fbpx

NORAD Santa Tracker

Stories say that it was a mis-dialed call in the mid 1950s that led organizers to begin what is now the Santa Tracker, a bi-national program that runs each Christmas and now employs fighter pilots, several different air force bases and staff, and over 1500 volunteers! In 2014 there were over a hundred thousand phone calls and almost 20 million visits to the NORAD Santa Tracker website!¹ Luckily for me, I know someone important in the know down there at NORAD! Major Jennifer Stadnyk happens to be the poor soul I message with Public Affairs questions every once and a while and, because she’s just an all-around good person, she helps me out. Much more importantly, Major Stadnyk has the pretty incredible job of being a Public Affairs Officer for Santa Clause at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs. How is that not the coolest job ever? In 2013 I interviewed Major Stadnyk about the Track Santa program and thankfully again this year she was able to take a moment during Santa’s busiest season to answer a few updated questions for us to let us know more about how we can our kids can track Santa in 2016!   1. I think being a Public Affairs Officer for Santa is possibly the coolest job in the CAF! How did you find yourself with this job? I also think it’s pretty cool! I found myself working in the CFB Kingston public affairs office during the ice storm of 1998 and really fell in love with the importance of communicating what the Canadian Armed Forces was doing to support the local community, I knew that’s where I needed to be! Being a PAO allows me to catch…

Canadian military families who make stuff

If you’re like me, around early September you have fleeting thoughts as you buy a Christmas gift that you are so ahead of schedule. So ahead. Like, it’s amazing how forward thinking you are. You should probably take a break. And then, mid December, you are scrambling wondering how you managed to take that early start and turn it into a last minute rush. This year, I have NO idea what to get Dh, and the jury is still out on the kids. And we only do stockings at our house, so you’d think it would be easier! So in my hunt for unique gift ideas (because I hate spending money on crap that I am only buying because I have to get *something* and I know they won’t use or care about it) I started compiling a list of other Canadian military members and/or family members who were talented enough to sell things that they create themselves. Turns out there’s a ton of them, and they have great ideas! So, slackers like me, rejoice. Maybe you’ll find an idea in here. Or, maybe you’ll leave this screen open in the hopes your spouse does. Or maybe, you’ll just order it for yourself. Your call, I don’t judge.  As far as I’m concerned, the best part about holidays when your member is deployed is that you get *exactly* what you want for Christmas. You just have to wrap it and put it under the tree yourself. Disclaimers: You will find that MLM businesses like Sentsy, DoTerra, Tupperware, etc are not listed. Not because they don’t have value, but simply because of the sheer volume of people selling…