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Do you recall my new year's resolution from 2012? It was to tweet more! Well, it is all too sad to report, I have a total of 24 tweets. #pathetic. I seriously didn't have anything to tweet about. Do you really want to know if I'm painting my toes hot pink or about to take a bite of a chicken sandwich? No, I didn't think so. Plus, I didn't have any motivation, until now!

I work for IBM, in case you didn't know, and we are in a competition to get the most followers on twitter over a period of two months. People, I have over 100 followers and 72 tweets in just two months. It's because I have something to talk about...#cloud #ibm #ibmpulse #apm. It might not interest you, but if it does you can find me @cmfrancese (I still use my maiden name at work!). I'm not winning the competition, but it's fun! The grand prize is an iPad!

Now to my point, the all too famous hashtag! I'm finally getting up-to-speed on twitter, I'm trying to learn the appropriate uses of the @ and # symbols and I'm relying on Hoot Suite to shorten my urls. It's a learning process. And then of course, I see the # on Instagram and Facebook. I guess it applies there too? To me, it's like saying a word that everyone is using. For example, in the 90s the word of choice might have been "totally." So today, on twitter, I would make sure and use #totally. Not sure if this is how the rest of the world sees it, but it works for me.

What will they think of next?

If you have some twitter tips, I'd love to hear them!

Christina Francese

@cmfrancese

IBMer, mom of a 3 year old, Triathlete, Austinite living in San Antonio, marketing, cloud, social media, APM (opinions are my own)

Dad's Math Night!

Last week at Davis' school they hosted "Dad's Math Night!" Which meant, bonding time for Davis and Forrest and an entire two hours of relaxation for me...I didn't even have to make dinner that night! Davis came home with a paper pizza and a noodle pattern necklace.

Having a kid in itself brings on many more weekly activities, but a kid in school makes me feel like I have 5 kids. There's fundraising, meetings, book fairs, holiday parties, color days, and much much more. I love getting involved, but sometimes it's overwhelming and I can't imagine keeping myself organized enough to add another kid in the mix. Maybe it would be different if I didn't work full time or maybe I put myself in this situation because I do want to be involved, so I sign up for a lot of activities. Either way, I propose more Dad nights!

Time to wrap up the holidays...

It's time I wrap up the holiday posts because I am getting close to being about a month behind on all that's going on in our lives! 

After Kerrville, we made our way to Austin to spend Christmas day with the Francese side of the family. We started out with a tailgate, apparently, the perfect way to kick off Christmas with the fam! We drank hot chocolate and enjoyed our prime spot in the parking lot before heading to one of my most favorite places, the Zilker Christmas tree and the Trail of Lights. For years and years we've been spinning under the tree! This year, while still beautifully lit up, it was way too crowded to really enjoy. Lucky for us, we had all enjoyed the tailgate and that was good enough for me! 

Christmas Eve was relaxing and really enjoyable. We went to a friend's house for some traditional Italian afternoon treats and drinks, then headed to mass with Father Izzy, and afterwards enjoyed a delicious seafood meal at my aunt's house. 

Davis was a huge fan of the candy canes hanging from Aunt Dede's tree!

Davis serving everyone pizza

Cousins

The girls and Grandma

After Christmas this year, everyone asked Davis if Santa came? His response, "yes, Santa came to my Aunt Dede's house!" And that's right, on Christmas Eve Santa made a surprise visit, coming through the front door because there was a fire lit in the fireplace. Davis welcomed him, gave him a chair, and immediately climbed into his lap. He was ecstatic!

"I've been good Santa"

Santa couldn't stay very long because he had a very busy night ahead of him...and one of his to-dos was to blow up this gigantic bouncy castle in Annie and Papa Tom's living room!

Christmas morning

Kerrville Christmas

The weekend before Christmas was spent in Kerrville with Forrest's mom's side of the family. Seger Christmas is an annual weekend gathering, but in a different location each year. There are 7 siblings and each year a different sibling hosts. This was my first year to repeat one of the siblings, I can't believe I've spent 8 Christmases with Forrest! 

Forrest and Blain...check out the family stockings on the fence! 

No Seger event would be complete without riding horses!

My favorite spot all weekend, the fire!

About to get on the hayride!

Prayer before dinner...and that's not even the entire circle!

Davis looooving one of the toys he found in his stocking!

Santa's Wonderland

This is some serious Santa seeing in my opinion. We drove out to The Rim to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop again this year and had a great day. 

This is definitely not a quick visit to "Santa's Wonderland." We arrived at 10am, thinking we were there when the doors first opened, come to find out, we were an hour late! They give out passes as you arrive with your designated time to see Santa. Our pass said 1pm. A whole 3 hours!! There was plenty to do in those 3 hours, including a merry-go-ride, games, arts and crafts, and lunch. When we left at 2pm, the passes being handed out were for 10pm that night! Insane! 

In line to see Santa, super super excited!

Davis politely went up to Santa and told him the one thing he wants for Christmas...a trampoline. Oh great! He loved getting a candy cane!

Riding a moose! 

Australia...under the sea and in the outback

Being an island, a huge one, Australia has some unique wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. This was a part of the trip that I really enjoyed. Australians do such a wonderful job of loving their animals and fish...and we got to see it all!

We spent one morning at the Aquarium, taking our time to learn about all the interesting sea creatures and checking out the scary sharks! But don't be fooled, the sharks are not the deadliest animal in the Australian seas, it's the Box Jellyfish and happens to be in the top 5 most deadly species in the world!  

Little Fairy Penguins

Penguins having a snack

Headed to Australia, all I could think about was that I was going to get to see a real live kangaroo! We decided to go to the Featherdale Wildlife Park instead of the zoo because ...well just take a look below... we got to actually touch the kangaroos and feed them! They were free to roam!

It's a joey!

Koala

My mom feeding the wallaby

Baby joey with mama wallaby

Dingo

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

That is the song Davis and I sang on our way to school today and I couldn't help but feel like the words lacked the magical meaning they used to before the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. This definitely does not feel like the most wonderful time of the year. As we headed towards school this morning, I looked in my rearview mirror to see the happiest little boy, grinning his cheesiest smile, bobbing his head from side to side, and surrounded by Christmas cheer! I kept my smile for him, but it was hard.

I couldn't help but imagine what those parents remember and cherish as their last memories of their precious babies last Friday morning...a morning cuddle, a bowl of cheerios, brushing teeth, putting on socks, packing a lunch, a drive to school, the wave good-bye...

Kids are so pure, so innocent. Davis doesn't even know there are bad people out there and what guns can do. This morning he asked me what the red alarm button was for on my keys. I told him it was a button that made a loud noise to call for help. He quickly nodded in understanding and said, "for the big bad wolf." I dread the day he learns the truth. For those in Newtown, the innocence is gone.

I don't share my political or religious views on this blog, and I'm not going to start now. But because I'm not writing about it, I don't want you to think I'm ignoring those issues and thoughts. I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm confused, I'm trying to solve everything in my head...aren't we all? But I did want to write a blog post today. I didn't want to post the fun pictures from our Christmasy weekend today and ignore what happened.

My prayers go to...the families who lost loved ones, the teachers and staff at the school, first responders...