Home for Christmas

Yes, I’m back and I’ve been incredibly busy. Feels like I never left.

First, I have a confession to make: It's just not that difficult to find an internet connection while on vacation, even in another country. You do know that "www" stands for "world wide web," right? This internet stuff is all over the place.

The thing is, I had decided not to engage in any internet activity while I was gone, except to check my email once in a while. For one entire week, I was going to do nothing but relax with my family and write.

But I had forgotten that I'd set my Blogger preferences to deliver all my blog comments to my email inbox. So every morning when I checked my email, I also got to read the comments on my blog. By the second day, I was laughing so hard my DS21 asked what was so funny. I said, "The CBs are decorating my blog and having a party while I'm gone."

He was horrified. "You let them into the house? While we're not there?"

I laughed and said, "Nonono, they’re pretending. On my blog. Virtual reality? Relax, these people live all over the country, they're nowhere near the house." He just shook his head, muttering something that sounded a lot like “you are so weird,” and walked away.

The second day, after I had essentially the same conversation with DD18, she informed me, "Mom, you are not allowed to talk about your blog in public anymore."

Neither of my kids have read my blog, thankyouverymuch, but they are apparently united in their opinion that I should not be doing anything fun. Kids. They’re always expecting you to be a parent.

So anyway, thank you all for making me laugh while I was on vacation and busy ignoring the real world. I hope you'll forgive me for the small deceit of being “unavailable,” but I really needed the time away to focus on my writing. No, I didn’t finish the book, but I made very good progress and discovered a couple twists I hadn’t expected. I’m pretty excited about the way it’s all coming together.

And I realized something these last couple of days. I had been thinking I was purely crazy to take a week of vacation right before Christmas. There is always so much to do and never enough time and I must be nuts, adding this stress to my life, giving myself only two days right before Christmas to finish doing everything that needed doing. But you know what? Turns out not having enough time is a really good way to eliminate the things that just don’t matter and focus on what’s important.

My kids and I had fun with our hurry-up-and-get-it-done decorating. The stores were practically deserted, because everyone else had already finished shopping. I wasn’t even tired of listening to Christmas songs, not having heard any for an entire week. I got everything important done and loved every minute of it.

Of course, being tanned, pampered and well-rested might have had something to do with it. There is something very liberating about being able to wake up when you’re done sleeping, instead of when the alarm goes off. I saw the sunrise, and the sunset, almost every day for a week. I think going away on vacation right before Christmas might become a new tradition.

However, there is just one tiny little thing left to do and I might need some help with that. Ahem. Do you all think we could maybe move some of these decorations over to the "other" blog? Because all it will take is for my kids to get one good look at the pole and the punch bowl and the goofy expression on the dog's face and they’ll start to get ideas about how they're going to spend my next vacation.

Go ahead and finish opening your presents first, and by all means don’t be late for your holiday feast. Have that second glass of wine or that extra helping of dessert. I’ll be over here waiting patiently, very happy to be home for Christmas.

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, and sharing it with the people you love.