It was a sad day in my house when my last shipment of wine from the California Wine Club was delivered.

These deliveries have sort of become like an old friend. An old friend who shows up right when you need them, stays just long enough that when they leave you miss them and then, SURPRISE! They are here again.

We are coming down to the final 2 weeks before Christmas. If you are struggling with what to get that husband, wife, sister, brother, coworker, or hey, what about your boss?? Might I suggest a membership to California Wine Club?

The great thing is Premier membership starts at $49 for 1 month, but you can purchase a membership for as long as you like. There are even price breaks for 3, 6, 9, and year long memberships.

When you purchase your membership you can also choose to send them white, red or a combination of the two. With their shipment of wine they will also receive ‘Uncorked’, a 12-page newsletter that highlights the winery that made they wine they receive.

As if that weren’t all you can also get a 10% off discount by using the code: MadHatter at checkout. And if you think it would make a great gift for you, you will get 10% off AND an extra bottle of wine in your shipment!

Send a holiday gift today and they will also receive these in their shipment.

For my last shipment I received a 2009 Chardonnay from Tulip Hill winery. Like I said this delivery was bittersweet. I can’t wait to partake in this wine during our Christmas festivities but I’m saddened that this will be the end of my voyage of trying new wines. Well, maybe not, since I did put a membership on my wishlist.

Remember this gift doesn’t just have to be for the person that loves wine. I am proof enough of that! When I started I had only found one particular flavor of wine that I liked, a Riesling. Being able to review California Wine Club has definitely broadened my horizons and made me appreciate wine in a whole new way. It would have taken a lot for me to try new flavors but I’m glad I did. I now know that I also like Gewürztraminer wine and Chardonnay comes in a close 3rd. Now that I have the white wines under my belt I finally feel comfortable tackling the red wines. We’ll see how well that goes.

I will never forget the first time I went Black Friday shopping.

On Thanksgiving day my sister and I perused all of the Black Friday ads, made a list of the things we definitely wanted to get at each store, and then decided on a strategy in terms of which store to target first.

We decided that Walmart would be our first mission. We figured it would be a great place to get our feet wet in this crazy called Black Friday shopping.

Boy oh boy did our strategy fail us.

We were running a bit late that morning, should have been a clue, because my sister slept past her alarm. Once I got her up, in the shower, and looking presentable, we were off!

When we got to the store they had already been open for 30 minutes. Needless to say the only parking we could find was approximately 6 miles away. Okay, so I’m over exaggerating but at that time of morning, in the cold, it might as well been. We were, however, about 1/4 mile from away, at the far end of the parking to the store next to Walmart.
[Read more...]