It's been a hard days' night...

"Be careful what you wish for." That tired old cliche comes to mind this incredibly hectic and surreal week. Typical day... the 4 of us... Minna, Michelle, my mother (unwitting innocent accomplice visiting from New Jersey) and I are awoken before dawn by phones ringing with baritone voiced drive time DJs from the East Coast on the line. After an hour of this, things calm down and we grab a quick breakfast, followed by an hour of downloading the newest web site orders. Minna goes off to pre-school, and Mom and Michelle walk down to the barn and start packing orders while I answer the emails. Most people are extremely supportive, but then there are the angry ones. Sometimes, if I have the time and the spirit, I'll try to answer and explain my point of view as best I can... explaining that Chrismukkah is not a real holiday.. . it's more a happy state of mind which we interfaith families share during the month of December... that it's not a mixing of religion... unless one considers "Frosty the Snowman" to be a Christian icon, or "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer" an insult to Judaism. It's very depressing to realize how angry and intolerant some people are. We spend the rest of the l day pulling and packing orders, with me doing the last minute 20 mile rush to the Livingston post office and UPS Store to drop off the day's orders. Then, as the light fades, it's back on the phone doing another interview or two, followed by several hours going through the newly arrived orders and emails. It's after midnight before we go to bed. But isn't this what we wanted? To change the world even if only in a small but positive way. To make a difference. To get people to talk about things they haven't talked about before. To spark people so that there is an exchange of ideas, points of view, opinions. The word Chrismukkah seems to be entering the national conciousness this holiday season. They were talking about it on Good Morning America and NPR and CNN. Fox news is covering us. The AP story has apparently been run in over 1500 newspapers around the country. For our tiny little home based venture... that's something to absorb. For many, Chrismukkah represents ideas which may be the polar opposite of religious fundemantalist belief and the religious right. Intermarriage among religions is one of the few remaining hot spots in American social culture. Anyway, I digress. It's time for dinner. Mom's made Goulash over wagon wheel noodles. One of my all time favorites to be enjoyed while she's still here.

Thanksgiving Weekend

My Mom's visit is going well. She seems to be enjoying her stay in Montana... even though she's a stranger in a strange land and it's been getting colder. She likes the privacy of her little apartment above the barn.... watching the ever changing patterns of light and the wildlife roaming about from her window overlooking the Yellowstone River. It's been wonderful having a built-in babysitter. Michelle and I have been able to sneak away evenings to see a movie for the first time in months. I thought things were going to be winding down now that December 8th, the "official" beginning of Chrismukkah, is fast approaching... but instead it's getting busier every day. Web site traffic has been way up lately, and especially this weekend due to an Associated Press article which seems to be appearing in local newspapers across the country, including USA Today.com and The New York Times.com. As a result orders and email comments are arriving every few minutes, and we're spending a good chunk of this Sunday filling them. The positive email has been outnumbering negative comments 10 to 1. The Today Show was considering having us as guests, but ultimately passed. I'd like to see if we can get some cards into the hands of Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. I'm sure he'd appreciate where we're coming from. So long as we keep orders under control (we're still shipping orders out within 24 hours or sooner) I think we're going to continue to take a few radio and print media phone interviews this coming week... and hoping that some who read or hear about us actually check out the web site. Expecting to see a few more syndicated articles in the coming week.... Scripps Howard News Service among the more high profile. The big question my mother keeps asking - Will Michelle and I have time to send out our own Chrismukkah cards to friends and family? "The tailor's children always run around wearing torn clothing." Or something like that.

19 Shopping Days Left before Chrismukkah

Last night, our story was aired on local NBC TV affiliate www.KULR8.com. Check it out... there's streaming video and photos. The Wall Street Journal wrote a story about us today. Even though the article appeared on the very last page of the weekend section, we're getting lots of email from Journal readers. This week, seems I've been spending more time doing interviews than packing and shipping orders. No complaints... we're able to keep up without a problem. The Don and Mike radio show went well... I guess. We couldnt' listen since it was live. Don and Mike wanted to have fun with us...putting on heavy Jewish accents. We were also guests on a Toronto talk radio show - The Motts. We were also interviewed by reporters from The Orange County Register, the NY Jewish Week and AP wire services.

