How to Throw a Virtual Baby Shower

We've all got far-flung friends; Facebook and blogs make it easier than ever to stay in touch, but it's not always possible to make the long trip for special occasions.

Most of our best friends went to high school with my husband. That's what happens when you live in one spouse's hometown, I hear. One of those friends hasn't actually lived here since graduating high school, but she and Matt have always stayed close, and while she and I have only met in person three times, I think (two of which were our weddings!) we've grown closer over the years. Dear Lisa is expecting her first baby soon, and though it's long distance, I wanted to give her a shower so those of us still in Nashville could bless our old friend during this special time.

Hence, the virtual baby shower.

What is a virtual baby shower, you ask? Well, it's like any baby shower, except the guest of honor isn't physically there! It requires a little more advance planning, but overall I found it to be easier to host than a regular party! Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Schedule and Invite
After setting a date and time with the guest of honor (taking into account any time zone differences!) you need to send your invites with a little more time to spare than for most showers, and with a little more explanation. I designed this invite incorporating the keyboard and mouse imagery to set the tone.

The reason for the extra time is to accommodate the sending of your "baby shower in a box." Guests need to deliver their gifts to you (or send them directly to the mom-to-be) by a certain day 4-7 days prior to the shower.

Step 2: Prepare the Box

In addition to your gift and gifts from guests, include a bit of festivity that the guest of honor can easily set up for herself. A tabletop decoration is good, since it won't require hanging or much assembly. Think lightweight as well, since you'll be paying to ship it. I also included a pink lei she could wear (a tiara or ribbon-badge would be cute as well), and a couple of the plates and napkins we would be using. You want things to be as similar as possible on both sides to give a consistent aesthetic and help everyone feel part of one big cross-country party.

One place where that isn't totally possible is food. You need treats that will not go bad or be destroyed in transit. I asked my mother-in-law to make some of her wonderful miniature cutout cookies in baby-themed shapes; she'd made them previously for a long-distance shower we flew to Chicago to throw, and we knew they traveled well. Well-wrapped muffins or non-melting candies would work well also. I'd thought about tossing in some jordan almonds, but opted for more whimsical treats: candy necklaces and twisty straws, which I knew the little kids attending our side of the shower would enjoy too!

Step 3: Prep Your Side of Things
This was the part I found to be so much easier than a traditional shower. Since the guest of honor is off-site, not there to enjoy every detail of your "tablescape," and you don't want her to feel left out of the party, it's a good idea to keep things on-site low key. I decorated just one small area of the house—the area that would be on-camera when we Skyped with the mom-to-be—and kept the food simple. We had some pasta salad, fruit salad, store-bought mini-muffins, and some of the awesome cookies my MIL made.

Step 4: Skype!!
Or Google Hangout, whatever video chat provider you prefer. We Skyped for about an hour, chatting with our guest of honor, seeing the baby bump, getting a virtual tour of the nursery, and watching her open presents!

 

We did some baby-related trivia during our Skype session as well, though if you planned this part further in advance, you could include materials for games in the box to share with the mom-to-be: a roll of toilet paper to do the "guess-how-big-the-belly-is" game, or a printed word jumble game.

We all wish we could be close to special friends during such a special time in their lives, but social media makes virtual connection possible, and you can still celebrate together, though you're far apart.

Congrats, Lisa; we can't wait to meet Baby Jellybean!

I'm going to Blissdom!!

Just kidding.

I'm not actually attending the conference,* but I am having lunch at the Opryland Hotel today with a new friend who will be there. And while I didn't want to shell out the big bucks to go myself, I really do hope I'll have some sort of blog-celebrity sighting while I'm there.

(You hear me, super-cool blog-celebrities? Don't hang out in the sessions or parties you paid to attend--mill around by the coffee shops and restaurants instead!)

