Hotel Review: The Seaport Boston Hotel

 

this is puppy.  he is our traveling companion.

I always get excited about staying at a hotel.  Whether it’s for a family vacation or a business trip, like the one I’m about to tell you about, I just love hotels.  I love travel in general, and hotels are just one fabulous part of it all.  Maybe it’s the crisp clean sheets (hopefully!) or the fact there’s no pressure to do stuff like laundry and dishes.

So recently I had to go to Boston on a business trip.  My work in tourism marketing has me attending or participating in events to promote my region.  In this case, my region agreed to send a volunteer to help man the Maine booth at the Boston Globe Travel Show.  I’ll tell you more about the show later but today’s post is about my swanky accommodations while I was in Boston representing my state to the traveling public.  The show was at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston harbor and I booked a special rate room at the Seaport Boston Hotel. 

orchids in hallway

Getting to Boston from where I live in Maine was easy.  At the very final moments of the road trip, my gps told me to go right when I knew it was left, but I figured it had some kind of lock on one way streets and such so I followed and found myself in a multi block loop of right turns.  When I wrangled us out of that I was a little flustered.  I found the hotel and pulled up near the curb.  I got out and asked the valet how to find the garage.  He smiled and said “a right and a right.  Follow me” and I did, really relieved to have found a helpful person. 

He wasn’t the only helpful person at this hotel.  Check in was smooth and easy.  We had quite a few bags and I can usually handle that myself but a porter brought the stuff up.  Service is included in the price, so there’s no tipping expected which was kind of nice.  I never know how much to tip this person or that person.  

 

upon first arriving to our hotel room

The room wasn’t huge, but I didn’t expect huge.  What I did expect was clean, modern and nice and I got it.  It had a Keurig coffee machine with a couple of choices of their Kcups, including tea.  I don’t have one of those at home and it’s a treat to be able to make different flavors just one cup at a time.  The bad thing that I discovered the next morning was that there was only one little packet of powdered creamer and sugar, barely enough for one cup, and not really a good one at that.  I like my coffee light and sweet (like my men) and despite the cool little machine, the coffee sucked.  I would recommend that if you like coffee in your room in the morning and don’t want to go out to get that first cup, you bring some cream with you somehow.  Or you can get room service and I’ll write about that later.

nice terry robes

shampoo & conditioner

Some nice touches included the two very plush terry robes, a special black towel in the bathroom to wash off makeup (1. sorry my photo of this didn’t come out clear 2. you can buy them in the gift shop for $6), and the shampoo and conditioner wall dispensers in the shower. If you’ve ever tried to stretch one tiny bottle of shampoo over two or three people, you’ll recognize that this is a wonderful thing.  I usually pack my own shampoo and conditioner for this very reason.  It was plentifully dispensed.  The brand they advertised and used was Gilchrest and Soames, a UK based creator.  I did wish, however, that the whole product line, the soaps, lotions, shampoo & conditioner, though very nice, would have been a Boston or at least New England based manufacturer.  I understand the hotel’s desire to be perceived as internationally sophisticated and that they’re not promoting it as organic or local or anything, but I would have really liked some US made toiletries.  Given that they’re not a big chain hotel, they could have sourced something more locally created and made a big difference to a manufacturer in their own back yard.

my daughter's bed with pjs and puppy

Beds were very comfortable, with nice cotton sheets and duvet and an extra blanket.  They actually have a “pillow library” according to their website where you can go an select the type of pillow you prefer.  I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere in the room, though, or anywhere in the hotel for that matter, only on the website. 

the view

to the right:  the harbor

to the right with zoom

The view from our room wasn’t very nice.  Being that we were right across from the harbor, I would have loved a nice water view, lights twinkling on the horizon and all that.  I do understand the fact that a building has four sides and only one can face the water and there are only so many of those rooms available.  Add to that the fact that I got a discounted room because of my affiliation with the show and well, I suppose I should be happy we could at least SEE the water.  We did get a 9^th floor room, though, which was pretty cool. 

