Well, friends, 2011 is nearing a close, and it’s been an enlightening year.

We learned that real protests can still happen, ones powerful enough to spawn an impassioned movement worldwide.

We learned that Friday, the most sacred day of the week, will forever be marred by a whiny, lyrically challenged, brain-anesthetizing anthem (no, Ben Pang, we don’t know if Rebecca is single).

And we learned that you never know when the harsh B-29 of reality might firebomb you from behind.

Because no December is complete without an inordinate bombardment of cheer-infested messages, here’s the holiday card you’ve been waiting for. Circular protuberances not included.

We filmed it on our enviable new chalkboard hallway. Next time you’re around, maybe we’ll let you add your own drawing – if you’ve been a good girl or boy.

Happy Holidays. Here’s to throwing back five too many gingerbread and tonics this weekend.

Last week, Fast Company covered our client Proximity Designs, a non-profit design venture that designs products to ultimately help poor farmers in Myanmar. You can read all about it right here.

Okay, so we weren’t jumping up and down when we read the headline, but the article goes a long way to acknowledge a socially responsible company that is drastically improving lives by changing their economics.

It’s a market- vs. charity-based approach and it’s working. A powerful way to lift people out of poverty is to inspire their entrepreneurial drive with moneymaking products. More about how the approach is working can be found here.

Proximity recently received the Skoll Award For Social Entrepreneurship, an award given annually to a small number of social entrepreneurs who are solving the world’s most pressing problems.

Proximity founders Debbie Aung Din and Jim Taylor are indeed doing that, proximate to their customers. They listen to their customers. They even moved nearer to do so.

Listening. We like that.