A funny thing happened when I decided to take a staycation this year.

Each mid-December for as long I can remember, I have gotten on a plane, Atlanta-bound for two fun-filled weeks of food, family, friends, and, of course, copious amounts of Target. This year, due to some scheduling things — Emily was gifted a lovely, lovely solo trip to her Bubbie’s Scottsdale house, and my husband is traveling to Israel to BBQ (and provide much-needed cold-weather accessories for cold nights) for IDF soldiers on an army base, and my nieces getting a brand-new cousin on the other side — we canceled this year’s Atlanta-chrismukah-cation. {insert giant sad face here}

Since I found myself with some ununsed vacation days that needed to be cashed in before the first of the year, I opted to take some days off to well, not-work. And relax.

But, here’s the thing.

I’m having a hard time finding the cation in my staycation. My puppy has himself some eye issues. No, he didn’t catch them from Isabella (No, that’s wasn’t a very good joke). He has a cataract in one eye and dry eye disease in the other, leaving him sad, and pussy, and in a lot of pain. So, he’s on five different mediations that each have to be administered three times a day. That’s fifteen. I spent three hours at the vet with him last week, and we have a follow-up appointment tomorrow.

I spent three-and-a-half hours at the hairdresser with Emily to get a giant cut and a first-time, special-treat color which…she hates. Don’t let her nervouscited smile fool you, she needed be nice to me because I was the one helping her navigate Toronto’s Pearson airport for the first time as I put her on a plane (by herself!) to go and visit her Bubbie (by herself!) in Scottsdale for a week. She’s currently on the plane to my Mama Bear nerves can calm down and she can go back to hating her hair. Little poop.

And don’t ask me what happened when I tried to pick Emily and her friend up at Yorkdale.

AND YOU GUYS, I took at least five work calls, and answered least 144 work emails.

So, it seems I’m a little bit of a non-working failure. 

But I’m playing Pandemic and Catan (we learned a great new one — Explorers and Pirates, not the puberty game Explorers of Privates that Isabella thought it was) and catching up on photo editing. I finished a giant, near-impossible puzzle, I introduced my kids to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, we painted pottery — I made a very not-fancy, uneven-striped plate — we’ve had a houseful of guests more than a few times, and we went to a non-Christmas Christmas party where we kicked butt at the Newlywed game because we are an old, old married couple and I know things like which bill my husband stresses about most— I think the only question we got wrong was which animal my mother reminds Gav of. Ahem.

And this happened. (Stay tuned for my upcoming post about great gifts for sports fans like these amazing so-ugly-they-are-awesome sweaters from Sport Chek. Go get one, they are now 30% off!)

And I didn’t have to make one single school lunch or do one single piece of math homework. 

But I really miss my family. And Target.