We're Moving...

My favorite part of the journey is the people I meet along the way. Though we all have to go in our own direction I would hate to lose some of you just because I changed directions. I am moving my site over HERE so please follow along there or click the image below to continue drinking every last drop of this bottle.

Birthday Thoughts

This week's special at DTWB: Birthday Thoughts

Eating My Way Through Cabarete

In honor of one of our readers who just recently moved to Dominican Republic, specifically to the awesome town of Cabarete, I thought I'd publish this piece today. Congratulations on the move... I think you'll love it there!

My favorite thing about vacation (and island living) besides umbrella drinks is eating. I love the possibility of new restaurants and that feeling I get when I open a new menu and find something delicious to rave about. Even better is when I get to go back and eat my favorite plates over and over... and over and over again.

While Cabarete is best known as one of the Top 10 Kiteboarding cities in the world, it should also be on the map for some of the yummiest eateries on the island. So if you're ever visiting Cab, check out these local spots:

Am I With the Right Person?

"In Yiddish, there's a word for it: bashert. The meaning is something like "intended": the person who was meant for you. We're not talking about a soul mate, though modern usage often spins it that way; the original meaning is more complicated. Your basherter won't always make you happy, and your life together won't always be easy. But there's a sense of rightness, of having landed where you're supposed to be."

- Julie Orringer

Author of The Invisible Bridge

I have these dreams sometimes where Husband and I get into a ridiculous sort of fight, so ridiculous that in the dream I forget what we're fighting about. But in the dream, this ridiculous disagreement becomes so serious that we avoid each other. Soon our relationship falls apart. In my dream state, I know it's wrong- it feels abysmally wrong. Even in DreamLand it feels like a knife to the heart. I cry and tell him that  this is stupid, that we shouldn't give up and he acts indifferent. He shrugs his shoulders. He doesn't care. (Take out knife and stab heart again. Worst. Dream. Ever.)

10 Steps: How to Take the Worst Holiday Picture with Santa

A picture with Santa is one of those "must do" items on the Christmas check off list along with baking cookies and decorating the tree. For me, it is doubley exciting since my kiddos and my sister's kiddos take the picture together: 4 cousins, 2 laps, and a Santa in a pear tree. 

But take heed: the magical idea one creates in their mind of reliving their childhood Santa pictures through their own children is by no means easy. Last year, I came home early and without Husband to NJ with both kids (both barely under 2) and getting two kids dressed in Christmas attire, coats-scarves-hats-gloves on, in the car, out of the car, in the stroller, to the mall, on line, and on Santa's lap was it's own version of hell; a hell that should be accurately captured by the end product. 

What a crock it would be if after running behind kids in a crowded mall and knocking into people and waiting on line with tantrum-bellowing kids, they got to Santa's lap and smiled gloriously. That wouldn't truly reflect the spirit of Christmas pictures at the mall. By the time you reach Santa's chair, you should hope for a serious-faced kid staring blankly at the camera - or if you're lucky, like us two years ago, we hit pure gold with the trifecta of holiday picture taking. 

So if you too want the world's best worst holiday picture with Santa, follow some of these steps.