A couple more notes on the room;  perhaps I’m used to staying at hotels that are more family oriented but two things would have been great:  a small refrigerator and dare I say, a microwave.  I know that’s pushing it.  Our bottled water got warm and our dinner doggy bags got cold.  Something I really appreciated was the flat screen TV with easy to clean remote (have you read about how disgusting hotel room remotes are?) and the free wifi with no password/login was great.  I hate having to set up a new wireless at every hotel and then fight with my laptop when I get back and it’s still looking for the hotel wifi.  Something that wasn’t so hot was that our room was near the ice machine and the housekeeping station, also near the elevators, so it was noisy, people coming and going all night and early in the morning.  I suppose SOMEONE has to have the room near all that, but it would have been better had it not been me.  As a woman traveling with a child, those voices and bumps in the night have a way of disrupting sleep. 

the lap pool

I had read reviews about the indoor pool being really small and it was.  It was obviously catering to the guests that come for business and want a workout swim along with their use of the gym.  The night we went, however, we pretty much had the pool to ourselves, and swam for quite a while.  I noticed that the hotel was promoting a school vacation special – pool, play, breakfast, etc – and while I applaud their outreach to this market, I think any parents coming here thinking they could unleash the kids on the pool for the afternoon would be disappointed, or rather, the kids would be. 

I’ve got to say this, though:  the ladies locker room was FABULOUS!  Ok, I only went in to use the bathroom and didn’t take full advantage of it all, but really . . . nice finished wood lockers and cubes for stashing your stuff, wall dispensers for lotion – a really nice touch that I wish all locker rooms would provide – hair dryers, plenty of counter space and mirrors (magnified ones, even!) and large roomy showers.

I wish I could have photographed them for when I win the lottery and want to build a home gym and locker room or just to post here to show you all, but I hadn’t brought my camera into the locker room and would have felt a bit voyeuristic using it in there.  Something about a woman’s right to privacy . . . but really, if you go, check it out.

One more note about the gym at the Seaport Boston’s gym;  at the entrance, they have a large glass container with lemon water.  I thought this was a nice treat.  I would have appreciated it more had I actually used the gym for a good workout but nonetheless had a couple of cups worth while sitting by the pool.

cool knives

my daughter's plate

Breakfast at Aura was not what I had planned, thinking by looking at the menu, that the prices were too high for just me and my picky 12 year old daughter.  On the first morning there, I went and surveyed the options for breakfast.  It was either Aura or the Seaport Café, a quicky convenience mini Starbucks coffee (grande 4.25 thank you).  Knowing that it would be the only chance of this trip to have a sit down breakfast (the next day I had to be at the booth early) I decided, okay, lets do it.  The breakfast offerings – eggs benedict $14, huevos rancheros $16 – weren’t cheap, but we don’t do that sort of thing often and I knew my daughter would be happy about it.  As we were seated and began to place our order, the waiter told us that the breakfast buffet was ½ price for kids and would save us a few bucks.  I thought it was really nice of him to make the suggestion and we happily opted for the buffet (I love buffets!).  It was beautifully displayed and kept warm and fresh, and was downright delicious.  I cleaned my plate and don’t usually do that.  Pancakes with warm blueberry sauce, cheese blintzes, crispy hash browns and my favorite:  piles of perfectly cooked bacon.  The buffet price is $19 per person.

my breakfast plate

The next morning, given my no cream experience of the day before, I did something I’ve never done, ordered room service.  Just a small pot of coffee with cream and sugar.  It arrived early, around 7:30 and was the perfect amount for me.  Two little pitchers of cream, nice cups, all was good.  The room service order form said it was $6.25, which I figured was better than two grande lattes at the café, but when I got the bill upon check out, it totaled over $11 after the gratuity, room taxes and other crap was added.  Lesson learned:  perhaps it wasn’t better than two grande lattes.  Easier, but not cheaper. 

A couple more things;  check out is at noon and I had to work at the show until 1pm so I asked the front desk if I could possibly have a late check out and was given until 1:30, a courtesy that I appreciated.  It just eased my mind and allowed me to avoid some morning hassle of checking out, loading up the car, finding something for my daughter to do while I was at the show, etc.  When I left the show and came back to the hotel, I had a very heavy box of brochures that I was taking with me.  The concierge offered to keep them at his station so that I didn’t have to carry them up to the room and then down with my luggage and kid in tow.  Just a little thing, but certainly labor saving and appreciated.

