Hi Raleigh Lover!

And so the season begins tonight in Downtown Raleigh with the lighting of the Christmas tree, rolling into the Christmas Parade tomorrow morning, North Hills Downtown tree lighting tomorrow night, and the Rink and the Dessertery open! Fenton will also have their Light the Square festival.

There will be so much to do now for the rest of the year. So rug up, and connect to the vibrant spirit of the holiday season.

We hadn’t planned on going to the NC Chinese Lantern Festival this year, but with Craig’s parents visiting, we decided to check it out—and I’m so glad we did! It truly is a spectacular and one-of-a-kind experience.

This year’s lantern displays felt even more impressive, especially the breathtaking tribute to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. If you have kids, they’ll be thrilled by the Dinosaur corridor, complete with an animatronic T-Rex and an erupting volcano.

Check out the post below for photos from this year’s festival and tips to help you plan your visit!

This week, I joined my very good friend Christina McEvoy on her Limitless Lifers podcast to share my SECRET SAUCE to a more Zen life- meditation - and how my over 10-year practice with it has transformed my journey as an entrepreneur, helped me overcome challenges, given me great clarity and focus, and YES, helped me to manifest my dreams. You can listen here. Meditation, mindset, manifestation are all big passions and interests of mine, so I chat about it regularly in other spaces! If it’s your vibe too, I hope you enjoy the podcast.

Have a wonderful weekend !

With gratitude and joy,

Caroline

💖 FAVORITE FINDS

• Seasonal Lighting Design - an easy way to decorate your home with holiday lights. They provide all materials, handle setup, and even organize your decorations for easy storage, ensuring a seamless experience year after year. We had Bryce and Davis put the lights up on our home this week. They were awesome and the house looks great. Check out the video. (Partner)

• The flat white from Carolina Coffee in Chapel Hill - An Aussie 5 star rating!

• Sunflowers in bloom at NC Museum of Art! What a lovely surprise this was - i t’s way later than normal.

• The flourless chocolate crunch cake at La Farm is delicious. Can’t be guaranteed gluten free as it rains flour in the bakery. Craig’s dad absolutely loved the apple pie .. from Annelore’s German Bakery in Cary.

• The NC State Band at the women’s basketball are so much fun. I tend to watch them more than the game. See the video below. I’ve watched it at least 10 times as it brings me so much joy.

⭐DID YOU HEAR?

• The Bomb Bar is now opened in Gateway Plaza. The focus here is on nutritious and delicious smoothies.

• The Raleigh Christmas Parade starts at 9:30am in the morning with temps in the low 50’s. Birdie's Barroom & Kitchen on Fayetteville St & Morning Times on Hargett St will have coffee ready to warm you up! All city parking decks are free for the parade. Automobiles are allowed this year, although there are many safety measures are in place. (Read all our tips here)

• Next year, Lucky Tree Cafe will be opening up in the old Square Burger space in Moore Square. We’ve been hoping a coffee shop would open there.

• Tune into G105 this afternoon as we share our top tips for things to do this weekend in Raleigh - but you also know them because we share it in our content!

• The Junior League of Raleigh will have their 40th annual Holiday Shopping Spree this weekend at the Raleigh Convention Center. There'll be over 130 national and regional vendors.

🖋 ON THE BLOG

🎙️ ON THE PODCAST

🗣JOIN THE CONVERSATION

The social posts that have everyone talking (click image to join)

👍ON THE GRAM

• LISTENING: Joe Dispenza Mediations, A Piece of the World audio book by Christina Baker Kline for book club. (It’s a slow start for me!)

• READING: Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

• WATCHING: The Diplomat Season 2 and Killing Eve Season 4. I just love the actress portraying Villaneve.

• DOING: attending the tree lightings and Christmas Parade, filming Beth’s Christmas store at the Spending Spree, experiencing NoFo for the first time, learning about human design, real estate post licensing tests,