Mom's coming to visit.

This afternoon, my mother arrives at Bozeman Airport, after a long flight from Newark. She'll be staying through Thanksgiving, and we're all looking forward to home cooked Goulash and old fashioned Matzoh Ball soup. Minna is especially excited to see her NaNa.

My Mom was born in Germany in 1931 and somehow managed to survive the Holocaust. My grandmother, Minna Friedel Cohen, was Jewish, but my grandfather, was not. He was captured early in the war and spent 5 years in a Russian POW camp. When he fianlly came home, well, things just were never the same. He left again, and my grandmother took her two girls and emmigrated to New York City, where she got a job as a hat maker and raised the girls as a single mom. She died 2 years ago, and we named our daughter after her.

My mother still doesn't know quite what to make of us living in a place as foreign to her as Montana is. We'll be working on getting her to consider moving here from Northen New Jersey.

Don and Mike Show - Talk Radio - 11/17/04 3:45 PM Eastern

Michelle and I have been invited to be guests on the "Don and Mike Show" based in Washington DC at WJFK-FM. This call-in talk show is syndicated to stations around the county. We're supposed to be getting their call at 1:45 Mountain time this afternoon. That's 3:45 East Coast time. Don't know what's going to happen, but listen in if you can.

London Calling!

We were awakened this morning at 5:45 AM by a phone call from a nice fellow from the London Times. He had heard about our web site and asked if they could send a photographer over to take pictures of our cards. I told him we were far from any major US city, but that I'd send him JPEGs of the cards. This evening I looked up Saturdays' paper - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ and sure enough, there we are on the front page of the on-line edition. If anyone saw it in the London Times print edition, please let us know if our URL and a photo were included. Our favorite quote: "A British rabbi has endorsed the sending of "Chrismukkah" cards to celebrate the Jewish and Christian festivals of Hanukkah and Christmas. The concept was welcomed by Britain's leading Reform rabbi, Dr Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue. Dr Romain, who is organising a seminar in January for mixed-faith couples entitled "I'm Jewish, my partner isn't", said: "It is a very useful way of getting round the delicate religious problem of what greeting card to send a Jewish-Christian couple without upsetting either. The only surprise is that such cards have not been on the market before in view of the high number of mixed-faith marriages in Britain today." To read the entire story... click over to the "In The News" page.

Shock and Awe

Alright, the shock is beginning to wear off. The depression is starting to lift. I'm no longer afraid to raise the covers and get out of bed. The idea of moving to Canada, or Uranus is fading. Prior to election day, the orders were pouring in. They've slowed to no more than a trickle in the days since. I guess our target demographic hasn't exactly been in a holiday mood. Our new publicists in Boston, Edna and Phyllis, began to help us tell our story this week. I've already done a few interviews. A few stories have appeared on-line, and we're hoping to get some coverage in print.... especially since the Jewish press at large, is ignoring our story. By popular request, we began offering blank card versions of our Chrismukkah cards. Also a bunch of Chrismukkah mugs, T-shirts, ornaments, hats and lunchboxes... courtesy our partnership with www.Cafepress.com/chrismukkah. Now your pet can now stay warm this Chrismukkah in his own "Oy Joy" doggie warmer. We started pouring the foundation for our new2 car garage today. We've been doing without a garage these past few winters, and scaping the snow and ice off the windshields every morning gets to be a drag. Photos of our house can be seen on our website: http://www.montanavacationhome.com. I built the house a few years back as my bachelor pad vacation home, and I'm real proud.... silly and unpractical as it is now that I've got a family. The northern lights were stunning from our bedroom window the other night. Most of the geese have flown south. Snow is on the mountaintops. Winter is near.

Oh no....

Ohio is going the wrong way. And it was my birthday today.