This being the holiday season and all, I wanted to take a moment to share my joy with all of my friends. After a very long six months of planning and secret conversations, my 27-year old son got engaged to his lovely and brilliant girlfriend, Shelley.
(I could be prejudiced and just the happy mom, but come on, isn’t she gorgeous?)
He proposed in a very romantic, old-school way at the Top of the Mark restaurant in San Francisco. After the proposal, our family, friends and the bride’s family converged on the couple, as planned by Eric. Shelley was totally surprised. She screamed and cried when she saw all nine of us.
Then a sumptuous and gorgeous small/personal/memorable party began that included many kisses and hugs with the new families getting to know each other. All in all, a magical night!
The next day we had a rollicking dinner at a kitsch Tiki restaurant. Shelley’s parents and two younger sisters (13 & 14), brother (10), mom and dad were in attendance, as well as my other son (25), his girlfriend Katie, my brother and his wife and, of course, my husband Charley and I and Eric and Shelley. The food was yummy, the band festive, the dancing energetic and the company celebratory!
This has been a difficult year for most of us. So an event such as this is made even more memorable by the sharing of love, joy and promise.
Maybe the difficult times make us all more cognizant of what we really need to remember, what keeps us all going, what we will all remember after the work, fame, fortune and money is gone. Family, friends, love, attachments, good times; let’s keep each other close in the new year as things improve.
And on a business note, Christmas season retail sales were up 5.5 percent according to SpendingPulse, the largest rise since 2005. Let us all give thanks for our friends, family and better times in 2011!
JB Research - Good to Know 
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