New York City Trip Part Two

Last week I wrote about our bucket list, VIP, New Year’s Eve in New York City. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Today I want to share a few other highlights from our week to give you tips and ideas for your next trip to the Big Apple! A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder Our second night in the city, we saw A Gentlemans’s Guide to Love & Murder at The Walter Kerr Theatre. Based on the 1907 Edwardian novel “Israel {Read More}

New Year’s Eve in New York City!

Tom and I checked a biggie off our bucket list last week: New Year’s Eve in New York City. And we were blessed to do it in the most amazing way possible! Tom’s hotel in the desert is part of Marriott’s Convention & Resort Network (CRN). Each year, CRN invites several top Marriott customers to a VIP New Year’s Eve in NYC experience. They also invite a few executives with Marriott to join the customers. This year WE were chosen! So {Read More}

Christmas Reflections and Cash Giveaway

December is here; can you believe it? After entertaining all week, we pulled out our white Christmas tree we bought for our hotel room last year. And on Saturday night, we celebrated Christmas with Patrick and Shandi who were here for Thanksgiving. I remember the crazy Christmases past when the kids were little. We would be up all hours of the night on Christmas Eve, wrapping and assembling toys. On Christmas morning, we would gather around the fire place, open {Read More}

Three Reasons I’m Thankful This Thanksgiving

We have so many reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Here are my top three. 1. Family is arriving!  Kids, siblings, parents, cousins, nieces, aunts and uncles! Not all of any of those categories, but a wonderful mix of many we love. One major perk that came with relocating to California is the plethora of family members just a couple hours away. Many in our family came through my dad’s second marriage. Can I just say we are blessed? So many families struggle with {Read More}

How to Prepare for Your Son’s First Holiday Visit from College

Prepare yourself.  If your son will soon coming home for his first holiday visit from college, things will be different. HE will be different. Some of the visit will be challenging. But mostly it will be different in a good way! Nonetheless, you need to prepare that this is not family business as usual. Be Prepared for the Challenges 1. You can all but forget about enforcing a curfew. He has managed on his own for a few months. Hopefully he is doing well in school and {Read More}

New on My Bucket List: A Northern Lights Norway Cruise

Thanks to Hurtigruten Cruises for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring me to add another item to my bucket list! Opinions are 100% mine. I hope you’ll click on the sponsored links because this cruise sounds absolutely amazing! When Tom and I first became empty nesters, we decided that we wanted adventure in our everyday lives as well as on special vacations. I’m usually a beach and sunshine kind of girl, but I just added a surprising entry to my bucket list: take a Norway cruise {Read More}