Thankful For You And 16 Years Of DansDeals!

What a year it has been.

For me, 2020 started in shock and mourning for my friend Yossi Bialo.

In January we visited my in-laws in Kansas City, where we surprised my mother-in-law with a birthday visit. My in-laws come to visit us several times a year, but who could have known that they wouldn’t be able to do that this year?

We also visited the Bahamas. I won’t forget the hushed voices on the plane as word spread about the death of Kobe Bryant. I’ve taken my kids on hundreds of flights, with usually a couple dozen each year. Who could have known that this would be their last for the year?

In February I scrubbed my plans to fly on Cathay Pacific’s final flights to Vancouver due to COVID-19 and went with a friend to NYC for a day to the Kosher Food and Wine Festival. But man plans and G-d laughs, because as we shmoozed with visitors from Italy, we were infected with some of the first US cases of COVID-19.

It’s been a tough year for everyone.

But even with everything we are all going through this year, I have to be thankful for the good.

In April, my brother JJ and his wife Basha welcomed triplets into the world.

In May, my wife Mimi gave birth to a beautiful son, our 4th child, as we caught up to JJ and Basha.

And in June, we had an intimate but amazing wedding for my brother Akiva.

I was grounded for a record 155 days before I took back to the skies in August. But while staying on the ground for that long felt unnatural to me, it was also time well spent with the family.

I had to cancel my plans to go to South Africa earlier this month, but I was able to take an RV trip out west and visit some of our nation’s majestic national parks.

Majestic Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park left me in awe.

 

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One of the last times I saw Yossi was last November at an emotional Siyum Sefer Torah that he had organized around this time last year. It was dedicated in honor of Yossi’s brother in law and my friend Shua Polonsky, who went from being in perfect health to passing away within weeks of becoming sick.  I always admired his upbeat and positive outlook on life and contagious smile.

And last year our longtime Maui photographer, Jonelle Littleton, lost a battle with depression.

 

It seems like every day this year comes with more crazy news.

My heart breaks and goes out to everyone who lost a loved one this year, words cannot describe what 2020 has meant to far too many of us.

I guess the lesson I take is that life is far too short and fragile. Be sure to take a minute to count your blessings, thank the people you love, and do what you’re passionate about.

For me, having Shabbos in my life is the ultimate treat, a day I can count on every week when I can spend 24 hours with my family uninterrupted by digital noise.

With most travel interrupted, I’ve been able to take a step back and appreciate my family more than ever.

 

DansDeals.com is now old enough to get a drivers license in Ohio. I’m pretty sure our new little one will be driving any day now if I just blink a little too long.

 

 

I for one am looking forward to a time when I can travel freely with my family again. I haven’t seen any one of my grandparents at all in 2020! So I’m certainly thankful for the news that a highly effective vaccine is just around the corner. Hopefully the world will return to the old normal in 2021, because I sure am tired of the new normal.

I can’t help but think back to the fateful Black Friday when I started blogging, 16 years ago in Sao Paulo. Was it luck that the school I had volunteered to teach at for a year was broke and couldn’t afford toilet paper? It only made sense when I found a deal for free toilet paper that I’d share it with my friends and family, and what better way than via a public blog?

But the very fact that I was in Brazil for the year was only thanks to divine providence. But that’s a story that has to be told in person.

I suppose it was always in the cards for me. I turned 20 on that Black Friday in Brazil when I started this site. I was born on November 26th, 1984, which was the Monday after Thanksgiving. It may not have been back then, but nowadays the Monday after Thanksgiving is better known as Cyber Monday, the holiday of internet deals.

I’d certainly have laughed at you if you told me in 2004 that I’d still be blogging daily at the same site. I’d think you were even crazier if you told me that it would be my living and calling.

But I guess the signs were always there. I was flipping baseball cards as a 10 year old. Selling beanie babies on eBay as a 12 year old. Freezing out in the cold on Black Friday as a 15 year old to flip items on eBay (thank goodness that can be done online now!). By 16, I negotiated a 50% discount with Delta and booked out an entire flight from LAX-JFK for my Yeshiva, saving everyone money while earning a boatload of miles and free tickets for myself in the process. And by 17, I took advantage of a now defunct eBay points program to rack up over 1 million miles with Cathay Pacific. And since then, it’s grown into an obsession to see how many millions of miles I can rack up and burn through each year. There are worse hobbies to have, no?

I’ve been blessed with being in the right place at the right time so many times in my life that I could fill a book. It’s amazing looking back at how all the pieces fall into place. Over the course of 15 years of blogging, every day I gain an incredible appreciation for the world and our part in leaving it better than we found it.

I don’t know when exactly it crossed over from, what I did for kicks to what I do professionally, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t know when exactly the traffic to the site increased from a few hits a month to millions of hits per month. I do what I love and I love what I do.

The fact that my hobby and job enabled me to travel to places I could have never have dreamed of traveling to and do things I could have never dreamed I’d be able to do is something I never take for granted.

 

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And so I’m thankful to G-d for allowing me to support my amazing wife and 4 adorable children in the most unique of ways. And for being able to take them on hundreds of flights to see the world thanks to miles.

 

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I’m thankful to my parents for making sure that I was always curious. Always questioning. Always working hard because nothing worthwhile comes easy. And always striving to be humble and appreciative of everything and everyone.

I’m thankful to my brother JJ, 6 years my junior, for helping me run this website for the past 7 years.

 

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I’m thankful to my wife Mimi for putting up with me working all-nighters, for letting me book international travel glitches just hours before departure, and for always being there through life’s ups and downs.

I’m thankful to my kids. Aside from being impossibly cute, their wide-eyed wonder at seeing the world, listening to foreign languages, and seeing other cultures is refreshing. Their adorable innocence, hugs, and unconditional love melt away the biggest worries and fears in the world. Sure it’s significantly harder to travel with kids, but there is no greater blessing in the world.

I’m thankful to the amazing DDF Family for being a great source of deal leads and an awesome place to read trip reports, plan trips, and just shmooze. It’s always awesome to have a DDF DO and put a face to a name that you talk to online.

And I’m thankful to you. For reading. For following on Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, SMS, and Facebook.  For sharing your deals, experiences, and trip reports on DDF and the DDFB group. For telling your friends and family. For commenting and adding insight. For patronizing our advertisers and shopping or applying for credit cards through our links. For sending me countless heartwarming emails letting me know how DansDeals made a difference in your life, whether it was being able to take a special trip that otherwise would have been out of reach or even finding your soul mate through DDF! You make it all possible and worthwhile!

It’s hard to believe 16 years are in the books.

I feel like I live and breath DansDeals every moment of the day. But I also feel like I haven’t worked a day in my life. I suppose that’s what happens when you have a job that you’re passionate about.

I still haven’t wrapped my head around turning 36 today, I feel like I blinked and aged 16 years. But I won’t stop as long as I’m having fun. And I hope you won’t either.

With heartfelt prayers of thanks for all I have and hope for a better year to come.

-Dan