I Need a Vacation From My Vacation

I'M BAAAAAACK!

Happy New year!

I think this has been the longest hiatus in my blogging world.  It's been a week since I've returned from my vacation and my body is still paying for it.

This year Last year [that feels so odd to say] for the Christmas/New Year holidays we flew to California to spend it with my hubby's family/friends.  As much as I enjoy being around his family/friends, sadly that was the FIRST Christmas I spent away from my family; not only that, but they didn't get to celebrate my newbie's FIRST Christmas with us.  I was extremely homesick for the most part; ALL of my siblings/nieces/nephews were all home for Christmas - BUT me.  Since we've all gotten older and some of us have families of our own, it's a rarity to have us all under the same roof at the same time.

Everyone was so excited to meet our newbie.  The last time his family saw him was when he was born.  So you can imagine the big difference in his appearance for not seeing him for so long.  He's almost a year old now; so he's bigger and started walking a week or 2 before we came to visit.

I was so worried that with all the excitement of meeting the newbie, everyone would forget about my little big man; it was a hit or miss.  I get it - the newbie is the first grandchild for them and that's my hubby's child by blood, etc. [trust me, I've heard all the excuses].  It gets irritating, but I make sure to remind everyone that we have *TWO* kids.

I learned we definitely do celebrate our holidays a little differently.

They have a party on Christmas Eve where their family and some friends come over.  Then on Christmas Day after the excitement of waking up in the morning & opening presents, they go over to their relative's house [which was most of the people we saw the day before] and eat over there.  On New Year's Eve we went to his friend's grandfather's house and spent it with his friend's family...  And might I mention - the view was uhhmazing! I have a small obsession with the view of city lights.

As for my family, we have a Christmas dinner [honestly, I don't remember if it's on the Eve or Day of Christmas].  We invite any of our friends who didn't have plans or couldn't make it home for the holidays.  We spend Christmas Day together as a family hanging out around the house or messing around with the presents we received.  On New Year's Eve I spend it with my family.  My Mom always told us you should bring in the New Year with the people you love & want to share the New Year with - that & to make sure you have a dollar in your wallet and a platter of fruit on the table...

So for New Year's I was HIGHLY irritated, pissed, angry, upset, & sad that I didn't get to bring in the New Year with my 2 little munchkins; even more that it was our newbie's FIRST New Year celebration.

Honestly, I don't like to go crazy and party for the occasion.  I am perfectly fine with celebrating the New Year AT HOME.

While we were in CA, I had the opportunity to hear [on repeat] my hubby's plan for our his future.  If it wasn't that it was his friend's trying to convince me that CA would be a great place to live, etc.  Moving to CA would be the FIRST time I move far away from my family.  The furthest I've moved away from my family was 30-35 minutes away; so living on a whole different coast is a BIG change.  Obviously, I'm not too excited.  Do I have a choice?  No.

-- time out --

I'm well aware he's in the military; moving comes with the territory.  I grew up on that type of game plan.  What I dislike is his reasoning.  The only reason we would move to CA is so we can be by HIS family and HIS friends [mind you I don't have too many friends].  Supposedly that is considered "fair" because we've been living near MY family and MY friends.  *FYI - MY family and MY friends and MYSELF were living here BEFORE we met.  So I don't know how that's "fair"..?

Am I being bitchy?  Yes.

Another reason is he's always wanted to work for CHP.  He grew up in ONE place with the same people; well he wants that for our kids too.

I didn't realize being raised as a military brat is considered the "wrong" type of upbringing.  That's how I grew up and I think I turned out ok... [I said I think]  I didn't get to grow up in one place & grow up with the same people.  However, I'm grateful I've got to live/visit a lot of places.  Surprisingly, I actually am still in contact with a few of my childhood friends and yes I've lost touch with some too.

PCS'ing is a touchy subject, but it's inevitable.

What I've also learned while being in CA is what I say holds even less weight.  Almost everything I suggested or planned was changed/flipped/chopped/screwed - whatever, you name it.

All I have to say is - I will not complete with any other female when it comes to my family.

That's one of my rules which I think is very sensible.  How are you supposed to live when you have other people dictating your life?  I don't do well with people trying to boss me around [ask anyone that knows me].  We have our own family.  We have our own parents and siblings that are family, but we have created our OWN family.  So I can ask for advice, etc. from my parents/siblings, but I don't hold their words higher than my husband's.  Does that make sense?

I'm probably making it sound like it was some God awful/horrible vacation.  It wasn't.  I had a good time, minus the daily dose of board games.  I can only handle those like once/twice a month; that's my quota.  I definitely loved the variety of places I could shop at or restaurants I could dine at.  I also enjoyed spending time with his family/friends.

It was a long two weeks.

Now we're all in recovery mode.  I think my little big man has adjusted back to our home life/time, followed by our newbie.  As for us parentals... we're still adjusting lol

After that cornucopia of fun, I had to hurry and plan our little big man's NINTH Birthday party festivities!  [I still can't believe he's nine!]  I swear time really does fly :(  We were supposed to do that BEFORE we left on vacation, but you know how that goes.  I've become the biggest procrastinator & - I hate it.  He happens to share a birthday with my baby brother.  So unfortunately for my baby brother, he usually ends up spending his birthday at my little big man's parties :/  This year it was a little different than our norm, but it was a great turn out.

And for my next trick?

Planning our newbie's FIRST birthday party next week.

TO BE CONTINUED...



xo,
sss