Merlino & Gonzalez December 2017

Merlino & Gonzalez December 2017

December 2017

REALESTATEPLANNINGLAW.COM 718-698-2200

WE KEEP YOU ON THE RIGHT PATH

IN A MANOR OF SPEAKING

ELVES, PIGS, AND SEVEN FISHES

My Favorite Holiday Traditions

In my house, many Christmas traditions involve food. We rotate every year between my wife’s family and my own. My heritage is a mix of Cuban, Spanish, and Irish, so our big feast happens on Christmas Eve. We make paella, and rice and black beans. My son, Ryan, who like his dad has a very traditional Spanish name, has taken to preparing a flan that wouldn’t be out of place at a restaurant in Madrid. The main attraction, though, is a traditional Cuban pork roast. To this day, whenever I smell Cuban pork, I’m instantly transported to my childhood holidays. Joanne, my wife, is Italian, so every other year we get a different, but equally delicious, meal. Her family prepares the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. As the name suggests, it’s a seven-course meal where each dish showcases a different kind of seafood. There aren’t strict rules, so the dishes sometimes change. No matter the menu, I am never less than stunned by the results. I love that we have the opportunity to engage with our family cultures through these holiday meals. The blending of our heritages makes the holidays exciting and unique every year.

The most magical holiday moments, however, are often the quiet ones spent at home. When my kids were young, the Elf on the Shelf was just getting popular. Every morning, they would scour the house for the elf, and if they couldn’t find him, panic set in. Eventually, we’d have

to drop subtle hints about where we’d “seen” the elf. When they found him, they were relieved and excited. Joanne and I spent more than our fair share of time constructing creative hiding places. It’s these little traditions and the memories associated with them that make the holidays special. At the office, Christmas includes going to a few parties and checking in with our clients before the most wonderful time of the year wraps up. One tradition at our office is to take the entire team out for a holiday meal. It’s a chance for John and I to say thanks for all of the wonderful work they do throughout the year. I want to wish all of our clients a happy holiday season. One of the best gifts I receive every year is the chance to work alongside you. If you have any extraordinary holiday traditions in your family, I’d love to hear about them the next time you’re in the office. Whether you feast on seven fishes, roast a pig, or just cook up a classic Christmas roast, I hope you enjoy some great food — and even better memories with your loved ones.

Our families may be equally invested in creating magical Christmas Eve meals, but my family goes all-out on Christmas morning in a way Joanne never expected. I’m the youngest of five kids, and between all of us and the grandkids, you can imagine we have no problem filling up the space under the tree. The first year my wife joined us for Christmas, she whispered to me that she had never seen so much wrapping paper in her life.

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CREATIVE GIFT WRAP ALTERNATIVES

There’s something magical about seeing a stack of presents wrapped in bright, multicolored paper. However, that enchanting scene quickly evaporates a few hours later when all those wads of wrapping paper and plastic bows are chucked unceremoniously into the garbage. What if we told you there are countless ways you can still enjoy wrapping and unwrapping presents, without all the waste? Here are a few creative gift wrap alternatives to consider this holiday season.

Old Maps and Calendars

These days, pretty much every phone has a built-in GPS, so you probably won’t need the map from your 1999 road trip anytime soon. If you still have an old map, why not use that for wrapping? The unusual designs guarantee your gifts will be one of a kind. And don’t worry if there are notes scrawled across the paper. Old events or directions will add some unique flair to the presents.

Brown Paper Bags

Furoshiki

With the holiday season comes holiday shopping, and if you opt out of plastic grocery bags, you’re sure to have a surplus of brown paper bags in the pantry. Drop a present into the bag, tape it shut, and you’re good to go. Add some simple lace or a ribbon for an old-timey feel or get creative with stamps and hand-drawn artwork. This wrap job lets your imagination run wild.

Fabric is an excellent substitute for wrapping paper. You can use a scarf to create two gifts in one or pull out scraps of fabric from old projects. The traditional Japanese practice of furoshiki is all about wrapping goods in fabric. Described as “functional fabric origami,” you’d be amazed at how a few well-placed folds can turn your gift into a work of art. Learn how to wrap anything, from boxes to bottles, at ceas.ku.edu/furoshiki-instructional-videos. You don’t have to follow the same gift wrap habits year after year. After the effort you put into finding just the right present, you should be able to make your gift wrap just as special. Find a method that’s uniquely you and get started!

WHY YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE

A User-Friendly and Informative Face-Lift

For the past year, we’ve been working quietly on a complete redesign of our website. Now that the site is live, we’re excited to talk about all the new improvements to both the design and to the content available to our clients. You can still find us at realestateplanninglaw.com, but if you’ve been to the site in the past, you may notice a lot has changed. While planning the redesign, we put one element at the top of our list: user experience. We set out to provide all of the information our clients need in an easy-to-view format. Our new navigation bar will

to giving you some background on each step of the process, these pages also detail the benefits of following our Real Estate Road Maps. The other new pages focus on estate planning and estate settlement. We know these subjects aren’t always easy to talk about, so we wanted to create pages where you could learn about our personal experiences with estate planning as well as those of our clients. Deciding whom to entrust your estate planning needs to is a big decision, and you should feel secure with us before you begin the process.

allow you to explore all of the services we offer with one easy click. At Merlino & Gonzalez, we pride ourselves on guiding you through the real estate and estate planning process. Now, our website will be your best resource when you want to understand what we do and how we do it. To that end, we’ve created four completely new pages devoted to our areas of practice. Two pages explain the basics of real estate transactions: one for sellers, and one for buyers. In addition

All four of these pages also detail the promises we make to each and every one of our clients. From how we’ll behave to the personal connection that separates us from other firms, these pages list what you can expect from us. It’s been a 12-month process building our new site. We’re happy to be at the finish line, and we hope you enjoy the results.

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PROTECT VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES How Identity Thieves Target the Deceased

If you’ve been following the news at all recently, you’ve probably heard about the Equifax >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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