Overall my experience at the Seaport Boston Hotel was a good one, and I’d be happy to recommend the place to others and will plan on staying there for next year’s show. 

Stay tuned for my reviews of the restaurants we enjoyed while in the area and of the travel show. 

fishy graphics on the glass at the pool

Candid Maine Coon Cats

I’m deep into the bookkeeping part of the year, when I get everything together for the taxes, and when my creative side is put on hold, acting like a restless child waiting its turn. 

The Boy "Buzzer"

It’s also cold.  Winter in Maine, even this year with very little snow and some mild days, is drab, gray, and seemingly endless.  And with the cold, drab, grayness (especially the cold) my outdoor exposure is made up of a house to car to office to car to house routine.  No lingering near the lilies in the driveway.  No taking the long way.  This is the worst time of year for me.  January.  February.  At least March has some promise – the first day of spring, moving the clocks ahead.

Because so many of my best photographs have been the result of having my camera with me and being at the right place at one of those times and taking a few shots usually outdoors, I haven’t photographed much lately. 

What have I photographed?

Kittens.

Maine Coon kittens.

We got kittens.  Two.  A male and a female.  The male’s name is Buzzer and the female’s name is Bella.  This is what has been in my viewfinder for the past month or so. 

My daughter and the kittens.

One of these days I’m going to set up a set with some props and get them to act cute for the camera so I can take some shots to sell to the greeting card people.  For now, this is it. 

Keeping me company while I work.

A little background on the Maine Coon:  there is only speculation about the Maine Coon’s origins.  Some say that somewhere back a couple of hundred years ago a cat mated with a raccoon (highly unlikely if you ask me) and on down the generations and here we are. 

Hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Another story says that Marie Antoinette was preparing to flee France and had her prized possessions loaded onto a ship, including 6 of her Persian cats.  The ship set sail without Marie (you might know what held her up) and landed in Wiscasset Maine.  Cats bound out of their confines and into the arms of the local feline population and here we are.  I like that story best. 

We really don't need to buy cat toys.  Boxes work just fine.

Whatever the true history of the Maine Coon cat, it seems that several personality traits are constant.  One is their gregarious nature.  They want to be with their people, hanging out on the couch, near my desk, on our bed.  They’re like dogs in cat’s bodies.  They’re not the kind of cats that scurry away in fear when people come around.  No, they want to “help”. 

Searched all over before finding them here on New Year's Eve.

They’re also very vocal, “chirpy” even, and communicate with each other and with us pretty darn well.  Maine Coons are the biggest breed of cats, with the record for the longest cat held by “Stewie” a Maine Coon measuring out at 48.5 inches from tip of the nose to end of tail back in August of 2010.

Just so sweet.

We got them from Coldstream Cattery in Enfield, Maine.   Marie, the breeder, had two litters available at that time.  My daughter and I went to see them, not sure if we were going to get one, but knew if we did it was going to be a surprise for my husband and it had to be a male.  We were set on a brown tabby male and there were quiet a few to choose from, but so hard to do when they're so young.  Something we didn't expect was to fall for one of the two silver females.  Both were so alert and absolutely beautiful.  One our second visit, we decided on one of the brown males, mostly because he just kept coming back around us and didn't seem afraid.  The fact that he was completely adorable made it even easier.  When we met Marie to pick up the kittens just after Christmas, they had already been vet checked and had their first shots.  Our vet recently confirmed their health and complimented on their appearance. 

Blanketed in kittens.

Bella is a silver tabby and Buzzer is a brown tabby.  Our kittens are true to their breed, in temperament and personality.  Bella doesn't like to be picked up but does like to ride around on your shoulders.  She's the more vocal of the two; very chirpy and meows very loudly whenever I get near their food bowl, clearly asking for more (though there's usually plenty of food.)  She favors my husband, having found the perfect spot on his lap from her first days here.  Her preferred place on our bed is right up near his head on the pillows.  Bella purrs easily, instapurr we call it.

Bella, the gray tabby Maine Coon kitten, snoozing on the couch.

Buzzer was nameless for some time while we debated and tested names.  With my daughter just having finished the Twilight series, she named Bella.  I did not allow the male to be Edward or Jacob.  Not happening.  I gave the naming rights to the boy to my husband.  The cat we lost (and still miss) was named Ocho.  We tried out a lot of different names that were similar to that but in the end, he went with Buzzer, trying to find something that went with Bella (a bell and a buzzer . . . yeah, I'm not that good with it either).  My daughter and I liked "Taco" like Taco & Bella.

