I miss the old school holidays

I miss the old school holidays
20 July 2014

I really miss the old school holidays.  When my kids were really little.

Especially the winter ones.  Cause winter holidays are awesome!

My work is seasonal, which means I’m busy mainly in summer.  Summer school holidays are busy, busy, busy for me with work.  And a constantly ringing phone, thanks to work.  Which I’m of course grateful for.  Also summer holidays mean Christmas and loads of outside activities and things with the kids.  We do family and friend get-togethers, and life in generals happens at a much faster pace in summer.  Days are hotter, and seem to last forever.  Jam-packed with millions of things.  Fun, but busy none the less.

But winter?  Well, winter and Jumping Castles don’t always gel that well.  And so while I do have rentals, the numbers decrease largely.  And I don’t experience that summer rush and craziness, where my house and my garage occasionally feels a bit like a busy train station, with people coming and going the whole time.

And therefore winter holidays, are traditionally actually my best.  The kids and I hole ourselves up.  We indulge in movie fests, gorge ourselves on popcorn and snacks, constantly munch on delicious winter fruits like oranges and naartjies, sleep later than normal, and generally just recharge our batteries.  The little kids make forts and camp under the dining room table.  Or we make a huge big bed with mattresses on the floor in the lounge.  We usually go to my mom in Tulbagh for a night or two, and the family holiday house in Kleinbaai as well.  And if I can’t get away, the kids go solo with the rest of the family.  Sometimes inviting a friend along for extra company and fun.

Puzzle building on a grand scale is the order of the day.  Baking with my Berry in the kitchen happens a fair amount of time.  The kids all have friends over, or they go to friends.  And then there is also always some or other holiday craft project on the go.  Something the younger kids and I really enjoy.  At sixteen Luke frowns upon enforced family time and holiday activities, and so he’s often on the periphery.  Joining in, when and if the mood strikes him. 

But this holiday was decidedly different.  Rather odd in fact.  For one, I had a whole lot of work, that took up a whole lot of time.  Paid crafting and admin work, which I really enjoyed.  And thus I was house bound.  There was no family holiday house get-together.  And my mom and the band went up to Grahamstown for the festival, and hence she wasn’t home much either.  We battled to coordinate a proper sleepover visit.  Though Luke did manage two nights with my brother on the farm in Tulbagh.  In addition, Grant had lots of work trips away.

Also, for a spot of fun, my darling Amber-Berry will be performing in an upcoming dancing show.  And hence we’ve had dancing rehearsals up to twice a day, with her dancing for 3 hours some days.  Poor chicken!  Mostly I had to drive her to and from dancing twice a day, as the break between lessons, was too long.  Then there were countless trips to the fabric shops, as costume making was stepped up a notch.  Luckily I don’t sew, so there was that.  But there were countless trips to the dressmaker for fittings too.  And annoying little things, like a specific mask, only from this shops.  And a black zip, only from that shop.  Black hot pants, only found there, and white boob tube only found here.  Since the last winter holiday, my darling Luke, has also discovered the gym, and so gym sessions featured largely.  Much to my delight, my darling Cole, took part in the holiday club, so that took care of 3 holiday mornings, where he had loads of fun.  All in all busy time for everyone.

The bottom line though is this – Mom’s Taxi never really had a break.  It actually felt like she went into overdrive.

And so, rather than the conventional winter holiday break, where we all just lounged about, we did this – we danced, we gymmed, we holiday-clubbed, we crafted, we admin’d, we had friends over lots, we went to friends lots, we had the odd outing, we movie-fested, we popcorned, we baked, we Madiba-Day’d, we had family days, we had cousins sleep over loads, we had the in-between-relaxing-weekend-day too, we watched lots of soccer, we cheered, we watched many-a-series-on-TV, we ate waffles, we spring-cleaned (a very little bit), we slept later than normal.

We had fun.

I really miss the old school holidays.  When the pace was less frenetic.  Yet somehow, this holiday was really good too.

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