My family is all about a big reveal. It was rare, growing up, to not get a wildly dramatic, completely over-the-top, YouTube video worthy gift reveal. There was no You Tube back then, but my parents knew how to unbox before there even was such a thing. When my mother invited us to France and England for two weeks of our summer, I knew telling Miss O would be no different.
When we booked our return trip to Disney this summer, my only questions were whether we’d repeat Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and if I’d really humor Miss O with a reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table for a character meal since she’d already met all the Princesses. I should have known her love of Harry Potter was growing exponentially as we worked our way through each book, followed by its movie version, at a fairly steady pace. Lately any hint of vacation elicited an exuberant cry of “Universal!” from Miss O. Perhaps I needed one more round of consideration for our upcoming trip.
Today a bunch of Trader Joe’s Wheat Crisps soaked up my feelings and it felt amazing. It would only have been better had they sidled up to a personal-pan-sized wheel of Brie with some raspberry jam and gone all in.
Work has been rough lately.
Oh, you too? (Hugs)
As I mentioned in my previous post, our annual forced vacation is upon us and that means packing. Lots of packing. Fortunately, my years of traveling for work have honed my packing process into a finely tuned machine. It’s nothing complicated, really. It’s just a grid separated by day, but without it, I’d be hopelessly lost and it’s my first Quick Tip.
Work/Life balance is something we all struggle with, especially when it comes to using the vacation time we work so hard to accrue. For us, this decision has been made far easier lately.
Miss O’s daycare closes every year for one week in July for vacation. This is now the third year we have had to take vacation days from work to cover…I mean, gotten to take vacation to spend time with her. My favorite part of this is the dialogue this inspires. Continue reading
Suburban Jackpot 