Tag Archives: Hilton

Branson for Christmas

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hilton Branson. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ever since starting Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University I’ve been thinking about the future. I’ve started to dream again and plan for things that I want to do. So, you might be confused as to why I am talking about Christmas in February. Granted we have yet to put Eva’s Christmas tree away, but in all seriousness planning for Christmas is a big deal. If you can plan to put aside enough money each month you can have yourself a very decent Christmas and it won’t follow you into February (well except for the decorations).

If your Christmas plans include vacation it is not too early to get started planning. I was looking at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing because they had some great deals on Christmas packages last year and will likely have them again this year. I’ve been to Missouri and I really liked it out there. I regret that I never drove over to Branson because I think it would have been a great place to see some shows and take some photos.

Allison and I just got back from Las Vegas and we were not impressed with the place as a potential family vacation area. I wanted to do a photo montage titled Las Vegas is for families and show all the awful stuff we saw. So if we were to go to a place that was actually for families I think that Branson would be it.

Some of the Christmas packages that appealed to me were the “It’s a Wonderful Life” package which started at $329 which included discounts on shopping, restaurants and a trip to Aspire Medical Spa. But for the family I think that the “Santa’s Coming to Town” Package would be much better. This package has a story time with Mrs. Clause in the lobby of the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel. The most fun part of this (at least for us watching Eva enjoy Christmas) would be the part where Santa himself will deliver presents cookies and milk to our room. That started at $189 per night. Another very cool package is the “Polar Express” Package. This package includes deluxe accommodations for a family of four starting at $289 and includes a first-class excursion on the Polar Express with dining car seating, hot cocoa and cookies along with a souvenir ceramic mug.

Branson is also home to many shows. There is one show that sounds very cool to me and that is the New Shanghai Circus – Acrobats of China. Watching people who can do some amazing feats is very entertaining to me and I know that Allison liked the shows we saw in Vegas so I think this one would be great. The other thing would be seeing some comedy shows, we love comedy.

I’ll be saving our pennies and maybe we’ll have a winter trip to Branson, maybe somewhere else but either way we’ll be paying for Christmas in cash this year.

Visit my sponsor: Experience the warmth and excitement of Branson

Oh My Gosh!

Oh My Gosh!
Photo-A-Day #1576

Somewhere along the way Eva picked up the phrase Oh My Gosh! She is very emphatic as she says it too. We’re not sure who actually gave her that one but she is loving it and she was entertaining quite a few people at our friend Jen’s party tonight.

Today was a busy one for us. We started out with a little Blue’s Clues as this is Eva’s new favorite thing. Thank goodness for Noggin on Comcast on Demand. I’ve gotten into watching Blue’s Clues too. I love it when Eva says “Ska-doo”. We watched for a bit and then I mowed the lawn. Finished that up and we walked down to the North Attleboro Farmer’s Market that happens in our town every Saturday from 9-12 in front of Community School. I really like that there is a quick little place that we can go to on a Saturday morning as a family and purchase very fresh vegetables and other foods. There is a blog too for the Farmer’s Market, way to use new technology to help with a traditional style program.

On the way back we stopped at a new market in town. They have great falafel and gyros. Allison stops there for those once in a while and I like to see new businesses in town succeed. While there we picked up a gyro and also some Turkey Hill Ice Cream. This was a Limited Edition flavor that is something that is so simple that it should have been made so long ago. A mocha based ice cream with cookie dough and cookies and cream, fantastic! I had some of that tonight and yeah it was fantastic. Does Turkey Hill have an opening for a blogger taste tester? I’ll throw my hat in the ring!

Then it was time to get some things done for Affiliate Summit East. I was in dire need of Business Cards so the other day I tried making some online at FedEx Kinkos. I saw that I needed to get a rush on the cards in order to get them to me on time for the conference. So I figured that I go to an actual FedEx Kinkos shop and see if I can get the business cards printed today. The local FedEx Kinkos near me does not print anything. Nothing. They have a kiosk where you can design your own business cards and other things that are sent to a place where they print them all and ship them to you or to the store. So I went to the kiosk and tried to upload the business card that I had designed on the computer in the proper size, or so I thought. I ended up going with editing a design that they had but I did get my photo on it as well as my logo on the back. With all the little extras and the rush I ended up having to overpay a bit. So I guess I should have planned better. Here are the two designs that I was thinking of doing but didn’t end up able to use them. Let me know what you think of the designs that didn’t make it.

BusinessCard3a

BusinessCard4a

. This is the final one, however it is just the proof on yellow paper.

#ase09 business cards done ...

You’ll have to come visit me at Affiliate Summit 2009 and get one. The front has a nice blue on it and uses blue and black writing. The back is black and white.

I got back to the house and there was a message from the Hilton that I’ll be staying at for Affiliate Summit. I looked closer at the reservation and realized that I had made it for August 8 – 11 that meant that I’d be going down on Saturday and back on Tuesday. That won’t do. I’m heading down Sunday. If I headed down to Affiliate Summit on Saturday I’d miss the annual Wing Off. And believe me I am not missing a Wing off! So I made the change and saved a boatload of money. So happy about that because the business cards are going to set me back and then I’ve decided to take the train from Providence to New York’s Penn Station to get to Affiliate Summit. The fare is only $117.00 and I decided that train was better than driving. I get 3 hours down and 3 hours back to get things worked on. I’m pretty sure I’m going to save money and sanity over driving and using the valet.

So on to tonight. This evening we had a good time having dinner with our friend Beth. We had the corn on the cob that we got at the Farmer’s Market as well as the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber. It was delicious. We did make a good choice buying the food locally. We’ll try and get there more often.

After dinner we headed over to our friend Jen’s for a little party. Eva of course charmed everyone and I got to talk to quite a few people about blogging and the upcoming trip. I met a guy who works for GyPSii, which is a mobile app for updating where you are and what you are doing. We talked together about Utterli, Zannel and Radar.net. It was a very interesting conversation and I’ve signed up for GyPSii which is apparently huge in China and is starting to catch on here.

After talking with that guy I talked with another guy who was really interested in my camera. We talked about my Photo-A-Day project and how he did paranormal investigations and debunked photos of suspected paranormal sightings. We also talked about how something small mentioned on the blog can become something really big, for example, Fry Sauce is something I mentioned on the blog once and then I did a contest and now I get comments occasionally on the Fry Sauce posts. It was pretty fun to talk with these new folks. I’m really getting geared up to meet new and exciting people next week and dusting off the rust on my conversational skills was just the thing I needed to get ready.

When I got home from the party (I took Eva home early) My tickets to the Market Leverage Yacht Party were waiting for me. Thank you Dina Riccobono