Virginia's Personal Newsletter No. 2

It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is almost in full swing! Is it just me or are all the Black Friday emails coming in too early this year?! (Don’t worry, this email will give your budget a break!) I don’t know about you, but this time of year has always been a bit of a grab-bag for me. And the last few years have brought a lot of personal change for me and my family – but with it, a renewed sense of gratitude. I hope you’ll enjoy this Frischkorn family update!

As if I needed more proof that time flies, Zach is turning eight on December 2nd! So we are deep into birthday preparations again over here. He asked for a Pokémon-themed party this year because apparently my skills as an event producer haven’t been tested enough yet. :)In more difficult family news, I’m heartbroken to share that Zara, our sweet yellow lab, went on to greener puppy pastures on November 7th. She was my fierce companion, the best avalanche rescue dog that ever lived, and the greatest big sister to Zach and Elizabeth. (Here she is, in one of my favorite photos, being protective of Zach when he was still in my tummy.) In all the history of good dogs, she was the bestest. We had almost 12 wonderful years together, but I wish we’d had 100 more. I know that the depth of my grief is simply a reflection of all the love we shared.

Thank you so much to everyone for your overwhelming support of our Partytrick launch last month. We’ve been getting a ton of enthusiastic feedback – especially about our DIY feature! If you’ve got an upcoming event you’ve already started planning this holiday season, Partytrick can still support you every step of the way. You can simply set up your party on the site with a date and time, (for example, I would input 11/24 at 5pm for my Thanksgiving dinner!), and this feature will send you text or email (you choose) reminders to keep you on track with all of your planning to-dos. You’ll cross every “t” and dot every “i” with time to spare!  We’re also getting some great partnership requests we can’t wait to announce. But in the meantime, we would love to hear from YOU! What are your go-to products / services / companies / resources for planning a party? (Think Paperless Post, Meri Meri, UrbanStems…) Shoot me an email, and let me know – we’d love to be working with your favorites to make your experience even more seamless! We've also expanded our team with a new engineer, brand designer, and social media manager. We’ll be adding another team member next month and then, hopefully, breathing for a minute. The traction we’ve been seeing tells me we’re on to something big with Partytrick, and I’m so excited to have a team in place to support all this growth! And don't forget, I set you up with a free Partytrick trial membership – just use the code “virginia” on our signup page to get a handful of bonus months. Take advantage of our Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving party plans now to make holiday hosting easier than ever this year! 

Say what you will about goal-setting (in my experience, people are either passionately for or vehemently against), I am a bigtime goal-setter. It’s how I get my dreams out of my head and into action. But I also know how disappointing it can be when I fail to meet them, which is why I always spend some time in the middle of the month revisiting the goals I set at the beginning of it and tweaking them as needed. As they say, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans!” – John Lennon So if you’ve been avoiding setting goals for yourself, try this method on for size: put a few goals down on paper at the start of December, then check in on your progress mid-month, and jiggle anything that needs jiggling so that you finish the month with some wins! That mid-month check-in is easy to set and sets YOU up for success! I’m rooting for you!  “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt