Best Layed Plans
Well, here we are - January 11th, and it’s been almost a full month since I last posted. I had fully intended to document our latest travels. On top of that, I’d signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge for January and was actually starting to plan for it.
So what caused my plans to derail yet again? In one word: life. (Doesn’t it always?)
A couple of weeks before Christmas, my youngest brother - who has Down Syndrome, is non-verbal, and now uses a wheelchair - ended up in the hospital. The group home where he lives wasn’t able to provide staff support while he was admitted, so I spent all his waking hours at the hospital, making sure he had whatever care he needed. Another brother was able to step in during the last several days and do the afternoon and evening shifts, which gave me a much-needed break and some time to finish getting ready for Christmas. Thankfully, Rick was discharged four days before Christmas - and I’m quite sure no one was happier than he was to finally be back in his own bed.
The very next day, the house began to fill up. My son and daughter-in-law arrived from out of the country with their two cats, along with her parents. Son #2 had already arrived the week before, also with his cat. (And yes, we already have a cat of our own.) The following day - December 23rd - my 90-year-old mother arrived to spend Christmas with us as well, mercifully without her cat. In just a few days, we went from a peaceful three-person, one-cat household to nine people and four cats. At no point did anyone ask if this was a good idea!
We genuinely love having everyone together at Christmas, complete with all the noise, activity, and chaos. That said, there were definitely moments - usually between dish loads and meal prep - when I tried to quietly disappear just long enough to remember what silence felt like.
On Boxing Day, we hosted our annual extended family gathering, which this year doubled as a celebration of my mother’s 90th birthday. Almost everyone came. Nearly 50 people packed into the house, and “chaotic” doesn’t quite cover it - but it was also loud, joyful, and memorable in all the best ways.
Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we managed a brief pause to catch our breath before hosting our annual New Year’s Eve party - a night we always look forward to celebrating with 30 of our friends. Once that was over and Christmas was officially boxed up and shoved back onto the shelf for another year, we switched gears completely and focused on getting ready to escape winter and head to the Caribbean.
As I write this, we’re currently sailing on a cruise ship, pointed toward warmer waters and far away from the snow we’ve already had this year.
By the time we boarded the ship yesterday, we were completely exhausted - physically from a month of nonstop activity, and emotionally from, well… the state of the world. A vacation felt less like a luxury and more like a survival strategy.
Today has been all about recharging. I’ve spent a lot of time reading on Substack, reminding myself why I love writing so much - and why I really need to make it more of a priority this year. This blog started as a way to document our travels, but it turns out it’s also a great place to process the day-to-day realities of our sometimes chaotic, sometimes very quiet life.
If you’ve made it this far through this slightly rambling post, I hope you’ll continue to join us on this very real (and occasionally ridiculous) journey called life.
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