(Away From) Home for the Holidays

Right about next Tuesday, we'll most likely start getting bombarded with Christmas music and Christmas decorations in all the stores. I am personally more comfortable keeping the Christmas season a little shorter, but I do have a massive amount of planning and shopping to do before December 25, so I guess it's better if I just suck it up and jump on board.

This year it won't be happening, but someday I'd love for the six of us to get out of town for Christmas. I love spending time with extended family, but the holidays just seem to get so hectic that it's hard to slow down long enough to enjoy our time together. Maybe doing some holiday travel, instead of holiday decorating, baking, and running around like maniacs, would be a nice break from routine. We might have to wait until we're past the Santa stage, because that could be a little confusing to explain. Although Santa does go everywhere, so I'm sure he could find us.

There would be some practical things to consider. How would we handle gifts, for example? Would we just buy all little things for the kids, so they could open everything on location? Or maybe bring only one or two presents for each of them, and then let them open the rest when we got home? Also, I'm sure we'd still have to make time for holiday visits with our various sets of parents, either before we left or after we returned. But I'm sure we could work everything out if we were properly motivated.

Snow on Christmas morning is a beautiful thing (and not as common as one might think it should be here in southeast Michigan), but I wouldn't miss it for one hot second if I had a beach, an ocean, and sunshine in its place. 

Have you ever spent Christmas on vacation? Would you do it again?