I’m prompted to write about this topic for the simple reason that I sat beside a grandmotherly-aged woman on Friday on my plane trip to Florida. She carried on the plane with her the following: a cell phone, a PDA, an iPod, portable DVD player and a laptop. They were all hers! And in her carry on bag she had three Wii’s, the hot Christmas item.

I asked her why she did not pack the Wii’s in her luggage (which I knew she had since she told me). She said, “These are the hottest items in the world right now and I’ve got three of them; I don’t want them stolen.” So I asked the follow-up question: was she giving them to grandchildren? “Hell no,” she said, “I’m selling them on E-Bay.” She was convinced she was going to make a killing. I suppose the 46,000 other Wii sellers that where on E-Bay one week before Christmas thought the same thing.

So after the Wii discussion I commented on the other technology she was carrying around and wanted to know if it was all hers and I implied that I thought it might be a little too over the top. She looked at me like I was from another planet.

The plane ride got me thinking, so I clicked on Google when I sat down to address this week’s blog and typed in “too much technology.” I came across this great article; it is a couple of years old but in my mind still pertinent. I also got 12,100,000 other hits; however, for the sake of brevity I decided not to read them. Instead, I turned my laptop and cell phone off and went to play golf.

Yes, I still say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year instead of Happy Holidays–even though most folks know I’m a bit of a bah-humbug at Christmas. It was my misspent youth. Holidays at my house were not much fun and I guess that has carried through into my adulthood.

But with a 17 year old and a wife with a large family I’ve had to adjust. (Okay, those of you who know me are now chuckling at the thought of me adjusting to anything.) But I admit, the reasons that the holidays bug me are unimportant; the truth of the matter is the season always makes me realize how lucky I am.

I have a great staff and I give a special shout out to two of them, Maria and Ann Marie, who are both recovering from major surgery and soon to be back. We miss them and their energy.

My Princess is 17 going on 25 and applying to colleges (in Vermont no less!) and my wife is healthy after two battles with cancer. (Yup she would kill me if she knew I told people, so please don’t tell her). And finally it was 3 years ago last week that I walked out of the best hospital in the world, Brigham and Women’s in Boston, with a heart that had been fixed.

To make a long story short, I guess you could say I’ve received all the presents I could ever need or want–so go worry about your own!

I’ve spent the last three weeks looking at colleges with my 17-year old daughter and let me tell you, it’s a great experience.

A lot of folks have heard me talk about this in fear and trepidation. And yes, it had elements of all of that, but it also showed me how grown-up my daughter is. If and when you get to do this with your daughter or son…keep an open mind! I had some opinions that were all about me and not my daughter. She taught me what was important to her by passionately explaining what she liked and disliked about every school we visited. What was most amazing to me was that what I thought was important was not important to her. She had a whole different set of ideas about what she wanted in a college.

College costs a lot of money today but I believe it’s the greatest gift we can give our children. But the bigger gift is letting them have their say in the decision-making process by not trying to make the decision for them. Cutting the cord–or at least letting the cord stretch a little–is a great thing to do and it’s very empowering to both parent and child. Help your child in this very important activity but more importantly, let them be a major player.