New Year's Eve

Today is New Year's Eve.  Typically this is a night of celebrating the passing of another year, and making resolutions for the new year.

And a lot of eating and drinking.

For several years we've had a late dinner with friends at a local restaurant that provided party hats, noise makers, mardi gras beads, and a free champagne toast at midnight.  Last year we went somewhere different that had a live band, buffet, and champagne toast at midnight.

This year, we just didn't feel like staying out that late.  So instead we're going to dinner around 6pm and will ring in the new year in the comfort of our flannel pajama pants, on the sofa, with the dogs, watching the New Year's Eve coverage on TV.  If we stay awake until midnight we'll go to bed shortly after.

Yeah, that's how we're gonna roll this year... like ballers.

However you choose to celebrate New Year's Eve, I hope you have a FUN and SAFE time!

Better

Beardy boy

This moment

Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve

Each year on Christmas eve I post this same video because I love Karen Carpenter and because the lyrics of this song seem especially appropriate for Christmas eve.  

So in keeping with my own little blog tradition, I wish you Merry Christmas, Darlings!

Greeting cards have all been sent, the Christmas rush is through
But I still have one wish to make, a special one for you.

 

Merry Christmas Darling.  We're apart that's true.
But I can dream and in my dreams, I'm Christmasing with you.

Holidays are joyful, there's always something new.
But ev'ryday's a holiday, when I'm near to you.

 

The lights on my tree, I wish you could see, I wish it ev'ry day.
Logs on the fire, fill me with desire to see you and to say.

 

That I wish you Merry Christmas, Happy New Year too.
I've just one wish on this Christmas eve, I wish I were with you.

 

The lights on my tree, I wish you could see, I wish it ev'ry day.
Logs on the fire, fill me with desire to see you and to say.

 

That I wish you Merry Christmas, Happy New Year too.
I've just one wish on this Christmas eve, I wish I were with you.

I wish I were with you

Its beginning to look a LOT like Christmas

I hope I don't jinx myself by saying this, but things related to Christmas seem to be going very smoothly.  Wed evening the last of the ordered gifts were delivered, just in time for my day off yesterday, so I spent the morning wrapping all of the family's gifts.

What a relief to no longer be anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Yesterday after I'd completed the wrapping another delivery came.  I was more than a little curious since I wasn't expecting any other items.  As it turns out, my thoughtful and generous friend Calvin sent me a beautiful glass ornament for our tree! 

Of course I immediately hung it on the tree.  You may remember that Calvin sent me 2 other ornaments before.  What a lovely surprise!  I'm truly honored to be a recipient of such thoughtfulness and generosity.  And I absolutely love that I'm reminded of dear ones like Calvin every year when I trim the tree.  Ornaments are truly the gifts that keep on giving!

I'm back at work today, but am off on Sat and will spend a good portion of the day baking my Reese's brownies, my Mounds brownies, a pear cake, and 2 pans of breakfast casserole to take with us.  Sat night I perform in my last Christmas Legends show, and then we'll leave bright and early Sun morning for several days in VA with the family.

We have our annual pizza and hippie roll lunch with Kerry & Hugh, Kelly, Lisa, Carl, and potentially a few others on Sun.  We're meeting Ron & James and Mike & Clark for dinner at the Taco House on Sun evening.  On Mon Spouse & I will go visit my cousin Nez and her husband Steve around lunch time, then the entire family is getting together at Spouse's sister's house on Christmas eve.  Christmas day dinner will be smaller with just some of the family, but with the addition of my aunt Mary.

I feel relaxed and happy this Christmas.  I hope you all do, too.

Beardy boy

Holiday preparations

Well, its the week before Christmas and I'm happy to say that we're in pretty good shape.

All 125 holiday cards went out in last Friday's mail.  This year I used mostly coastal-themed cards with lovely beachy Christmas scenes.  Some had a lighthouse adorned with a wreath and garland, another had 3 decorated Christmas trees on the beach, another had a coastal home/barn/lighthouse decorated with lights, and other had a wreath adorned with ribbon, starfish, sand dollars, and sea shells.  Its a Coastal Christmas!

All gifts have been purchased.  We're still awaiting the arrival of some of the gifts, so the wrapping certainly isn't done yet, but at least we know everything is either here or is on its way.  Tomorrow I'm off so I'm going to wrap everything that's here.  The items currently en-route will be wrapped on Sat. I'll also do all the baking on Sat.

And I've already planned what I'm baking to take with us.  My initial plan was to bake cookies, but I've since decided against that.  First, cookies are labor-intensive.  Although we have 3 racks in our oven and can bake 3 trays simultaneously, you've still got to move the trays around so the bottom ones don't bake faster than the upper ones, then they've all got to be transferred to cooling racks, then once cooled, transferred to cookie tins.  Second, my sister-in-law always brings a huge platter of assorted homemade cookies, so mine would just be extra.

