I have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and my wishes are that you all have too!  I started off with my monthly board meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  Board meetings always stress me out (and I think that they should!).  This is where I have my monthly accountability session for what is (and is not) happening with RealKidz.  I am so blessed by my board members.  They know sooo much and ask the right questions that I need to hear to help me keep things moving in the right direction (or redirecting where needed).  I always feel better after the board meetings.  My board members believe in and support me and having smart people asking important and good questions is both good for me and my company! 

So right off the bat, my weekend started with me very excited about some of the things we worked on in the meeting.  Part of this is due to a guest we had at my meeting who has started working with RealKidz.  I am so blessed and thankful for the many people who have taken me and RealKidz into their hearts and given of their time and knowledge.  It is partly for this reason that I am so confident that we will grow to be a very important and successful organization.

Thanksgiving day was spent with our neighbors and best friends.  We have been blessed there as well!  Our family is all on the other side of the country starting in Texas and then heading west from there so we don't always have family with us on these special occassions.  To have friends who bring you into their family is such a special gift.  I appreciate it for Juan and myself, but mostly because our kids have an adopted extended family to be a part of.  So much of what we have to give thanks for revolves around our relationships with other people and especially family.

We did hit some of the sales on Black Friday.  By the time we got out and about, the crowds were steady but not insane.  I am hoping that this was indeed a black Friday for stores across the country!  This has been a rough year to be a business owner so I really hope some positive news comes out of this weekend. 

Then we finished up our Christmas decorating at home with our tree.  It was always such a meaningful and special time for me growing up when we put up our tree at Thanksgiving with my mom.  My kids are both old enough now that they look forward to helping me decorate our tree.  Our tree is filled with ornaments that have been recieved as gifts over the years.  There is not a theme but if I were pressed to give it a theme name I would call it a "Family Story Tree".  A lot of the ornaments represent the loves and special interests of our different family members so we have plenty of planes for my husband, horses for my daughter, cars and Star Wars for my son, and angels and even a trombone for me.

"Well what about the New Year's Resolutions piece?" you ask.  This is a direct result of the aforementioned board meeting!  One of the things I have to do better is figure out the whole social media component to my business.  If I'm going to reach all the people out there who need RealKidz in their lives, I'm going to need to make better use of all these wonderful tools.  So that's what my big project for today is...figure out how some of these pieces actually work so that I can start using them.  We already have a RealKidz Facebook page, but ever since our intern Aki left we haven't kept it updated.  I'm gettin that figured out today so that I can start sharing more with people out there.  Juan got Ubertwitter installed on my blackberry yesterday so now I've got to learn a bit more about twitter, but at least I can start tweeting.

My early New Year's Resolution is to start my days with updates on my blog, facebook and twitter accounts.  I am so excited about the potential with these tools and I just need to reach out there and grab it.

Right now, we have everything in place to really get things in gear with RealKidz.  We have an awesome team and great products.  We're meeting an important need for plus size and above average girls who have a hard time finding clothing that fits.  We've got an amazing business opportunity for women who want to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of girls.  Now we just need to put ourselves out there so that the women who are looking for us can find us!! 

Onward and upward!!!  Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all Happy New Year's EARLY!!