Grand giggles and GRAND Social No. 83 link party for grandparents

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link party

My daughter Megan, mother to my two grandsons, celebrated her 30th birthday over the weekend. Mac being the goofball that he is, he provided what Megan called "the birthday dinner entertainment."

Megan shared that birthday entertainment with me — which I just had to share with you, to start your week off with...

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Unexpected guests and GRAND Social link party No. 82

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My family's annual cookie swap — which we started long before cookie exchanges were in fashion — took place yesterday at my sister's house. She lives relatively far up in the mountains, and life up there is a wee bit different than it is here in the city.

For one thing, during the holiday festivities, the neighbors came right up to the back door and begged to join our invitation-only party.

begging deer 

Needless to say...

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Holiday Guide 2013 and GRAND Social 81

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This year's Grandma's Briefs Holiday Guide is now officially live!

The Grandma's Briefs Holiday Guide (which you can view by clicking the graphic above or the tab at the top left above the holiday briefs header) features the best of the best products I've received in the last year for review and in the past few months for inclusion in my annual gift roundup. This year's gift guide is better than ever, with more than 50 gift ideas, plus music, books and movies to celebrate the season, recipes for celebrating with friends and family.

It's a lengthy guide with video clips, music snips and more. I hope ...

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Amaze your grandkids this Thanksgiving, plus the GRAND Social link party

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It's Thanksgiving week. And though our plates are overflowing with things to do, what grandma or grandpa worth their whiskers isn't interested in adding more knowledge to their noggin? Especially when it's Thanksgiving-related tidbits we can use to dazzle our little darlings while we're together over the holiday.

So before you participate in this week's GRAND Social link party, add the following 5 Tips for a Better Thanksgiving through Chemistry to your arsenal for amazing your grandkids — and big kids, too — this Thanksgiving (it's more interesting than it sounds, I promise):

When it comes to Thanksgiving, it's best to expand our brains rather than our bellies, I always say. (Actually, I've never said that before in my life. It sounded good, though, don't ya think?)

Enough turkey talk. Time for the main course:

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BBC-Dallas: A cute kids and conference quotes wrap up mashup

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I am a blogger. And I am a grandma. The role of blogger and the role of grandma are huge parts of who I am — though not all of who I am, by any means.

As a blogger, I can never have too many tips that help me succeed; as a grandma I can never have too many pictures of my grandsons that help me smile. Today I thought I'd meld the two: combine highlights of my recent Bloggy Boot Camp experience with highlighted photos I recently took of my grandsons.

Consider this a BBC-Dallas wrap up like no other — the ultimate cute kids and conference quotes wrap up mashup.

Bloggy Boot Camp: Brand Edition, which I attended free thanks to winning the conference prize package from The SITS Girls, was two days jam-packed with technical and inspirational information from successful women and men who've been there, done that in the digital world.

The technical stuff would require, well, attending a conference to get the full benefit. The inspirational stuff is a little easier to digest out of context, so that's what I share in this wrap up (with a wee bit o' tech thrown in just for you). Some are direct quotes, some are just nuggets of truth, all are surrounded by a few fave photos of Bubby and Mac taken during my visit to their world last month.

boys and iPad 

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Wherein I attempt to master the selfie

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I like to check my baggage when I travel. I know a lot of people prefer to carry on their items, but I prefer to check. Reason being that when I travel, I take my laptop (it's not an iPad or notebook by any means) as well as my DSLR camera. Once my camera is in a bigger bag with my purse, that bag and my laptop constitute my two carry-on items, while clothes and more are checked.

That said, I didn't check my baggage for my recent trip to Dallas for Bloggy Boot Camp, a fully paid trip I won from The SITS Girls. It was a quick trip with little chance I'd be leaving the hotel (which I didn't) so I left my camera at home, packed my laptop in my suitcase and lugged it all upon the plane.

Having no DSLR along for the trip meant I had to use my iPhone for any photos. An iPhone 4S, so it's not all that great, but it works in a pinch for most things.

I'm not so sure it worked all that well for selfies. Or maybe it's the camera operator. I tried, I really did. And the following provides proof.

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Veterans Day tribute plus GRAND Social No. 78 link party

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link party

Welcome back, my friends. For those of you who stopped by on Saturday, I apologize for there being no new post. So happens that Squarespace, my host, had technical difficulties Friday afternoon on into the early hours of Saturday, and I was already engrossed in Bloggy Boot Camp sessions by then.

Thankfully things are fine here now, just in time for this moving Veterans Day tribute produced by the husband of my bloggy friend Sandra Sallin. Sandra was kind enough to grant me permission to share her husband's video, When I Come Home, with you.

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