Hamilton

Hi lovely readers,

For my birthday this year, I took myself to the theater to see Hamilton at the Segerstrom in Orange County, CA. My first time seeing a Broadway production there.

It's been a several years since I've been to the theatre. It's something I did with my mom from the time I was 14, starting with "A Chorus Line". We went to numerous ones over the years all over Los Angeles & Hollywood.

When I lived in San Diego I would go to whatever tours came through. Javier actually came to a couple of shows with me.

I knew this birthday would be a hard one with Connor at college, and only Dio to entertain me. I am trying to remember the woman that I was before I was a wife and mom.

It's a whole new world being a solo empty nester!

Do you like Broadway shows? What are your favorites?

Lunar New Year

It’s the Year of the Tiger! 

But why am I posting today instead of February 1st? Well, the celebration is for 15 days, and when I was a Cub Scout Leader, I would celebrate with my boys on the first Monday after the Lunar New Year started.

I started doing a Chinese New Year Celebration 10 years ago. At the time there was a Language and Culture Belt Loop and Pin that they could earn. We lived in a predominantly Spanish-speaking area, so most of the boys either knew Spanish or Latin American cultures and I thought it would be interesting for them to learn some things about a completely different culture. 

 The first year, 2012 was the Year of the Dragon, and that first year I only had a den of six boys. They colored dragon masks and we put streamers on them plus, I read the Story of the Zodiac and worked through the requirements which included teaching them some words.

Through the years, it evolved. The belt loop and pin were discontinued however, I always read the Zodiac Story, and they always made a dragon mask. I also included coloring pages with that year’s Zodiac animal, and the last few years my husband either made plain chow mein noodles, potstickers, or we brought some in. Of course, the boys had fortune cookies, too.

I updated the “calendar” so the boys knew what animal they were (caution for late January and early February birthdays, the New Year is based on the Lunar year, so it rotates around, just like Easter, so you need to actually look it up, to see what year/animal you fall under). 

The boys always looked forward to the night and enjoyed making the masks since it was one of our “fun” nights where we all hung out together. Of course, all the siblings could participate, too. 

Since I started in 2012, and there are twelve animals in the Zodiac, and I am no longer a Cub Scout Leader, we didn’t get through all twelve~ 🐭 🐮 🐯 🐰🐲🐍🐎🐑🐒🐔 🐶 & 🐷. 

This year we would have celebrated my husband since those born in 1974 are Tigers! Which has always been one of my favorite animals😁

According to Chinese lore, Tigers are, “Brave, competitive, unpredictable, and confident. They are very charming and well-liked by others. But sometimes they are likely to be impetuous, irritable, and overindulgent. They have stubborn personalities and tough judgment, Tigers work actively and express themselves boldly, doing things in a high-handed manner. They are authoritative and never go back on what they have said.” 

My husband in a nutshell! Do you know what Year you were born under?

 FYI, I'm a 🐴

I'm back

Hi lovely readers,

I would like to reintroduce myself. I'm Stephanie Cross, a solo parent, and empty-nester. I currently have a bookkeeping & accounting company, Cross Professional Business Services LLC that I officially started in October 2021. More on that later.

This is my first post since my 5th Anniversary post on April 24, 2010. A Joyeux Blog was about all things weddings in and around Southern California. I had a some regular features: Beverage Monday, Venues of the Southland and Traditions & Superstitions. I might continue with Beverage Monday because it was fun looking for themed drinks. Since I'm no longer a wedding planner I do not get to see many venues anymore so I'll retire that. You can find the ones I featured under the venue tag. Although I've been kicking around an idea for a regular feature on the museums around Southern California. I have been to almost all of them...

Anyways, I shut down my wedding planning business, A Joyeux Day Weddings & Events at the end of 2010. My son was getting to the point where I needed to be with him {drive} to various activities. My husband's career was taking off, and since we were in the same industry, someone needed to be home with our son. 

I also went back to school. I started and stopped going so many times I lost count. I really hated sitting in a classroom. Then by 2010, schools were offering online classes. Finally, technology caught up and I could go to school while sitting at home at my desk, and continue being a stay-at-home mom that has time to volunteer.

I went to a community college for a couple of years and then transferred to an university that offered a Bachelor of Arts degree completely online. Win-win for me! My major was Business Administration. I had already had opened one business, and almost started another one, so I thought that was the best track for me.

