Today is the first day of my vacation. One of the benefits of working for the bank is that I’ve been there long enough to accrue some serious vacation time, so I am officially done for the rest of the year.
WHOO HOO!
There is no limit to what I might get done in the next week. The house might get clean, some presents may get wrapped and some laundry might get folded. The mind boggles.
Please note that everything is prefaced with might. No point in overextending myself.
Of course Christmas vacation isn’t quite what it used to be, which was basically a chance to sleep until noon, catch up on Days of Our Lives, followed by a trip to the mall and maybe a movie later that night (which would explain why I saw Pretty in Pink 67 times).
Now vacation means I’m still up at some unfortunate hour, because for me anything before 8:30 a.m. is just sad. Oh, I’ll try to get Caroline to get in bed with me and watch a movie or something while Mama sleeps, but since she takes after her Daddy she has this peculiar way of greeting the day with joy and a tenacious can-do attitude. She’s a little like Matt Foley from SNL.
So, we might catch up on some crucial Noggin programming because heaven only knows what Dora has been up to, although it’s a safe bet that she’s still searching for the chocolate tree in the peppermint forest where her abuela used to live.
Then later we could head to the mall, but that just means we’ll end up in Pottery Barn Kids or The Disney Store where Caroline can whine about how she needs every piece of inventory in the entire store and Santa isn’t coming soon enough so we should just buy it today. And then I’ll drag her by the hand into Banana Republic to look for a few gifts and allow the well groomed salespeople wearing cashmere that has never been defiled by toddler hands to give us everything they have in the once over department as they have a spiritual holiday moment by thanking God that they don’t work at Pottery Barn Kids.
As for a movie, we could check out Happy Feet or whatever other animated movie is out there, but the problem with that is first of all, Caroline is completely opposed to loud noises that aren’t coming directly from her and secondly, sitting in a movie theater burns absolutely no energy which is a must for a child hopped up on candy canes and Pottery Barn Kids desire.
Ahhh yes, vacation. At least once I go back to work on January 2, I’ll get a chance to relax and unwind.