So instead of cookies, I've decided to bake brownies.  Specifically, I'm baking Mounds brownies and Reese's brownies.  For the Mounds brownies I'll take a box brownie mix and add chocolate chips and coconut.  For the Reese's brownies I'll add chocolate chips and peanut butter chips to a box brownie mix.  I can bake them in disposal foil pans which will transport easily and will save me lots of time over baking cookies.

I'm also going to bake a pair cake.  My recipe is also simple like the brownies and doesn't require lots of extra handling.  I'll start with a yellow box cake mix, pour 1/4 of the batter into the round pan, then place pair halves in the pan, then pour the balance of the batter in and bake.  Once out of the oven, I'll pour a combination of pair juice and St Germaine liqueur over the top to create a 'wet cake'.  Just before serving I'll dust the top with confectioner's sugar.

I'll also bake breakfast casseroles for Christmas morning.  They consist of hash brown potatoes, eggs, cheese, cooked maple sausage links, milk, and salt and pepper.  I bake these at home on Sat in ceramic baking pans, let them cool, then refrigerate.  On Christmas morning we'll warm them in the oven and enjoy.

I hear TV/radio commercials, see Facebook posts and hear actual people talking about how "stressful the holidays are" and I think to myself "they're really only as stressful as you allow them to be".  If you feel you must make 50 dozen homemade cookies, then I guess it could be stressful.  But YOU have the ability to make different decisions that can result in less or no stress during the holidays, like making brownies instead of cookies, or making bake-ahead food that just needs to be warmed up.  Mostly, being prepared and not waiting until the last minute are the best stress-reducers.

Its up to YOU.

Just because

Crossfit

Outside the box

Today is my last real estate settlement of 2018.  It will be a happy day as my young clients get the keys to their brand new home; a home they didn't have to rebuild from the inside out like their last home.  I anticipate lots of smiles and excitement at the settlement table.

These clients were "walk-ins".  That means they just showed up at the office without an appointment and asked to speak to an agent, who happened to be me that day.  That almost never happens.  With the plethora of real estate information (and misinformation) on the internet, most people begin their real estate search online and have a good idea what they can expect to get and pay.  But I sat down with these clients and talked about what they wanted, where they wanted to be, and discussed details of their situation.

But in my 8 years of being a full-time agent, this has only happened to me 3 times.  That's right; 3 times in 8 years.  Obviously you can't build a business on 3 walk-ins in 8 years.  Fortunately my real estate team has done a lot to get leads by having a robust online presence, using our own team website and having profiles on public real estate websites.  We also advertise in local publications too.

But this year I was also struck by how much more business happens outside the office, which is making me think outside the box on how I can capture more of it.

As an example, I sold a home to a couple in 2012.  The wife referred a colleague to me in 2014 and that couple also bought a home from.  That couple referred a colleague to me this year and that couple bought a home from me too.  This reminded me how important word-of-mouth referrals are.  I need to think of some new ways to encourage my past clients to refer their friends and neighbors to me.  After all, I've already proven my value and trustworthiness to them so they can vouch for me when they refer others.

Another example:  2 independent clients to whom I've sold homes struck up conversations with strangers at happy hours (that's common around here).  Both clients referred those strangers to me and both have since purchased homes.  This reminded me that 'not all business happens in the board room', sometimes it happens at happy hour.  I need to consider the potential of capturing new business at happy hours.  

When the market is good and business is easy to get we can get a bit lazy with prospecting.  But as the market slows down and interest rates go up I don't want my business/income to go down too.  I need to think outside the box for ways to capture business.

I tried going to a couple of local business networking mixers but didn't find them to be helpful.  It was mostly people like me who were trying to expand their reach to new customers.  And although those people had the potential to refer their clients to me, these events were heavy with realtors so I never saw any benefit from them.  I think they're more effective in larger metropolitan areas.

Do any of you guys have any ideas to share?

Beardy boy

Gift

I received a lovely gift in the mail from Anne Marie!

How adorable is this Chihuahua bag?!?! And how sweet and thoughtful of Anne Marie to send it to me!!

I must admit, Marvin & Walter were a bit jealous.  I heard them talking in the other room (they didn't think I could hear them) saying "I thought WE were enough.  But now Daddy & Papa have OTHER Chihuahuas in the house."

So I made sure to tell them both how much we love them, that no Chihuahuas on a bag would change that, and gave them extra head scratches and belly rubs.  All seems to be right in the home again.