In the last year, as my own blogging has gone from about 2 posts a month to 20 and my readership has grown (from "very small" to "small"--you want a ballpark figure? Definitely smaller than a ballpark.) I have added more and more blogs to my reader. Most are mommy blogs, others are publishing blogs, churchy blogs, religion & politics blogs, and scrapbooker blogs.

Maybe it's a poor substitute for a tight-knit Sunday school class or a play group of other toddler-moms, but I really do love the connections the blog world offers, and would love tohang out with some of my favorite bloggers in person. Then again, I would probably sound like a crazy stalker-person, or feel so socially awkward and uncomfortable that I would just hide in my room!

What about you? How long have you been blogging or reading blogs? Have you ever attended a blogging conference or met up in person with people you met through blogs?


*This is the Blissdom women's blogging conference to which I am referring, though the TEA Party convention is meeting at the Opryland Hotel at the same time. I wonder if I'll spot any celebrities from that.

My Favorite Blogs

As I look through my Google Reader each day (via its little app square on my iGoogle homepage) there are some blogs I am always excited to see. Obviously, everything I add to my Reader is there for a reason--be it entertainment, professional enrichment, professional networking, or just keeping up with friends--but some I am always eager to click on first, because I know they will bring something fun, funny, or cute. (I know "insightful" and "thought-provoking" should be up there in terms of valuable content, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for cute baby pictures and interesting life-updates.)

So, here are five of my very favorite blogs. They are all much more widely read than I, so they certainly don't need any publicity I could offer, but you, dear readers, may just want to click on over and become their millionth and million-and-oneth readers and enjoy their writing as much as I do.


Kelly's Korner (http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/)
Kelly Stamps' daughter Harper was born two weeks before Kate and spent several weeks in the NICU from some unforeseen illness at birth. (Talk about scaring me to death--her pregnancy was totally normal and then the baby nearly died after birth.) Harper recovered and is now a totally healthy 9 month old. I love watching her grow and comparing (even though I shouldn't!) her milestones and all with Kate's, since they are so close in age. I also enjoy living the stay-at-home-mom life vicariously through Kelly. Her posts are mainly just day-in-the-life updates about what she and Harper are up to on their adventures to play groups and baby showers and other fun things. Kelly is extremely southern, so her writings on the Arkansas Razorbacks, Walmart, and down-home cooking are all very entertaining. Her frank discussions of her years struggling with singlehood (she was 33 or so when she married, I think) and then infertility, and her constant prayers for young women still dealing with these things are very touching. And Harper is famous for her giant hairbows. (Those of you who tease me for Kate's bows--you ain't seen nothin' til you read Kelly's blog!)

The Mom Creative (http://www.themomcreative.com/)
I discovered Jessica Turner's blog when my husband Matt told me that the wife of Matthew Turner (author and acquaintance through the Nashville Emergent Cohort) had a scrapbooking blog I should check out. That was about two years ago, I think, because Jessica wasn't even pregnant then and now her son Elias is 15 months old. It has been fun to follow Jessica through her pregnancy and early motherhood, all about six months behind her. Elias being that nice interval older than Kate helps me learn what to expect and fun things to do or try when Kate gets a little older. Jessica works in marketing and PR, and applies the same interest-generating genius to her blog, so she has fun giveaways, interesting parenthood discussions, ideas for creative memory-making, etc., plus the awesome scrapbooking that drew me to her site in the first place. (She also has an online class at Big Picture Scrapbooking about scrapbooking your baby's first year. I signed up for that and would recommend it to others.)

Milk Breath and Margaritas (http://www.milkbreathandmargaritas.blogspot.com/)
Like Jessica Turner, Amy is also a working mother, blogging in the precious spare time she steals around board meetings, day care pickup, and crazy evenings with her two little boys, nicknamed "Shark Boy" and "Honey Bear." My favorite posts are "Shark Bites" and "Bear Bites"--basically her version of "Kids Say the Darndest Things." Those boys are hilarious. Amy posts pics of her awesome wardrobe and shoe collection, so the less stylish among us can live vicariously through her sophistication. She is also a great writer, her sentimental reflections on motherhood feeling more poetic than sappy. Read this blog for great photos, recipes, fashion inspiration, and snarky, witty commentary about modern motherhood.

