Living well in 2009

A few days ago, a mystery package arrived in our office promoting a “wellness” drink.  I opened up the box, held up the mirror I found inside, and saw myself with one of the famous “Milk” mustaches.   Make sure to check out the Milk campaigns new website, www.DrinkWellLiveWell.com, where you can upload a photo of yourself (or the biggest milk drinker in your family) and share what you plan to do to live well in 2009.  You can also register to get a heads up on who will be the next celebrity Milk spokesperson.  Here’s to health!

Mom Central at CES

Stacy will be attending the Consmer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as part of the Panasonic team.  Can't wait to see the gadgets!

Planning the Perfect New Year's Eve Party

We talked to Dawn Yanek of Life & Style for tips and tricks.

CES with Panasonic!

With much excitement I will be attending the CES conference in Vegas this year from January 8th – 10th as part of the Panasonic team! Joining me will be an impressive and eclectic group, all gurus in their own spaces, including Chris Brogan, Melissa Pierce, Steve Garfield, and Cliff Ravenscraft. A little more about all of them:

Chris Brogan
I get to give Chris Brogan another hug- after all he has been declared by some to be the mayor of Twitter! Kind of Obama for us social media addicts. One of the best conference speakers I have listened to and an all-around great guy who loves connecting people. Just started sailing his own pirate ship.
Web: http://www.chrisbrogan.com
Twitter: @chrisbrogan

Steve Garfield
Fellow Bostonian and amazingly nice guy! Steve is a video blogging pioneer (started in 2004 as the first video blogger) and citizen journalist who produces several personal vlogs and contributes to media outlets such as CNN iReport and Rocketboom. Steve teaches at Boston University at the College of Communications and love that he does Qik videos from his classroom.
Web: http://stevegarfield.com (good interview on his About Me page)
Twitter: @stevegarfield

 

Melissa Pierce
Melissa is a creative coach and documentary filmmaker, currently working on her own independent film Life In Perpetual Beta. Love that she always has kids running under feet during conference calls, fellow Moms braving the social media waters. Life In Perpetual Beta is “a documentary about authenticity and the creative process, that asks the question: Is the planned life worth living?”
Web (Life In Perpetual Beta): http://lifeinperpetualbeta.com
Web (personal blog): http://www.melissapierce.com
Twitter: @melissapierce

 

Cliff Ravenscraft - Cincinnati
Cliff is a full-time podcaster, whose GSPN network produces nearly two dozen podcasts including series devoted to Hannah Montana, LOST, Heroes and other popular television shows. Committed to building a community where relationships are formed and built upon shared passions. Runs GSPN along with his wife.
Web: http://www.gspn.tv
Blog: http://www.ravenscraft.org
Twitter: @gspn

Convening this group and joining us at CES is a core team of Crayon, a dynamic marketing company working virtually from Boston, Westport, and New York.

Joseph Jaffe
President & Chief Interruptor, author of Life After the 30-Second Spot and Join the Conversation, and popular marketing blogger/podcaster
Web: http://www.jaffejuice.com
Twitter: @jaffejuice

Greg Verdino
Crayon’s Chief Strategy Officer, marketing blogger
Web: http://www.gregverdino.com
Twitter: @gregverdino

As a guest with Panasonic I will blog, vlog, and twitter about the CES conference. In addition I’ll attend Panasonic’s latest announcements and get a firsthand look at all of the company’s newest products (and even get to try out some like their new HD Camcorder!). So look for some cool pictures, video, and blogs from behind the scenes. The Panasonic team dinner on Wednesday night will also offer us a great chance to sit down with Panasonic leadership and hear more about of all the amazing things they have going on. Particularly of interest to me is their focus this coming year on families living in HD, part of an ongoing community effort.

Key invite: Friday night, January 9th, Panasonic hosts a Tweetup that you are invited to attend. I will keep everyone updated on where the event will be held so that you can come join us. To keep up with live happenings like this at CES, check #LiHD on twitter.

If you are going to CES, let me know so we can meet-up! I’ll need some friendly faces in the sea of people that populate the often-crowded and never-ending booths of this vast conference.

Responsibility Project

Thank you so much for participating in Liberty Mutual and Mom Central’s Mom Ambassador program, introducing the Responsibility Project (www.ResponsibilityProject.com) to your child, teachers, and their classes.

Enclosed, you will find several things:
➢ A letter of introduction for your child’s teacher
➢ A DVD of movie shorts that facilitate social responsibility discussions
➢ Sample questions for your child’s teacher to spark discussion

As a Mom Ambassador, we ask you to speak with your child’s teacher, introduce the Responsibility Project, and bring him or her the enclosed teacher materials. We then ask you to encourage your teacher to show the DVD to your child’s class as a springboard to talk about what responsibility is and why it is so important to be responsible.

Please speak with your child’s teacher and deliver the materials by [DATE TBD]. At any time, please feel free to connect with our team at any time if you have questions. We encourage you to be in the classroom for the discussion or lesson so you can participate and share your thoughts.

We would love your feedback! The Mom Central team will follow up with you by email to ask you to take a survey, sharing your thoughts and reactions to the Mom Ambassador program, feedback from the teacher, and how your child and his or her classmates felt about the Responsibility Project videos and the discussion about responsibility.

Celebrating our Heroes

With the holiday season upon us, it is important to remember what this time of the year is all about—being with the people we love and giving thanks for how lucky we all really are. There are so many Americans that dedicate themselves, and often their lives, to protecting all of us without question or complaint. A great website that really keeps it in perspective is GreatAmericans.com.

Celebrate with Staples and Win

More likely than not, we will all have to watch our holiday spending a little more closely this season. With all of the kids, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandparents, friends, and more to buy for, the list seems never ending for us moms. How nice would it then be if, by some holiday miracle, you could get all of your gifts without spending a penny! Staples is helping some lucky shoppers do just that; now through December 24th, 10,000 Staples customers will win their entire purchase for FREE! This is great for me - with a busy family and a busy office, I seem to be buying all sorts of things in Staples practically every week. Check out all the sweepstakes details at http://www.giftitforfree.com. With a value of up to $5,000, that could mean a lot of gifts for your family! 

Budget-Friendly Family Gifts

See Stacy's holiday gift segment on GMA!

Some More Great Gift Ideas

I often find myself shopping for the perfect presents for everyone on my list right up until the holidays! For more great ideas, click here to see what products Dana Hilmer, the Lifestyle Mom, recommends.

Diaper Drives: Help A Family in Need this Holiday Season

The holiday season is a time to share our generosity with our friends, families, and larger communities. However, especially as economic times get tough and families nationwide are tightening their belts, we need to re-think what it means to be charitable in a season in which we all feel tapped out. This year, many families struggle not only with buying toys for their children, but find themselves having to choose between food for the table and diapers for their babies or toddlers. We here at Mom Central encourage you to buy an extra package of diapers and drop them off at one of the many participating Diaper Drives nationwide to help those for whom keeping a child in clean diapers turns into a huge weekly expense.