Just because

NYC

Last Wed Spouse & I spent the day in NYC.  My realtor association charters a bus every year on the 1st Wed in Dec so Realtors and others can spend the day in the city.  Many of us go to see a matinee, while others prefer shopping, looking at the department store windows dressed for Christmas, and site-seeing.  We try to do a bit of it all.  Our friend Joey and his husband Glenn went with us again this year too. The weather was in the upper 30s so it was cold but it wasn't windy so it was pleasant to be outside.

We started with a Christmasy photo in front of the giant balls.

Next we stopped in at Capital Grille and just beat the lunch rush.  Spouse had a rib-eye steak sandwich with caramelized onions and Havarti.  I had a lobster roll, and we both had yummy truffle fries.  Wow!

Next we headed toward the theatre, stopping in at a few stores along the way.  I admit it - I love to look inside those "I Love New York" stores at all the souvenirs and touristy crap!  I don't know why but I do.  Then we arrived at the Helen Hayes theatre.

And right next door was the famous Sardi's.

We all enjoyed Torch Song!  Its interesting because the play Torch Song was written in the early 80s, then made into a film in 1988 called Torch Song Trilogy.  Now the original play is back on Broadway.  I saw the film first so it was interesting to see how they condensed all of the locations in the film back into just a few locations in the play, like the original.

The Helen Hayes theatre is a smaller, intimate venue which we enjoyed a lot.  I'd purchased tickets online ahead of time so we were just a few rows from the stage.

After the show we walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the official tree.

While there Spouse & I posed for a photo with the tree in the background.  I posted it on Facebook and got many compliments on the photo, which I agree is one of the best of us.  I typically don't like photos of myself because my smiles don't look natural or my eyes are squinty.  But this photo turned out really well I think.

It was a very nice day in the Big Apple.

Happy birthday

...to me!  Yes, today is my birthday.  Although I do have to work today, I had Wed off for our NYC day trip and I had yesterday off because Thurs is my regular day off, so I don't mind working today.

Tonight Spouse is taking me to dinner somewhere so you can believe I will enjoy a birthday cosmo or two.

Beardy boy

New York, New York!!

Today Spouse & I are in NYC for the day with our friend Joey.  

Our local realtor group charters a bus every year, giving us an easy opportunity to get in and out of the city.

Last year we saw the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.  This year I'm super-excited that we're going to see Torch Song!

This is based on one of my favorite films Torch Song Trilogy.  If you've never seen the film, find a way!  It was one of the earliest films portraying gay men with both tenderness and strength.  I'm hoping Spouse & Joey enjoy it too.

Just because

Whirlwind weekend

I had a whirlwind weekend for sure!

In anticipation of everything happening this past weekend, I took Sat off work.  Sat morning Spouse & I met Steven for breakfast, then went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for the food we'll serve at our tree trimming party.  Once we'd put away the food, I finished decorating the inside of the house.  I'd started the decorating last weekend but finished it on Sat. 

As Spouse began making the party food, I went on a Christmas home tour.  There were 9 local homes on the tour, including a couple homes I'd toured when they were for sale.  The tour was very well attended and several of the homes were quite lovely, all decked out in their Christmas regalia.

After the tour I helped Spouse clean up the kitchen a bit, and then we met Steven for dinner.  (Thad was out of town.)  After dinner I performed as Elton John in the Blue Moon's holiday Legends show.

Whew!

Sun morning we met Steven & Thad for breakfast, then returned home where Spouse began warming the food he'd made the day before and I began setting the tables and getting the platters, bowls, and serving pieces out. Shortly before our friends began to arrive we plated the food and put the drinks out on the beverage table.  

Thanks to Spouse's cooking the day before and my planning an organization, we got everything set up with a little time to spare (let's take a selfie!) and with no yelling.  I consider this a definite "win".

Our friends arrived and we had drinks and conversation for a little while, then had dinner.  Spouse made meatballs in Italian gravy (tomato sauce), Italian sausage with peppers and onions, rolls, and a roasted vegetable pasta salad.

Then we migrated to the living room and began trimming the Christmas tree.  

Occasionally folks paused from the decorating to enjoy some sweets (brownies, chocolate chip cookies, anis pizzelles, and chocolate covered pretzels).

The tree went from this:

to this:

Yes, the tree isn't straight, and neither are we.  :-)

Everyone kept joking that we surely HAD to be nearing the end of the ornaments as the tree became colorful, but I assured them there were plenty MORE ornaments to fill in.  "I like just a little bit of green to show through" I told them.

I really love this tradition of having friends help decorate the tree.  Its a fun way to get together during the holiday season and it makes the tree look different every year.