Hasta La Gadget!

Heidi Paat wanted to give her two best friends birthday gifts that would make them feel close to the parent they each lost.

The 21-year-old student at University of California, Santa Cruz went back home to Montclair, California recently and invited her friends Vanessa Mendoza and Norma Bates for a belated birthday celebration. 

“I am so far away from them during school and I wasn’t able to come home for their birthdays in January and February,” Paat told The Huffington Post on Friday. “We met up for lunch and I decorated the trunk of my car with balloons, cupcakes, a banner, miscellaneous gifts and the biggest box was where the bears were.”

Both Mendoza, 22, and Bates, 22, had lost a parent in the last couple of years. So Paat decided to give them a stuffed bear that had a personalized voice recording.

“They opened the box, [took out the bears] and heard that Vanessa’s dad says ‘Estas chula amor… estas chula madre’ and Norma’s mom is talking about singing happy birthday and then her mom and all of the family starts singing happy birthday,” Paat said of the Build-A-Bear toys she gifted her friends.  

The Latina caught the emotional moment when they heard their parents’ voices inside their bears on video and shared it on Twitter. The video went viral.

In the 38 second clip, both Mendoza and Bates burst into tears nearly immediately after hearing their father and mother’s voices, respectively. 

“When I saw them cry it was making me tear up, which is why I stopped recording,” Paat told HuffPost. “Vanessa is usually very sentimental but Norma doesn’t cry easily so I could tell that it meant a lot to both of them. After I stopped recording we all hugged and they couldn’t stop smiling and replaying it.”

Paat said that she got the idea to include the voice recordings after she saw others gifting similar bears for Christmas to people who had lost a loved one.

To make the bears, Paat used a snippet from a tribute video Mendoza made for her father after he passed away last year. For Bates’ bear, she asked her sister for a recording of their mother’s voice.

But Paat says one thing she didn’t plan on was the overwhelmingly positive responses she’s gotten after the video went viral.

“The reactions online were truly unexpected,” Paat said. “I initially posted the video because we have mutual friends and I wanted to share the moment with them. I had also shown people my plan and they were already moved by it so they wanted to see my best friend’s reactions. When I saw so many other people were sharing the video and replying to it I was surprised but it was nice to read the sweet feedback that people gave me and how they would compare it to their feelings or similar experiences.”

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There’s a piece of advice my mom gave me before my wedding ― long before I was engaged, even. I’ve passed the wisdom on to other friends who married both before and after me.

It goes like this: Before each big moment ― walking down the aisle, being introduced as a married couple for the first time, toasting the marriage during speeches ― take a mental picture in your head. Use your eyes to mimic the flash of a camera shutter. Blink, we’re doing our first dance. Blink, we’re feeding each other wedding cake. 

My mom says she used this trick ― really an exercise in mindfulness, long before it became a buzzword ― at her own wedding over thirty years ago and remembers the day with great clarity. She recalls seeing my dad at the end of the aisle as she entered the synagogue with her mother, my father stepping on the glass as is custom at Jewish weddings while the guests yelled “Mazel Tov!” She remembers being introduced for the first time as Mr. and Mrs., cutting the cake and asking my dad not to smush it all over her face (he put a dollop on her cheek instead). She talks about taking portraits before the ceremony at the Bel Air Hotel and retreating there at the end of the night; my husband and I chose to do the same to capture a bit of their wedding magic on our own big day.  

But it’s really her advice that brought the magic. Sure, the wedding was only seven months ago, but I remember it in vivid detail ― it didn’t pass by in a whoosh like other friends and colleagues described. The night goes by fast, but making a conscious effort to be in the moment helped me memorialize both the big and little moments that made the day so special: walking down the steps of our high school where my husband and I first met to snap some photos by our lockers. Seeing our reception space for the first time, taking in all the beauty and hard work that made it happen. Singing softly to each other as we did our first dance. Feeling immensely loved by all our family and friends who had counted down as eagerly to the wedding as we had; my mom actually recalls the same of her big day. 

Below, I’ve shared photos of some of the treasured moments I took snapshots of in my head. But my takeaway is this: Don’t let the day pass you by. Do whatever you can to be present and in the moment ― even if it requires a few extra blinks here and there.

Planning and coordination: Paige Blatt of Geller Events // Venue: Skirball Cultural Center // Photography: Kevin Weinstein // Videography: Bluecat International // Floral Design: The Hidden Garden // Entertainment: Ground Control for Élan Artists and Unite Entertainment // Bridal Gown: Sabrina Dahan // Bridesmaids Dresses: Assorted from Bella Bridesmaids // Jewelry: Rahaminov Diamonds // Beauty: Blushington and Drybar // Groom’s Formalwear: Armani Collezioni // Invitations: Wedding Paper Divas // Cake: Vanilla Bake Shop // Lighting Design: Lighten Up Inc. // Linens: La Tavola Fine Linen // Rentals: Luna Party Rentals

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Remember when you were just a wee human, when a simple game like Super Mario Bros. could distract and amuse you for hours and the White House wasn’t a daily s**t show?

This administration really has become a challenge to describe, so let’s do it using something we actually like: Nintendo games. 

We perused our collection and tried to find the Nintendo games that would be the best fit for the members of Donald Trump’s cabinet.

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Padma Lakshmi and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Donate now and join us at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 31 on Facebook Live. #standforrights2017 

You can support the ACLU right away. Text POWER to 20222 to give $10 to the ACLU. The ACLU will call you to explain other actions you can take to help. Visit www.hmgf.org/t for terms. #StandForRights2017

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PC gamers and video professionals alike (among many others) live and die on fast performance. For the speed demons out there, we have some good news. JEDEC, the organization that sets standards for the microelectronics industry, says it’s currently…