Buzz in the best spot in the house; back of the couch in front of the fire.  Smart cat.

 So, Buzz is sweet.  He comes trotting out when I get home, tail up, purring and happy to see me.  He virtually jumps us and is in our faces rubbing his face against us and then just flops with an audible thud.  He's very lovey.  We like that in a cat. 

Sleeping near the window in my office.

Together they've brought new life to the house.  It was way too quiet without a cat around.  With all of these cute kitty photo opps, I say it's no wonder I haven't looked beyond.  Well, okay, that's a lame excuse for not photographing more in the winter.  Or writing more blog posts . . .

Buzz, in my "in" box.

New Year New Ideas New Life

A friend of mine gave me this sign as a gift and I just love it.  I’ve always been a fan of New Year, almost more than of Christmas.  While I realize that I’m writing this seven days into this new year, it’s not for lack of the new ideas and other new things I’ve experienced and begun to execute in the past seven days. 

Our Christmas this was year one of new technology (a Kindle Fire for me and an iPad 2 for my daughter – hooray!).  Of course that brings with it a learning curve, and since I love learning new things, it was a great opportunity to dive right in.  I downloaded my first two book that very night. 

Our Christmas vacation, the first of its kind for us, was lazy-lounging-foody-restful and actually made me anxious to go back to work in a way.  Other than entertaining my sister and her boyfriend on New Year’s Eve and staying up past midnight (I think this was a first for my asleep-on-the-couch-by-8:30 husband) and one big event I’ll get to in a minute, it was a Christmas vacation of gluttony and sloth.  I loved it. 

In a recent post I mentioned that our cat, Ocho, who was 4 ½ years old, was hit by a car and died.  It happened just before Thanksgiving.  We all cried about this.  He was a huge member of the family and we missed him like crazy.  After some time had passed, I began to think about a new cat.  We missed having that life in the house, someone to greet you when you got home, someone to race up the stairs after coming in from the rain and jump on you in bed – with a mouse in his mouth.  Now that’s love. 

So the big event I mentioned before is that after I had mourned the death of our beloved Ocho, and as part of the healing process, I believe, I began to research Maine Coon Cat breeders in the state.  Although Ocho was a stray, we fiercely believe that he was part Maine coon.  His personality, that more of a dog in a cat’s body, his desire to “help” with everything we did, his “hanging out” with us around the house, was not typical cat, but it was typical Maine Coon behavior.  They’re even known to retain their “clowny” kitten playfulness throughout their lives. 

So to honor the first, we got two.  A male and a female.  The male was what we sought out and the female was just too pretty to not take her.  Her name is Belle and his name has yet to be decided.  I gave my daughter the naming rights on the girl and she’s been studying French and was looking for something that meant “pretty” so “Belle.  The naming rights for the boy go to my husband, for whom this was a surprise.  He hasn’t made the call yet.  Now we have these two little beings in our lives.  Fuzzy, rambunctious, purring little beings. 

On to the new ideas section of this post; these are some of the goals I wish to accomplish this year:

1. Develop a new website for my photography work – one that targets a more commercial, more fine art market to sell my work on a larger scale.
2. Learn how to create mixed media art using my photography, collage material, paint, whatever is on hand and works, and bring my artistic development up a notch.
3. Create a cohesive, intentional marketing effort to get my work out there. 
4. Get back in shape and feel better about myself – yeah, I know, everyone does this at this time of year – but I mean it . . .
5. Make this a year of art shows and person to person sales.
6. Put more effort into my Etsy and Ebay outlets to sell my work. 
7. Go to 7 places I’ve never been; 3 outside of the state of Maine.
8. Publish an article – in print – and get paid for it.
9. Create an email marketing plan and write regular newsletters.
10. Invest in new equipment, mainly upgrade my computer, but also consider getting a new lens and perhaps an iPad for presentational purposes.

