I'll (Not) Be Home For Christmas

I mentioned earlier that our family is going to Disney World over Thanksgiving Week instead of going home to NC for Christmas; and some of y'all are wondering, "Why?" There are a few factors:
#1 - My brother's BFF (my virtual little brother) is getting married that following Saturday in Florida, and we couldn't justify the (15 hour!) trip for *only* that afternoon. We don't want to miss it, but we needed to take further advantage.
#2 - The kids actually have Wed-Fri off that week, so it would only be them missing two days of school. [Our school system sends parents TO COURT for missing more than five days a semester. Truancy is SERIOUS BIZ here! :-P Two friends of ours had to go last year; they didn't get in official legal trouble, but still! I fear getting in trouble with the law! :-D]
#3 - It's our only football-free week b/t July 8th and December 7th!
#4 - We've been trying to go to Disney for over two years. Every single attempt has fallen through, so when my mom said, "Let's do this!", my heart leapt! ♥

But this last reason is the kicker: I told my mom back in May that it felt so stupid to spend such a ridiculous amount of $$$ to fly home for Christmas when any other time would be so much cheaper with better weather and any other place would be a new fun family adventure together.

Yes. I really said we don't want to go home for Christmas. (Yeah, she didn't believe me for a while, either. ;-)) It's *NOT* that we don't want to be with family! Not at all!!! But the holiday airfare last year was bonkers, the weather was disgusting, (we had flight delays & Annelise had to be wrapped like a mummy with her cold urticaria), and in all honesty, there wasn't much to see or do apart from Christmas Eve & Day. When it comes to our hometowns, we've really seen everything, and our special family places are summer sights. We'd rather meet up somewhere new, exciting, fun, and warm.

We do not travel ANYWHERE EVER other than to my fam in NC & JB's in MI or FL. We've taken exactly 5 non-fam vacays together elsewhere since we've been married: our honeymoon in April 2002, 2 days in New Orleans for our 1st anniversary, Italy in 2003, 2 days in Vegas January 2004 (ALL BEFORE KIDS!) and *ONE* since kids: a weekend in Savannah, GA in 2011. THAT'S IT. The kids are old enough now that they are *FUN* to travel with - hotels are finally easy, no longer a nightmare of trying to get them to sleep, feeling trapped in the room & that we can't even turn on the TV for fear of waking them. :-P They would enjoy it now, and travel is my passion: I want to show them the world...or even just America...or even just Austin & San Antonio!!! It's time to branch out!

The last decade, it *was* our choice to always go home: from the time Grandmommy was 90-something, she couldn't travel to us, and I never wanted to take for granted that "this might be our last holiday with her." But she's in Heaven now. When the kids were babies, it *was* easier to go home, not only for them to see Grandmommy, but they have their own rooms at my parents' house, and it means the world to an exhausted young parent when your parent will just take over for a little bit...and cook you dinner...and run out for diapers at the last minute. That IS a vacay! :-D (We've never lived anywhere near my family.) In those years, it was definitely easier to go home.

But now it's travel time. Time while the kids are old enough to be fun and young enough not to hate being with us. ;-) And there's no reason our families can't travel with us, too! It's not that we don't want to spend time with them AT ALL!!! But we just want to use the same vacay time to show our kids - & ourselves - more of what's out there together. :-) JB & I both agree we are not going to a latitude further north than Houston in winter ever again, if we can help it :-P, so we'll see what the holidays bring! And we certainly don't have to have Christmas just in Houston. We have that block of school-free time - we want to take advantage!!!