Tis the Season

We’re smack dab in the middle of the holidays, which is why I haven’t posted much around these parts as of late. There’s simply too much going on! The family had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We did the annual Tour du Bay Area, beginning with a jaunt to Redwood City to have dinner with Sonya’s parents, then down to San Jose to eat again at my dad’s house. How do you pass up TWO turkey dinners? Simple. You don’t! Do I feel guilty? Not one bit.


Happy Holidays!
I burned off a few calories the by hosting the Turkey Bowl II the next day. This is 14 grown men, slopping around on a field playing flag football. One thing is apparent after events like this. I am not 16 anymore. My knee reminded me of this until the following Monday night.

Sonya, Karsyn, Ryno and I hooked up with my sister Michelle, brother-in-law Chris, and nephew Connor on Sunday in the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down our Christmas trees. It’s an annual even that Sonya and I have missed once in the past 13 years. The Ghione and Lee clans traipsed through the bitter cold in search of the perfect Douglas Fir to adorn our homes. We both settled on a couple of nine footers that we trucked home. Sonya and Karsyn decorated our tree and it’s beautiful.


Hauling the tree home
This Saturday night is the Yahoo Year End Party (or YEP). This is the grand daddy of all holiday parties, let me tell you. This isn’t your typical corporate yawner. Think gourmet food stands every ten feet, video games, three stages with live bands all night, a casino (complete with 15 Texas Hold’Em tables this year), a charity auction (which includes a private movie screening of your choice along with 50 guests), and more booze than you could ever imagine.

This year’s theme is Treasure Y!sland (the Y! is part of our brand), so people are rumored to be planning lavish pirate costumes. I’m giving odds on the number of Johnny Depp look-a-likes (think Pirates of the Caribbean). If the past two parties are any indication, this year’s party will be a winner.


The Lumberjacks
The auction I was mentioning is run by a foundation that is maintained solely by employees of the company. The Yahoo Employee Foundation (or YEF) handed out over $2 million in 2004 to worthy charities and non-profit organizations across the US. The foundation is funded by employee donations, fund raisers and some corporate sponsorships. Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo, matched every employee donation this year dollar for dollar out of their own pockets. It’s a little easier to do that when you’re the 9th and 10th richest people in the Bay Area, but the contributions that these guys make are no joke.

One of the other events the YEF sponsors during the holidays is a toy drive for needy children in the Bay Area. In conjunction with the Family Giving Tree, Yahoo employees pick up tags with the name and age of a needy child, and purchase a toy on behalf of that child.


Karsyn decorating the tree
Be sure to think of a child in need this holiday season, and consider a donation to this charity of one like the Second Harvest Food Bank.