Road Trip!

What do you do after the busiest Christmas season ever? And what do you do with your German Exchange Student when your daughter (her host sister) is in Switzerland visiting your other daughter?



What would any red-blooded American do? Take a ROAD TRIP, of course!

I needed to clear my head after the frenzy of the holidays. And I needed a lot of road time to think and plan and design new products for 2011. So, on the day after Christmas, I flew to LA with Lea, from Germany (about whom I have blogged many times!). We picked up our rent a car, drove to the Pacific, photographed Lea putting her hand in the Pacific, pointed our car to the East and started off.



The next evening we pulled into Santa Fe and, after a late dinner, connected with Ahlum Scarola - one of my earliest employees. One of the best things about having a small business is the relationships that you develop with your employees. Ahlum was always more than just an employee. In fact, my relationship started with him when he was only 9 years old. He spent a lot time at our house since he was really good buddies with my stepson.

He started to work for us when he was only 17. Over the next 10 years he wore all kinds of hats. He traveled to crafts fairs and trade shows. He was Rosella's first babysitter and 5 years later, her first basketball coach. He was my manager for awhile. He worked in our office. He did pretty much everything you could do! In fact, the two of us set a record for the most orders shipped in a day. This record stood unbroken for many years and I still have the photo of us - proudly posting in front of our mountain of boxes - in my office.

There is not enough room in a blog posting to detail everything Ahlum means to our company, to my family, and most of all, to myself.

To this day, I consider him one of the finest people I have ever met. The visit with him - and his son, Ryder - was much too short. And, unfortunately, his dear wife, Cara, was under the weather, so we missed her altogether. We will have to return to Santa Fe soon! We miss you already, Ahlum!