Vacation??

What Vacation???


I had a vacation?


You're kidding, right?


There is no way I had a vacation!

That's the way I've been feeling this week!

Two months ago I planned to take the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off. Counting the weekends that I get off anyway, that made nine days total! Nine whole days off work!! Now what could be better than that?

Now, before anyone starts getting envious, let me tell you how it went!

First of all, you might have seen my previous post about my Grandpa passing away. That saga actually started two weeks before my vacation. I live about five minutes from my mom and grandpa's house. Family from all over the country came in to be with him in his last days and that was nice. However, it meant that every day after work I had to jump in the shower and head over since my wife was trying to keep meals cooked and the kitchen cleaned up so my mom wouldn't have to do it. Most evenings we would make it back home around 9pm.

Now don't get me wrong, I loved being there for my mom and grandpa. I even enjoyed visiting some of my family. But I was getting tired really fast and was beginning to feel like I wanted to strangle some people!

I finally reached Friday night....Christmas Eve....that long awaited wonderful day that marked the start of my vacation....and once again, all evening over at grandpa's! We managed to get Christmas morning to ourselves but still had to go make sure all the people at grandpa's house were fed their dinner.

Anyway, that's the way it went for the weekend and then grandpa passed away early Monday morning. Now a whole new process started. I did my best to be the support my mom needed as she finalized arrangements for the services which were to be over an hour away. Tuesday was spent making the arrangements, Wednesday was calling hours, Thursday was the funeral.

The thought went through my mind at the beginning of the week, "Once the funeral is over, I'll still have three days of my vacation to do as I please with."

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

Thursday evening....9pm....plans are made for New Year's Eve....(Friday, just in case you don't remember)....ALL of the visiting family....
....
....
....
AT OUR HOUSE!!!!

So, with less than 24 hours to get ready, we cleaned, shopped, cooked, and scrambled to get ready for 25 people to spend pretty much all night with us!

It was fun, but not what I was wanting to do. To top it off, my daughter and her female cousins (3 total) stayed with us on Thursday night while the boys (4 total) went with my cousin to his house. We then swapped when everyone left early Saturday morning. That meant I had to wake up and keep track of four hyperactive boys after not getting to bed until about 2:30am!

Finally, after another huge family dinner at my mom's house, we made our way home late Saturday evening, toting our two children, who were already missing their cousins, and fell into bed.

Sunday morning dawned, the last day of my vacation, and we went to church. It was Cheyenne's birthday and she wanted pizza so we went out for pizza and bowling, just the four of us, and had a lot of fun. The kids were a little bored during the evening but we were able to enjoy the only day of my vacation that was spent entirely the way we wanted to spend it!

Monday morning it was off to work for me and a whole list of projects my boss wanted taken care of ASAP. Fortunately I had the assistance of my college friend who has been the best worker I've ever had. With his help I made it through most of what was waiting for me but I'm beginning to think I need a vacation.

Wait....


Didn't I have a vacation coming here a week or so ago?


I wish I knew what happened to it!