To this goal, I like to create some incentives, something I can go back to to be inspired to move on, to refresh my brain.  I like doing collages.  I clip inspirational sayings, words, photos from all kinds of sources and create a spread that highlights the direction I want to move.  Earlier this year I did one with words that flowed from the present space I was in into the end result I was hoping for.  Recently, with the new year, I did one with the words and images of the goals I have for the year.  The above photo and below are some of the parts. 

Check back here often;  I will continue to post examples of this and the other work I’m doing as well as updates on how these kittens are faring in our home.  By the looks of them in this photo, they’re doing pretty well so far.  

If you want to be happy, be.

This quote was in a newsletter I got yesterday.  It was attributed to Leo Tolstoy.  A short little sentence it is, but oh the power it assumes.  As I read it and thought about it, I could almost feel the happiness roll over me. 

If you want to be happy, you can be happy.  Why is it that we tend to give away to others the power of our own happiness?  By that I mean the self defeating statements that I know I’m guilty of enunciating like “I’ll be happy when  . . . we can buy a bigger house . . . this winter is over . . . fill in the blank.”  It could be anything on which you hinge happiness. 

 So, stop waiting ... 
Until your car or home is paid off. 
Until you get a new car or home. 
Until your kids leave the house. 
Until you go back to school. 
Until you finish school. 
Until you lose 10 lbs. 
Until you gain 10 lbs. 
Until you get married. 
Until you get a divorce. 
Until you have kids. 
Until you retire. 
Until summer.. 
Until spring. 
Until winter. 
Until fall. 
Until you die. There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, 
and, dance like no one's watching. 

If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.  It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with ... and remember that time waits for no one. 

I recall a story that was emailed to me a few years back.  A man’s wife had just died and he was preparing the outfit in which she would be buried.  In her closet he comes across several brand new outfits, lovely ones, still with tags on them.  She had been saving them for something, some special time, not thinking that the day may never come.  Feel good and be happy now.  Why had she not enjoyed the new clothes and the way they felt against her skin or the way the color set off her eyes?  Why wait?

Okay so as we roll into another year, I’m going to post this little quote on the top of my day planner.  I will write it in random places in my calendar to remind me that I don’t need a reason or have to wait to be happy.  My life is good today. 

Merry Christmas all!

The gift of giving . . . gives back



boat in scarborough maine

As a photographer and the “creative” one in my family, I often find myself charged with creating the “unique” and personal gifts that we like to give. Okay, really, I take on these projects myself, never usually assigned by anyone, just me and my desire to give gifts at Christmas that are not store bought, not discount, not last minute attempts. I want to use my talents to give something to someone that 1. They can actually use. 2. They think is cool. 3. They won’t get from anyone else.

I find that the process of sorting through photos, for me, is a gift itself. Doing something like this gives back as you get to relive some of the memories associated with the images. No matter what the subject or theme, whether it’s a year in review book or a calendar of wedding photos, you are the one making the decisions about which images to include and what kind of story you will tell.

We recently lost our cat and miss him terribly. I decided to make my daughter and husband each a book of photos of him (and ended up making a calendar, too). I sorted through 4 ½ years of photographs, looking for shots of him or with him in them. I was happy to find that all those photos I took of him just trotting across the lawn, or holding a mouse in his mouth, or lounging (and this cat could lounge!) found a purpose in these creations. It was a wonderful experience for me to be able to relive our time with him and our lives that went on around and including him. When my husband gave us Jimmy Buffett tickets for Valentine’s day, our cat was right in the middle of the fake rose petals and pink wrapping paper. At our first Christmas in our new house, I photographed him crouched under the tree, illuminated by the lights. He was a part of our lives, the small events I photographed, the times we remember.

Photographs, in many cases, are all you have to recall special times and people. Long after the wedding – the dress doesn’t fit, and the cake top is gone – you have your photos. You can go back to the places you’ve visited when you look at the vacation photos. You can share these experiences with others on facebook or twitter. The pictures of the way we spend our lives have meaning to you as a photographer, as the one who stood in the sand to shoot the palm tree and the snorkel gear, or the one who looked up from bird watching to catch the cat using your garden as his litterbox. For this reason, the giving of memories is a gift to both the people behind the camera and the recipient of the thoughtfully crafted gift.







So with this in mind, I tend to turn to photographic items such as calendars, photo books, coffee mugs and the like. To create this stuff, I have found that there are a million websites you can go to where you can upload your photos and use them to make items. At this time of year many of them offer pricing specials which generally do save you some money.

While being a professional does allow me some access to sources out there who cater to photographers, I usually go back to Shutterfly http://www.shutterfly.com/ for holiday gifts. I’ve also used MPIX http://www.mpix.com/, and Vistaprint http://www.vistaprint.com/. These online vendors cater to everyone. Their pricing is competitive in the retail market, which doesn’t make them a viable option to use when I’m selling the work, since I need wholesale pricing in order to be able to realize a profit. But for gifts, it’s reasonable. Most importantly, I find that the quality is good, depending on the item.

Shutterfly does a great job on calendars and photo books. The calendar templates are easy to use and you can upload as many photos as you want. They have a wide variety of designs to start with and you can select the number of images you want to use on each page. Another feature I like of theirs is that not only can you assign special dates within the year (Joe’s birthday, our anniversary, etc.) you can now add a photo to the date. It’s really nice for the visual queue for a date you want to remember. The paper stock they use for calendars is a nice durable cardstock which comes packaged in individual plastic zip bags. I’ve also done several photo books on Shutterfly and they’re crisp and bright and well bound.

MPIX has undergone changes in the past year as they transition from a “photographer’s” lab to a broader base. That’s just my analysis and I could be wrong about their strategy. Their partner lab, Miller’s is the site used by photographers who want to create albums of wedding photos for clients and other client centered products. MPIX is good for prints and framed or mounted artwork. If you want your photo of the waterfront where you spent your honeymoon printed on metallic paper and mounted to a foamcore board, MPIX can do that and get it to you in 2 days. I use them for my gallery prints. Their quality is fabulous. What I don’t like is that after a certain period of time, your photos will be deleted from your albums. I guess this is an effort to save space, but I like to be able to go on and order the print I need and not have to keep uploading images repeatedly.

Vistaprint seems to be everywhere these days. They advertise on eBay and once you’re on their mailing list, you’ll get emails about every sale and promotional item they’ve got, and they’ve got a lot. The things that I’ve had a lot of success with and found the pricing and quality to be good enough for me to resell are the postcards and notecards. I’ve designed and purchased many different layouts. They’re also good with business cards (cheap!) and rubber stamps and stickers, all of which I use as part of my branding for my business, to create a cohesive, intentional marketing effort. For holiday and other gifts, they do offer Christmas cards and postcards, which I would imagine would be of the same quality. Last year I ordered a few calendars just to see what they’re like, as I had received an email stating they were FREE (got to pay shipping) and found myself engaged in the design only to find that Vistaprint charges $4.99 per image to upload your photos. They must have been running some kind of special (they always seem to be doing that) or I would not have paid upwards of $60 to upload a dozen photos. And I was disappointed by the quality – thin flimsy paper with cheapy feeling plastic ring bind, like this was a school project and not a professionally designed calendar – not good enough for me to sell and the prices to buy make them unrealistic to do so. My advice with Vistaprint: stick with the things they do well – business cards, postcards, notecards, stamps. Something I truly dislike with this site is that when clicking through a promotional email and logging into your account, the pricing often changes. Something advertised as free somehow ends up as $7.99 once it gets to your cart. By that time you’re so invested in the item that you get it anyway. They offer a ton of other “services” and products and it can be hard to just get to the end because you’re bombarded with marketing. But if you get through it all, some items are worth it.

The other day I received the calendars I made for my family and friends. Rather than giving them photos that are best sellers for me, I used only images from the past year. It gave me an opportunity to pour through and relive our year and be able to highlight some images that I have yet to post for sale or otherwise show the world. I took the time to make the edits necessary to use the image in the calendar and take them to the next step. The best part is that I was reminded that we had a pretty good year, a year of a lot of changes, loss and love, fun and family. While I was showing the calendar to my husband and daughter, I told them about how the rocky coastline photo in July is from when we went camping this summer on Hermit Island and that the blue shuttered house on that same page was from when my daughter and I took a day trip to Bar Harbor. August 2012 is full of our August 2011 adventures and includes the Victoria platters at Longwood Gardens and the adobe window and cacti from our stop at San Juan Capistrano in California. I’m anxious to share these memories with my family and friends and show them around my year.

This is the gift I get by sharing.