If you watched Tac's video of The Tribe's Christmas you saw the near hysteria of The Tribe as they opened their presents. Might make one think the poor kids only receive gifts at Christmas time. To the contrary, we intentionally give to them throughout the year and somewhat minimize Christmas so we can focus on faith and family. So, I was thinking about this over the weekend, and somewhere during my 65 degree citrus tree infused run it occurred to me that I really could get used to being a snow bird, which has absolutely nothing to do with The Tribe, except that I thought about how nice it would be to live close to bloggie friends like Commodore and Momo and that's when it hit me; my kids weren't yelling and screaming because of what they received, but rather who they received it from. Chopper was ecstatic to receive a gift from the Soapinator. I don't think he even took in what it was before he set off screaming with joy. It's all about the relationship.

My kids love people and they love having people love them. Which explains why the Soap came home crying from school yesterday. The Tribe's school has a concentrated study focus each year and this year the focus was India. They learned of the caste system yesterday by role playing and as fate would have it, both Urp and Soap were assigned to the dahlit caste-the untouchables. They were allowed to be teased, they had to clean up for everyone, they could not have milk with lunch, they were only allowed to leave for the restroom once in the day and they couldn't speak to anyone not in their caste. Pretty much devastation for Soap who lives for her friends at school.

This past weekend in Arizona was Trimama's Christmas morning. It's not the gift, it's the giver. I had an awesome time with Commodore who took the day off work to chauffeur me and my crew around Tempe/Scottsdale scoping out the Ironman course. He even took us to his favorite Tribe store and his Fitness Empire. The gift of time and laughter.



Then it was on to the expo Saturday with a meet up with Momo, Dummy, Eric, Jumper, Tri Shannon, IronJenny and of course Lana- the gift of friendship and authenticity


And dinner with Iron Jenny, Iron Girl Nyhus, Greg and Mistress and the Mighty Mo- the gift of family




The gift of food and spirits with friends



and race morning, the gift of inspiration and achievement.

Thanks friends, I had a great time with all of you

but now, duty calls