I have read a few articles over the last few months on the Facebook Status Update. The gist of the articles is the the status update has become the new holiday letter - a place for bragging and "how good my life is" news.

I disagree.

For me, the status update is a window into a moment in a friend's life. The kinds of things that people chose to enter in that box tell me a lot about who they are. Personally, I like to try to find something positive in every day. If I reach the end of a day and cannot look back to find one thing that makes me smile, then my day has been pretty wretched indeed. My status updates try to glean out these gems from my day. The taste of a latte and chocolate scone when I really needed them. The joy of children and bubble wrap. The steamy good feeling of cooking up food for an evening with friends. The absurdity of walking in a lead mine in heels.

Writing about the good in our lives or the funny little quirky things is not false or a form of one-upmanship. It is about finding joy and humor in the million little things that make up every day of our lives.

Yesterday morning, Vincent came bouncing in searching for his baseball mitt and a ball, only to come back inside a few minutes later moping along about as low as possible. His friend changed his mind about playing catch, and Vincent was very sad. He went out to the backyard, where Luis was cleaning out his car.

A few minutes later, I glanced out the back window, and I saw Vincent glowing again. Luis was playing catch with him, hurt thumb and all.

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

I am a little freaked out right now. I was reading some news articles online with Simon on my lap, when he pointed to a photo of a woman on the screen and said "She die. Mama, no die, no die." The woman in the photo was killed Saturday evening when she was hit by a train. I asked him if the woman died, and he replied "She die, she die. That scary."

Creepy strange.

Last year I was lamenting the fact that our holiday meals are sometimes so steeped in tradition that I am afraid to mess with the menus too much lest I get a lot of flack from our families. I played around with a couple side dishes at last year's Thanksgiving menu. Imagine my surprise when, a couple of days ago, my mother asked if I was going to make one of those experiments again this year, a squash with coconut milk dish. This dish had a few raised eyebrows last year. I mean really, a dish with coconut milk at my extended family's German table? It was funny.

So, the coconut milk and squash dish is here to stay for a year or two. This year, I am taking out the apple pie and putting in a gingerbread-pumpkin trifle that I found in the latest issue of Gourmet. I am going to switch up the green vegetable too, but I have not figured that one out yet. I might even play around with the turkey, using a different glaze.

I still think that I had better stick with trying different stuffing recipes on other days though. Mom just would not understand if I replaced Grandma's recipe with another on a holiday.