Hope yours was happy! As you can see, we had fun!

The full story is on my Whrrl.

From my Page-A-Day Calendar today – I like this:

Forgiveness is underrated. Quite basically, unless we can forgive, we can never really move on.

I risk sounding incredibly um, crazy, here – but I’m hoping I’m not the only mother out there that feels like this. Perhaps it’s top of mind because it gets exacerbated when my husband’s out of town… but the Mommy Pain is something that is always in the back of my mind.

Not the pain of pregnancy or labor; screaming kids or boo boos. The Mommy Pain is a never-ending, vague yet prominent cycle of “what if” scenarios that play themselves over and over in my mind just about every day. These are nagging thoughts about what could happen someday to my children that will hurt them – and are not always (or even usually) likely scenarios. It could be as simple as the everyone-experiences-it first heart break, to a probably-in-sports-someday broken limb, to more extreme thoughts such as how will I get both children out if there’s a fire or what if someone drives by and grabs them from the yard or the panic that they have some serious disease every time they catch a little cold.

Not that I’m an over-reactive mother; I’m not. I don’t call the doctor every time they get a little fever (unless it doesn’t go down or they get worse) or panic whenever they cry (although I do get that crazy-hear-beating-lump-in-the-throat feeling). There are two things are probably at play: I’m a Type A “brain never stops” personality anyway, and I happen to obsesses about tragedies. (For example, I remember the names and details about crime victims I never knew but read or heard about.)

I’ve heard motherhood can make you smarter, and I’m pretty sure there’s all-kinds-of-ways it makes you crazy. But is my Mommy Pain natural? Am I extra crazy or do other mothers experience these daily “what if” scenarios as they go about an otherwise-normal-life!?

The whole issues of transparency in social media, networks and the like is driving me crazy. People keep blogging about being transparent and open but I think you have to keep it in context.

There have been some good blogs about this – for example, Penelope Trunk once blogged about her twenty-something business partner and the fact that he had personal photos of himself partying on his Facebook page. She talked about the age difference and how his generation is just “like that” and us Gen Xers need to lighten up. But uh, here’s the thing, some people – I would guess younger folks – have a lot less to lose. Perhaps he is just starting his career and doesn’t realize the impact total openness could have on it. Perhaps he doesn’t have a family to support or a mortgage to pay. If he loses a job for something he did or said on the Internet, he can probably get another one pretty easily without a lot of personal strife.

Transparency does not mean let it all hang out. It means to be honest and straight forward – as much as it makes sense. Don’t set up a flog or post comments under the guise of being someone else. Don’t establish a presence on social networks, communities or blogs and post comments or act like you are simply a loyal customer of some company when you actually work for them. Being transparent means being honest and open in this manner – identify yourself as an employee, or a client as a client, before posting comments – not showcasing your Friday night forays for all the world to see.

The Forbes Top 25 Web Celeb list yesterday also reminded me of this. My favorite “celeb” highlighted was someone I’d never heard of – Heather B. Armstrong. Besides being an amazingly honest, open and engaging writer, she talks about how she was fired in 2001 for blogging about people at her job. For her, total transparency meant unemployment. And even though – now – the road she was forced down as a result has paid off, it’s a one-in-a-million shot for the same outcome for most bloggers. (Despite that we’ve all come a long way since 2001…and she talks about how she had to learn her lesson on “boundaries” of transparency after hurting her family with early blog posts.)

She’s lucky – because now that she makes a living as a blogger, she can be totally transparent. And she is – and it works brilliantly. But for the rest of us – who still have to answer to clients or employees or employers – the total transparency of our opinions, thought and actions is something I question – and again say “all in context.”

Playing around on all the new social media sites – Twitter, Seesmic, what have you – I have seen a lot of “What I’m Thankful For” posts. Of course, I’m thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d follow suit:

• Two incredible sons who keep reminding me not to take everything so seriously.
• A fabulous husband who makes an amazing pumpkin cheesecake and keeps me laughing all year long.
• A close knit family and in-laws that rock, too.
• My grandfather, who is an amazing testament to living the good life. He just turned 83 and is still in the gym every day. He also spent the last 15+ years by my grandmother’s bedside while she struggled with Alzheimer’s. (I’ll be posting about that amazing story sometime soon.)
• My oldest brother (a brilliant NYU film student) who drove up from NYC with his girlfriend to spend the weekend with us.
• My new social media friends! In a very short time I’ve felt welcomed to a whole new world of Boston tech enthusiasts – and I keep learning from them every day. Amanda Mooney, Scott Monty, Chris Brogan, Sarah Wurrey, Jeff Pulver, Nate Burke and more. Thank you for all the tips – and laughs!
• The opportunity to be a working mom. Some days it feels overwhelming but I love both roles, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, back to the family.

Happy Thanksgiving!