I’ve been training my mom on Skype. Even though we’re really no further away from her now, in New York, than we were when we lived in Toronto, she feels as though the virtual distance between us has increased by a significant order of magnitude, and needs to feel more connected. So I got her on Skype, so that we could video chat once a week.

It’s been an interesting process.

The good news is that, despite it taking some getting used to, Skype is proving to be one of my mom’s very favorite things. I have to call her, and I have to avoid instant messaging her through Skype before I do so, but if she’s got her computer on and Skype open – which she usually does, because she’s afraid that if she turns it off she’ll never get any of it back on again – I can just hit the video call button and she answers. And then I just stand back and let her and Emilia make knock-knock jokes at each other.

It’s awesome, it really is. Especially now, at the holidays, when the distance weighs upon us more heavily. We won’t be with my mom for Christmas, but we can sure as hell share knock-knock jokes and show off hair cuts and do puppet shows – we did that, once – and, maybe, even open some presents together on Christmas Day.

If my mom has her computer on, that is. Maybe she should ask Santa for an iPad.