The Never-ending Cold, From Phoeniz to Freezing, Holiday Greetings

Hi gang!
Happy Monday. It's another Monday of sniffling, sneezing and coughing for me. Today I broke down and called my doctor's office, practically demanding drugs of some sort. I'm starting a round of antibiotics and praying that they help me kick this crud. I've successfully passed it on to Michael and I know a lot of you have it too ... let's get well soon!

It's been especially frustrating for me to be sick during the past few days because I made a trip to Arizona to see my folks. At least there the sun was shining and the temperature was as warm as 70 degrees on some days. Boy did that make it a shocker to head to the Y this morning and see 1 on the temperature display. One. Yuck.

Here are my parents, "bundled up" for one of our nighttime outings. We went on a tour of light displays in the Phoenix area. I'd post some of those pictures but they really don't do the sights any justice, so let's just move on shall we?

This is my cousin Miles, his wife Brooke and son Max. Don't they look like they could be found in the pages of a J. Crew catalogue? Too cute. Miles and I were having trouble remembering the last time we'd seen each other, which is sad. During this trip there were lots of promises made about getting together with family more often.

This is my Aunt Beck - otherwise known as "Grandma FeeFee."

She's my dad's younger sister. In high school when I was waiting tables in my hometown complete strangers visiting from out of town would ask me, "Are you Rebecca Moody's daughter? You're a dead ringer for her." I'd explain that I was her niece and to this day I consider the assumption that we're related a huge compliment.

These are relatives from the other side of the family! My cousin Sean, his wife Katrina and kids Sophie and Zach.

My mom made a huge batch of these fantastic caramel brownies and I just had to capture Zach's face as he was eating one. Yuuuuummmmmm!

It was challenging to capture any pics of Sophie because she was constantly on the move, but I did get her to give me this pose. Can you say, "America's Next Top Model"?

Have your parents saved just about every thing you ever created as a kid? Mine have, and this angel I made in preschool was perched by the Christmas Tree. It spurred a discussion about Christmas memories and specifically the year my dad dressed up as Santa to surprise me and my cousins Sean and Nicole. It's one of my most vivid childhood memories and Sean says he remembers it like it was yesterday. At that time we were all Santa skeptics and my mom says when Dad/Santa came walking down the stairs into the basement that night we were all "teeth and eyeballs." Priceless. Thanks, Dad.

Since we're on the topic of Christmas, I want to address the issue of holiday greetings. We get a lot of feedback about everything we do and say on television, and this time of year much of it relates to the terms we use when talking about the holidays. Last week a woman wrote an email because she was upset after seeing two different promos. In one we were saying "Happy Holidays" and in another "Happy Hanukkah." She was angry that there was no "Merry Christmas." I wrote to her explaining that we recorded several messages - including "Merry Christmas" and I hoped she would see that one soon. Another man sent an angry email because we called the tree at the statehouse the "holiday tree." We called it that on the air because that's what the Governor's Office is calling it. My point is - there seems to be a lot of tip-toeing around what we should say this time of year. I really don't think it matters. Just yesterday I said both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" to people at the airport. Does it matter? And if I said "Happy Kwanzaa" or "Happy Hanukkah" would you really be offended? This time of year means different things to different people and I think it would be refreshing if we respected them all.

I'm out of time.

Have a great week!

EEK

Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com