About that, my current business is the basically my fourth business. The first time I thought of being a business owner I was in my mid 30's. I was back living with my parents, and my older sister and her son lived there, too. She was, and is really into animals, so I though about starting a pet sitting business with her, Me & My Sis Pet Sit. Now, I had never really thought about being a business owner, none of my immediate family are business owners, so I am not really sure where the initial idea came for this, many years later. I thought that she could be the animal person, and I would take care of the business aspect. When it came to business know-how, I didn't have any at that time. I was a food server and had been doing that for many years. The internet was just taking off, and I was able to do quite a bit of research online. I also took advantage of business classes at the library. We never got it off the ground, and I ended up moving two hours away, taking the knowledge with me. 

My second go around was my wedding business, which this blog was formally named for, A Joyeux Blog. Actually, my wedding planning company was named after my mom. I went with the French spelling of Joyous, because the dot com was taken for A Joyous Day. I officially had it for almost three years, and did weddings on the side without the official name for some time afterwards.

My third attempt was with my husband. I had to write a business plan for an entrepreneur class I was taking, so we followed it and opened a catering & event business. He was the chef, and I did the event planning. We did great for sometime, but only as a side business, he was working as a chef in a sorority house at the time and had weekends off. The company went under and he went back to working weekends, so our little business had to wrap up.

Now, I am the proud of owner of Cross Professional Business Services LLC a bookkeeping & accounting company focused on midlife female entrepreneurs. I am also branching out into helping women start their business.

I started the idea of CrossProBiz in February 2021. In 2019, I was starting to research what would be a viable business to open with my skill set after my son graduated high school in 2022. Then the pandemic happened, and I lost my husband at the end of 2020. I had to figure out what to do while in deep mourning. Fun stuff!! There was a bit of a learning curve since traditional marketing had evolved to mostly social media, and learning what a tech stack is and that, yes I do have one. I gathered all my new found knowledge and a shoestring budget to start Cross Professional Business Services LLC, which I hope is my last business!

Thanks for reading...

5th Anniversary

Today, Me & the Mister celebrate five years of wedded bliss!! I love you baby!

Beverage Monday.

Spring is Here!

Here are some spring/April inspired cocktails.

Paradise in April

3 oz coconut rum

3 oz pineapple juice

3 oz Hawaiian Punch®

Pour the ingredients in order into a Highball glass half filled with ice.

Income Tax Cocktail

2 oz gin

1/4 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz dry vermouth

1 oz orange juice

Angostura bitters to taste

orange twist for garnish

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Shake and strain into a chilled Cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange twist.

Spring Feeling
1 oz gin
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse®
1 tbsp lemon juice

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a Cocktail glass, and serve.

Cheers,

Fat Tuesday

We are doing a special edition of Beverage Tuesday this week. We are celebrating tonight's Mardi Gras celebrations with some themed cocktails.
Mardi Gras Martini3 ounces Absolut Citron Vodka
Glass Coated with Chambord
Lemon Twist

Pour the chilled Vodka into a chilled martini glass coated in Chambord and serve with a twist of lemon.

To coat the martini glass or rocks glass with Chambord, pour Chambord into the glass, swirl around the glass until coated (to your liking), pour out any remaining Chambord.

Hurricane
1 oz vodka
1/4 oz grenadine syrup
1 oz gin
1 oz light rum
1/2 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
1 oz amaretto almond liqueur
1 oz triple sec
grapefruit juice
pineapple juice

Pour all but the juices, in order listed, into a hurricane glass three-quarters filled with ice. Fill with equal parts of grapefruit and pineapple juice, and serve.
Mardi Gras Flasher
2 oz dark rum
6 oz ginger ale
1 tsp grenadine syrup

Stir ingredients together in a highball glass with/without ice. Add more grenadine if desired, stir again and serve.
Creole2 oz Light Rum
3 oz Beef Bouillon
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper
1 dash Tabasco Sauce
Lemon Wedge

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon wedge.

Have fun tonight and don't over do it. Promply at midnight the streets close in New Orleans since lent starts tomorrow.

Cheers,

Beverage Monday

Love Cocktails

Today we are featuring Love cocktails, since we all know what next Sunday is....

Wild Passionate Love
1 oz Southern Comfort
1 oz peach schnapps
1 oz Chambord raspberry liqueur
Fill with pineapple juice

Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake & strain into Cocktail Glass

Love in a Glass
1/2 oz Grey Goose® vodka
1 1/2 oz Chambord® raspberry liqueur
2 dashes Amaretto Di Saronno® liqueur
1 oz sweet and sour mix

Pour the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with with ice. Shake and strain into two Cocktail Glasses. Great for couples.

Love Byte
1 oz Bacardi® gold rum
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz Amaretto Di Saronno® liqueur
1 oz Malibu® pineapple rum
3 oz pineapple juice
1 oz grenadine syrup

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and pour the contents into a highball glass. Garnish with a piece of pineapple and a maraschino cherry.

Cheer

s,