Welcome to my blog titled “Five Things” where you can expect just that - five random musings or reflections from the previous week or so. In addition, at the end of the blog, I’ll keep a running itinerary of our travel plans. For a photo gallery of our life on the road, our pets, and miscellaneous things I find interesting, you can follow me on Instagram @tabithalord.

So here are this week’s five things…

1. On Saturday night we had dinner at our son and daughter-in-law’s home. Ray and I realized this is the first time one of our kids has had us over for dinner. They are technically all adults now, but two are still in college, and the other has a great apartment, but we’ve never lived close enough to have a meal there. As simple as it was, this felt like a milestone in our parenting journey!

2. We decorated our tiny home for the holidays. It looks adorable and feels festive, although, I am used to the weather being a bit colder during the holiday season. I’m not complaining, though, as Ray and I spent a couple of hours poolside yesterday.

3. My alter-ego, Maggie Clare, is running a holiday giveaway. If you enjoy romantic suspense, click HERE to download your free copy of Sing for Me, book 1 in the series.

4. When the kids were younger, I really wanted to focus on creating a magical, memorable holiday season that wasn’t focused on gifts. For the month of December, we ate dinner by candlelight, baked cookies, listened to holiday music, hosted gatherings, decorated the house (thanks mom and dad for acting as decorating elves!), trimmed the tree, watched ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ so many times we can all quote the movie, kept a supply of the most delicious eggnog from our local farm in the fridge, helped deliver holiday food baskets, and wandered the neighborhood appreciating the light displays on the darkest of nights. Now that everyone is grown, I hope their memories of the season are good ones, and I look forward to watching them create their own traditions with their families.

5. “Winter is a quiet house in lamplight, a spin the garden to see bright stars on a clear night, the roar of the wood-burning stove, and the accompanying smell of charred wood. It is warming the teapot and making cups of bitter cocoa; it is stews magicked from bones with dumplings floating like clouds. It is reading quietly and passing away the afternoon twilight watching movies. It is thick socks and the bundle of a cardigan.” ― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Our itinerary, subject to change:

November 19 - January 3, 2024: Orangeland Park, CA

January 3 - 14: Oceanside, CA

January 19 - February 2: San Diego, CA

February 2 - 16: Palm Springs, CA

February 16 - March 1: Las Vegas, NV

March 1 - March 5: Meteor Crater, AZ

March 5 - 15: Albuquerque, NM

March 15 - 17: Amarillo, TX

March 17 - 24: Oklahoma City, OK

March 24 - April 5: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

April 5 - 12: Fredericksburg, TX

April 12 - 19: Hot Springs, AK

“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien