The Christmas Plan

• By pure coincidence, Emilie's innovation has arrived just in time for my Christmas plan. Between now + Christmas I would like everybody to come up with plans for a family outing/vacation that we'll vote for on Christmas day. The whole idea is to encourage the ongoing dialog as much as coming up with a family event. The "winner" will be the Plan that wins the most family members willing to commit to it. And for those that can't stand the idea of NOT spending $, part of your negotiating can be what you'd donate for that cause. Eg. I would host X family members for our Lake Tahoe trip.

• I'm much influenced both by Nicola's sisters weekend + my own 3-day walking trek with MY three sisters, which I cannot believe I've never done since. I was alos strongly influenced by how much I enjoyed the family celebration of Mom + Dad's 50th anniversary, which I'm ashamed to say I almost dreaded [and which was the family's introduction to James- we'll have to start numbering those too now, Madeline].

• My first thoughts were a family hike over the Sugar River bike trail from Brodhead to New Glaryus, where we'd party German-Swiss[lots of beer] style. I'd also love to do the Elroy-Sparta trail, which includes the mile-long tunnel + La Crosse also has great places to feast. I thought of a Mississippi cruise or an expensive cruise. But mostly I realized I'm probably the weakest vacation planner in the family having so little experience compared to most of you. And the process is more important than the plan to me.

• Ironically I started this Dictator of Christmas idea so that each of us could have some control. But now that it's my turn the only things I wanted to control were the timing + that the "present" has to be for everybody. Sorry, I do decree that Jolie is hereby an equal voter if she wants to be. [But I won't require church attendance on Christmas.]

• You do not have to do any of your negotiating/bribing/selling/synthesizing etc. at this site, but it sure helps. Obviously $ + location are the touchiest factors, but I have great faith in our collective creativity to come to a mutually satisfying plan. I love you all + look forward to some face-to-face debating with some of you on Thanksgiving.