Introducing Kingston Lacy Banks

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We are a Top Ten Producing Agency for El Dorado Maroma and El Dorado Seaside Suites

Seasons Greetings

Update for December 21

It is very cold here in Texas today. It was about 25 degrees when we left for church this morning and I don't think it's gotten above freezing yet. Happily, the weather is dry so transportation is not a problem.

At church we found that tickets for the 6pm Christmas Eve service are all gone. Bummer. We will go to the 8pm service.

I am floating in an ever decreasing sea of laundry. I am also trying to input all of our tax related transactions for 2008 so we'll be ready when our packet from Gene (our accountant) arrives.

Mine and my son's noses are running like faucets.

My inlaws arrive Tuesday and I have planned all of the meals for when they will be visiting. I also went grocery shopping yesterday for everything. Good grief food is expensive!

Our cleaning lady won't be back until after the inlaws leave so I am trying to stay on top of the children to keep things neat around here. Unfortunately they are unaccustomed to being concerned about such things.

Philip is out purchasing his last minute "oh my goodness the kids don't have enough gifts" gifts. I will wrap when he returns. I will also take the kids out to purchase this year's ornaments. Every year I have each kid buy an ornament that represents something important to them from that year. I put a tag on it indicating the significance. When they grow up and move away they will be able to take those ornaments with them and start their own traditions.

FunLeg 2008

Last year, Philip came up with the bright idea of the "FunLeg" trophy. We had a party at Lone Star Park where we bet on horses and whosever team won the race, they would get to take home the trophy for the year.

It has been proudly displayed in our office all year.

Thursday night was FunLeg 2008. This year it was a murder mystery dinner. I am sad to report that the trophy will have a new home this year in the Funjet office.

We worked so many hours preparing the video (which I will try to upload - but it's 22 minutes long and the file may be too big). It was a big hit.

Now I have to get busy planning food for next week since my inlaws arrive on Tuesday!

Helping the Hungry

The radio station I listen to is doing a campaign they do periodically called "Days of Hope". They take pledges to feed poor people in Haiti. The organization is called "Food for the Hungry".

I have never sponsored a child in a foreign country. I guess I have never really felt comfortable that the money was being used well or that the kids were actually being helped. (I'm not talking particularly about this organization..but all of them in general.) Also, my life has its own share of struggles. I mean, I feel pretty much like I go from thing to thing, running all the time. The plight of people so far away doesn't feel that relevant.

The part about "so far away" got me to thinking. If one of those poor children were actually sitting in my home, sitting next to my children at our dinner table, wouldn't I figure out a way to make our groceries stretch to include that child? No matter how limited our grocery budget was, wouldn't I figure out a way to fill that extra belly?

The fact that that empty belly is located in another country is simply a question of geography. If I can fill that empty belly, shouldn't I do so?

But then also, where do we draw the line? If I can feed one child, I should do it. If I can feed 50 children, should I do that too? I could feed 50 children, but it would have a pretty detrimental effect on the life of my own family. I have a responsibility to my own family too.

And, who should facilitate the feeding of the children? Who makes the best use of the funds I would provide?

So many questions, I'm not sure where to start. If you have thoughts on the subject, why don't you put them in comments so I can read them?

"After the First of the Year"

I think I've probably ranted about this before. I have a pet peeve that comes up every year at this time of year.

Why do people refuse to move forward with their life in the last two weeks of December? In any conversation you have, you're likely to hear about something the speaker will do "after the first of the year".

What is wrong with December 18th? Is it not a perfectly lovely day to plan trips and generally move other plans forward?

Tell you what, why don't you find something you've been procrastinating on and do something to move it forward right now.....

Peace is Sleep - by Trey Banks

Peace is sleep because it is rest.
Peace is sleep because it is silent.
Peace is sleep because it is refreshing.
Peace is sleep because it is nice.
Peace is sleep and it is the beginning of a perfect night.

My First Stop Action

My First Stop Action from Catherine Banks on Vimeo.

Our Recent Issue with the FDA

While recently in London, I came across this fabulous hot chocolate at my favorite tea shop. I instantly regretted the fact that I couldn't take on additional luggage because I wanted to buy several cans for teacher gifts for Christmas.

After I returned home the thought occurred to me that perhaps I could order the hot chocolate from the website. EUREKA! I ordered 44 cans that were delivered to my house 2 days later.

A few days after that we were deciding what to do as VIP client gifts. My thoughts immediately drifted back to the hot chocolate. I went back to the website and ordered 55 more cans.

This time we were not so fortunate. After several days I got a call from the New Orleans field office of the Food and Drug Administration letting me know that my shipment had been intercepted because it didn't have the nutritional labeling in the proper format required in the United States.

Huh?!?!

They told me that if I could get the information required from the manufacturer that they would release my shipment "with comments". You would not believe the acrobatics, international phone calls and general whining it took to make it happen. Finally today the long lost hot chocolate has arrived.

The FDA says that we have to include the USA Nutritional Facts label with each shipment that we send as gifts. We will absolutely do it, but does that strike anyone else as ridiculous?

Houston Airport Last Night

Philip, his sister Cile, along with two dear friends Terri and Rue Ann ended up sleeping in the Houston airport last night because of the snow in the area.

They were traveling home from Cabo San Lucas.

El Dorado Maroma and El Dorado Seaside Suites

Marty just got back from the GIVC Awards in Cancun. We won awards for being in the top 10 agencies for El Dorado Maroma and also El Dorado Seaside Suites.

It's nice to have the recognition of our expertise in these great resorts.

Again, My Brother

Happy Birthday to Me

I just received this via email from my brother.


Happy Birthday to me from Jonny from Catherine Banks on Vimeo.

Twitter

Do you Twitter?

Wonder what I'm talking about?

From Wikipedia: "Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."

I have a personal Twitter account. I also post daily to our Legacy Travel Twitter account. "Tweets" (entries to Twitter) are simply very short updates of 140 characters or less. For the Legacy Travel account I put a different great travel deal each day. For my personal account I just put personal thoughts up when I think of them..or maybe when I do something notable.

Follow me on Twitter
Follow Legacy Travel on Twitter

Happy Friday

I am sitting here in my living room, wearing jingle bells around my neck, waiting for my husband to come home from work, my son to come home from across the street, my daughter to come home from Latin Club and my sister in law to arrive from out of town.
I have fuzzy slippers on and I've been drinking tea. All in all not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

My house looks like an elf exploded in it. I hauled out the Christmas decorations, and some are even displayed, but there are still about 10 boxes in the living room. Some of them are tree ornaments which is understandable since we don't have a tree yet. The rest of the boxes are decorations about which I have not yet decided. I inherited quite an assortment of decorations from my mom which is great. However, using all of them every year can get a little overwhelming. Displaying them isn't so much the problem. The problem lies in taking down the decorations. I hate taking down Christmas decorations.

The period of time between Christmas and Easter is a real downer for me. No leaves on the trees, no sparkly lights, no Christmas anticipation to carry me through. Once spring is well under way all is well again...

Well, Philip just called and said that my sister in law is about to pull up...so I guess I'll say goodbye!

Salon Pompeo

I have been going to Salon Pompeo for a few years now. Deanna just opened a 2nd location located at the Hotel Palomar at Mockingbird and 75.

I'm here right now under the hair dryer. At the new location Deanna has put a table and chairs with dryers that are connected to the wall and come down to your hair via a flexible arm. You sit at the table...so you can eat or blog or whatever.

Brilliant!