Cake Wrecks (http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/)
This is--in my humble opinion--the funniest thing on the Internet. I can't even remember how I discovered it, but enough other people love it that they have a book out now, highlighting (as the subtitle says) "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." The blog and the book feature photos of bakery cakes with typos, bad grammar, unintentional innuendo, general stupidity, and general ugliness. Apparently a good number of grocery store cake decorators (AKA "wreckorators") are on crack. A fan favorite is the Father's Day cake that says "Happy Falker Satherhood." Huh? Some wrecks are the result of hyper-literalism in reading the order, as is the case in the cover image for the book: a cake reading "Good Luck Suzanne / Under Neat That / We Will Miss You." This site seriously makes me laugh until I cry.

Slacktivist (www.slacktivist.typepad.com)
Ok, this one actually is "insightful" and "thought-provoking," but it's also funny. Of the various commentary blogs I read on religion and the church, I find most of them boring. I know that's sad, given my profession and academic background, but I also have a short attention span. I started reading Slacktivist just on Fridays, when he does his snarky but incredibly insightful commentary on the Left Behind books. Covering only a few pages at a time, he dissects the theology, eschatology, moral framework, writing style, and everything else about LaHaye, Jenkins, and their bestsellers. In the past few months, I've started reading his everyday posts as well, and they are just as smart and snarky as "LB Fridays." The current focus of his scathing critique is the Conservative Bible Project. Fascinating!

Tech Time Warp

Check out this BBC article in which a 13 year old Briton trades his iPod for his dad's old walkman for a week. It's as if he traveled back in time centuries, not just a couple decades. Best line: "It took me three days to figure out there was another side to the tape."

I worked in a Christian bookstore in summer 1999. I still remember a little girl in the music department with her mom, asking in that angelic voice, "Mommy, what's this?" It was a cassette tape. I felt old. I still listened to a lot of cassettes at that time (though that was largely because MP3s hadn't yet destroyed the art of the mix tape). My current car is actually my first without a tape player, and I miss my cassettes--especially those mix tapes!

It's funny how we take new technology for granted and it totally transforms the way we think. There was an article in Atlantic Monthly last year called "Is Google Making Us Stoopid?" It talks about how our attention spans are shorter and we are losing the ability to read a long, in-depth argument. (Ironically, I skimmed that article, but that was literally for lack of time.)

Technology HAS warped my brain, and not just in terms of my attention span, which was already short. (Matt was amazed the other night that I managed to watch ten minutes of videos he was showing me on YouTube without getting bored.*) I've also apparently become overreliant on my computer and its memory. One day recently I accidentally erased a phone number I had jotted on a piece of scrap paper. My first instinct was “press Ctrl-Z!” I was disappointed to realize the paper and pencil had no Ctrl-Z, and the number was irredeemably lost. Drat.

I noticed another effect of these media-induced mind-warps when discussing writing styles with one of the authors I work with, Shawn Wood. His style is very colloquial, and his prose is peppered with asides--semi-random comments that are not crucial to the topic at hand, but make the reading quite engaging and often induce a laugh in the middle of an otherwise earnest biblical exposition. An older writer-friend of Shawn's read the manuscript for his upcoming book and didn't really care for those asides. I, on the other hand, think they are great! I realized this generational difference in preferences may reflect the Gen X/Y comfort with random, ultra-brief commentary that we've grown accustomed to through texts, tweets, and Facebook updates. Younger adults have embraced (perhaps invented) a less-is-more style of communication that can paint a great picture and even add extra zest to longform writing... in 140 characters or less.


* While I usually roll my eyes at Matt's viral video finds, these two were hysterical, and I have to recommend them. First, if you haven't seen the "Literal Video" of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart, you have to. Secondly, if you've ever known an ultra-cool youth pastor, check out Ignatius.