Welcome!

Hello and thanks for taking the time out to visit the blog for Colleen's 'virtual shower'.

My name is Kelly.  Some of you may know me, maybe you've heard my name casually dropped into a conversation about the good old days, or perhaps you've seen a post or photo or something on Colleen's Facebook wall.  Either that, or I'm completely delusional and have way too much of a sense of self importance. 

In any case, I've known Colleen for many years since our days in the snowy hamlet of Potsdam, New York, where we both attended college.  Not too many years later, Colleen was one of the key players in convincing me to move to the Boston area (although the idea of having a job that would allow me to do such luxurious things as pay rent, own a car, and even eat once in a while sounded quite appealing as well).  Over the years and the various life changes we've gone through, we've remained close friends. 

You may find the idea of a virtual shower a bit unconventional.  Believe me, so do I (and a part of me can't help but wonder if Emily Post and Miss Manners are gazing down on us shaking their heads).  But in the days of Emily and.... um... Miss (?!?), the farthest you would have to go to gather with your closest friends would be women's auxiliary or the church bazaar.  Did people even live in Colorado back then?  In any case, your friends were your neighbors and your friends and family weren't necessarily spread out all over the place.  But here we are, in 2012, and we're a pretty transient society.  Fortunately though, we have a fancy thing called technology.  It's technology that keeps us all close in spite of being miles away.  It's because of technology that it's reasonable for us to talk to our friends living across the country several times a week.  And it's technology that spurned the idea for what we're calling the virtual shower.

You see, Colleen and I talk regularly on Facebook.  Throughout her pregnancy (and before that, of course), we'd chat on a somewhat regular basis.  Even though I'm a couple of thousand miles away, I've gotten to share all of the ups and downs of life with Colleen.  I was thrilled to hear about this baby, especially since, let's face it, Colleen has had enough bad news for a while.  After what she's endured in the last couple of years, she overdue for something good to happen.  And darn it, I wanted to celebrate it!  The problem is that I live on the East coast.  To organize a gathering from across the country is quite a challenge.  And then on top of that, most of Colleen's friends and family are spread out all over the place, too.  What's a girl to do?

I reached out to Colleen's best friend, Courtney, who is also a good friend of mine from good old Potsdam (and who was also there and very welcoming when I planted myself in Boston) and thank God for technology, I was able to reach her pretty easily too.  It turns out that Court was feeling very much the same way as I was about wanting to celebrate and do something nice for Colleen, but living far away and not necessarily knowing what could be done.  You'll hear from Courtney on this blog too and I guarantee she's much more witty and entertaining than I am!

So here we are.  Our idea was to start a blog and use it as a place where we could gather from whatever far off place we find ourselves in and celebrate Baby Christiansen.  This is our virtual party room, our little corner of the internet where we can come together.  Our thought was that we could share warm wishes, photos, videos, or whatever virtual greetings we can stir up and surprise Colleen.  I know it's hard for Colleen to be so far away from so many of her loved ones, so what better way to let her know how many people love her and are thinking of her during this amazing time in her life?

I'll be posting more details about participating in the virtual shower in the coming days.  I hope you'll have an open mind and an open heart and join us in our celebration of Colleen and Scott's new baby!