And did you even know that milkmen still exist? (I didn’t.)

It’s something to think about. I like the idea behind this package/series in that MSNBC is taking a look at cultural icons everyone knows and many identify with and holding up a mirror to ask, well, whatever happened to?

It could be an interesting project for any newsroom. Either a quick and dirty 10-inch ditty on the topic/person or something more. (It seems MSNBC did both. Though, there’s no real explaination why.) Maybe a day-in-the-life-of for several different jobs or people or places? (Full disclosure: For feature writing a few summers back, I spent 12 hours riding around in 90+ degree weather on an ice cream truck. It sucked. But the story turned out to be pretty humorous and the reporting experience was something worth doing. Would I do it again? Probably, but I’d rather take on the day in the life of something entirely new.)

In today’s Beacon, there’s a column about a family with 16 children and how they deal with the holidays. Can you imagine how crazy that would be?

I thought my family — seven kids… five older sisters and one younger brother — was too big to manage. I can’t even imagine being one of 16.