Season's Greetings - Happy Holidays from Our Family to Yours!

What a year 2020 has been! February marked one year for us as a small by fans, for fans business. I remember waiting so impatiently for our first order of Tribbles to arrive in the spring. Jay and I had a great time putting together Tribble Crafts videos to show folks how to create their very own Tribble uniforms, scarves, pillows and hammocks while they waited for their pre-ordered Tribbles to arrive. You can find the Tribble Crafts playlist here.

We were very fortunate to receive our shipment of Tribbles just before things really got crazy. We passed the first part of the spring packing up and shipping out Tribbles to eagerly-waiting customers. The sales from those pre-ordered Tribbles made this whole venture possible. We will be forever grateful to everyone who believed in us from the start. Be sure to check out the supporters page in the Section K-7 app to see the names of some of those people who made this all happen. 

Here we are with the first shipment of Tribbles.

We soon turned our attention to the rest of the year and what the unexpected onset of COVID-19 would mean for us, both as a family and as a small business. We missed seeing all of you at the conventions we had previously planned to attend. It became clear very quickly that getting together in person with our new friends in the Trek community would not be possible. That's when we developed the idea for CONnected Community Con. We wanted to find a way to celebrate as a community in a way that was both fulfilling and safe. We thank all of you who were able to join us for making that day a success. 

While the year was certainly not what we expected, it was full of amazing experiences for the two of us and our small business that I wouldn't trade for the world. We couldn't believe it when Alexander Siddig offered to participate in our little virtual convention! He found out it was free to attend, and offered to be a part of it. Sid is well-known for his generosity and for his conviction that it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to celebrate what you love. Be sure to check out the Sid City Social Club meetings twice a week to experience that generosity of spirit for yourself. Jay and I have made friends with truly incredible people from all over the world in those meetings led by Sid and Mel, the leader of his social club.

This past November, Jay and I had the opportunity to interview two more of our heroes, Armin Shimerman and Kitty Swink, in a panel for our second virtual convention, The Vendor's Haul. If you missed out on that very important discussion about theatre and how the industry is coping with the events of 2020, please check it out below. And be sure to catch up on the entire playlist of panels from that day. In addition to supporting Star Trek licensee businesses, The Vendor's Haul brought together members of the community, including the SyFy Sistas, Stevie Lee, and Dr. Mohammed Noor to lead fun and important conversations about information literacy, representation in Science Fiction, and the biology of Tribbles. If you missed any of the panels, you can watch them here. You can also check out some great Trek vendors at VendorsHaul.com.

In addition to the amazing opportunities that we had to meet other Star Trek fans from all over the world, I fulfilled my own lifelong dream of sending a real-life Tribble to my childhood hero, Nichelle Nichols. We showed the prototype Tribbles to Nichelle last year at STLV, but this year we finally had real Tribbles on hand for me to send one to her as a fan. Nichelle blew my mind when she sent me a thank you video, along with her permission to share it. Receiving this video right here was one of the most exciting moments of my life. I still can't believe it happened. 

In our personal lives, Jay spent the year teaching lighting design to high school students remotely, and I completed my second and third semesters of grad school from home for my MFA in Lighting Design. It's been a strange experience for both of us, but we feel very fortunate that Jay was able to keep his job while my freelance lighting design career ground to a bit of a temporary halt. Luckily the Tribbles have keep me very busy.

Moonshine is thrilled to have both of us home with him all the time. He makes sure that we take plenty of walks to get away from our computer screens. All three of us are looking forward to a new year of small business adventures. We hope that we will have the opportunity to see all of you in person again, soon. In the meantime, please be sure to stay in touch. We will continue posting photos of the #TribblesInTrouble dressed up on our social media to keep both ourselves and our Trek community friends entertained. 

Whatever 2021 holds, we look forward to experiencing it with all of you. 

Have a safe and happy holiday season. 

LLAP

-Kayleigha