Holiday? What Holiday?

Let me begin by saying that clearly i am a horrific blogger. It’s been for-ever since my last blog and the words are bubbling up at such a rate that i have no idea what will flow once i start typing. I am a cauldron of words, sentences & paragraphs… I am filled with the joys and tribulations of travelling, Christmas, family, friends, children and the vast array of sumptuous goodness that accompanies all those things.

I am unsure where to begin… my travels which consisted of taking a not-quite-toddler 12hrs in a car, my Christmas which began as a gourmet feast and ended up as a cold meat and salad affair or my new year which was laden with many a daiquiri, wine, fabulous friends and only 4hrs sleep but i think i will begin with the mornings – ahhh… the mornings.

On the one hand it is unfortunate that Queensland doesn’t have daylight savings and that we can not enjoy the beautiful sunshine state until 8pm in the evening and on the other hand it absolutely SUCKS that it rained every day (EVERY SINGLE DAY!) of our 7 day holiday and that my son changed his usual wake up time of 5.30/6am to about 3.30-4.30am. So instead of being able to enjoy a holiday sleep in, a leisurely afternoon swim or a warm evening barbecue, i endured sub-human wake up times, attempting to keep my child entertained inside all day and going to bed earlier than a senior citizen on NYE. All i can say is, thank goodness i packed his gumboots!

Our days were spent mostly inside watching the food channel on foxtel, which we don’t have at home, and a few visits to family and friends, and of course, there was the food. What else could we do on those rainy, rainy days but eat    eat    eat. Although i must say that even though we didn’t get to see the beach or a theme park we did have a lovely time at Ripley’s Believe it or Not! and Build-a-Bear in Surfers Paradise (yeah, it was just us and about a million other rain-sodden holiday makers).

But there is one good thing i can say about my holiday, i had an epiphany. I don’t think it was officially my first epiphany but it certainly was a significant one. In my head it goes kind of like this:

“No wonder kids love Christmas holidays so much, it’s because the adults

in their lives work their damn butts off to make sure they have a good time!”

That’s right, i think this is officially the moment i appreciate all the hard work my parents put into making my holidays great. So thanks Mum and Step-Dad and thanks Dad and Step-Mum for i now understand why you drank at lunchtime and went to bed so early, but most of all i now understand how hard it is to make Christmas holidays so damn wonderful for your kids!

…and a special mention to my wonderful husband who did all the driving, also endured the early mornings and didn’t complain nearly as much as i did.