It’s Christmas Eve!

I want to take this moment to thank all my readers and clients for this past year. I have enjoyed tremendously working, communicating, and sharing with each one of you and look forward to a wonderful new year ahead.

Have a Merry Christmas tomorrow and next week a Happy New Year.

I will be on vacation next week and will be back blogging on January 3rd.

The Birthday Party Cupcakes

I am feeling sentimental today and so I want to share with you one of my memories. It was not so fond of a memory the day it happened but over the years it has morphed into a hilarious episode that makes the entire family laugh.

My husband and I have triplets, they are thirteen now, but I remember their first birthday. I proudly had a special decorated cupcake for each kid. All chocolate cupcakes as we are the chocolate lovers family.

I had this dream of this wonderful Kodak moment of our triplets picking up the cupcake so cutely by our son and so daintily by the girls and then snapping some great photos to remember forever.

What I go instead was this. I set each cupcake on each high chair tray. My husband I turned around for a millisecond (and I mean less than a heartbeat) to grab our cameras and when we turned around it was as if a cupcake bomb had gone off on each child. I’m telling you it was shocking. There was cupcake all over each kid top to bottom hair included. We had turned around for a second. There was cake smeared and rubbed in hair and all over the faces. They somehow it was all over their clothes too! Unbelievable!

In fact, the mess was so bad that I had to get a bucket of water and stand up each kid and wipe them down. I used a whole roll of paper towels. I still can’t believe the speed and cupcake devastation. We do have pictures to prove it!

The next year we did not do cupcakes but rather one cake placed far away from the kids with us fork feeding them.

I’m Back From Russia!

Well I am finally back, cured of jet lag, and ready to go. I loved Russia and the river cruise. The people are very open and friendly and the countryside is beautiful. Fortunately I did not have much trouble with the smoke issue as I left Moscow and headed to St. Petersburg before the smoke was really a problem. However the heat is a totally different story!

I particularly loved St. Petersburg and would definitely go back there to visit. I have to say after having toured a bunch of palaces that I can see why the general population rebelled. The opulent lifestyle of the royal and extended court were unbelievable at the expense of the peasants. I think I might have been on the side of the rebellion as well.

I have inserted one of my photos from the beautiful Katherine’s Palace so you can see one of my most favorite places outside of St. Petersburg.

For an easier way to tour Russia than by bus and a new hotel every night, I would recommend a river cruise. My stateroom was like a nice room at the Sheraton. But best of all was the interesting and diverse global company of travelers that made cruising and touring a real delight.