Christmas Miles 1020 - 1165: Home Sweet Home

Originally, we thought that we had drive about 1300 miles, which was probably just an estimate rounded up slightly each time, and which also attempted to include all of the little side trips that we made (which are obviously not included in my totals here.)  So, although it seems like we traveled slightly less than 1300 miles in total, trust me when I say that 1200 or so is PLENTY.

Murph was SO excited to be home and in his own yard.

 

And so we were.  It was good to be home.

So, what did we learn from this trip? Well, for one, we definitely don't want to do anything so intense ever again in future years.  What made it so tough?

1. We spent waaaay too much driving.  Our carbon footprint increased to a size 14 in just 7 days. Mother Earth is still crying.

2. We planned for others instead of ourselves.  Sound selfish? Sort of.  But basically we traveled around events that were going on in each respective location instead of trying to just spend quality time when we were there, which is why we did ridiculous things like drive to Wilmington twice, instead of just going there once and spending an extra day at that time.  Driving time is wasted time in my opinion, and it's also wasted money when it's done unnecessarily.  While it's great to be at family gatherings, it can be at the expense of our own personal enjoyment - we had good times each place we went but we were way more exhausted than we should have been. 

3. We tried to do it all.  We basically tried to visit every single family member that wanted to see us.  That's great and all, but it was US driving to THEM and that felt a little one-sided.  Distance between families can be hard, since everyone wants to get together during the holidays, and I think that we need to find a way to become more comfortable with saying, "Sorry but we aren't going to be able to make it."  We have a hard time with that right now, and always try to find a way to make it work, which can make a holiday all the more stressful.

How do you balance it all?  How do you combine your desire to spend the holidays with your family (and in our case, many families) while still enjoying your time off at home?  At first we thought, "Well, if we have kids then we won't be expected to drive as much." But is that really true?  Now that I'm thinking about it, I feel like if we have kids, that will only mean a fuller car since everyone is going to want to see the grandchild/niece/nephew/whatever-it-is.  Am I right in thinking this? 

It's not an easy problem to juggle and I don't think there's an easy solution (if there is, PLEASE comment or message me with details!)

As it stands right now, I think we will continue to play it by ear year to year, but definitely some additional thought into how much driving it will mean for us.  We want to see everyone each year, but we don't want to dread it, which means we need to go easy on ourselves in the future when it comes to planning.  We also don't want to seem whiny - we realize that we're lucky to be close enough to everyone to pull off seeing everyone. But OH! How exhausting it was!

So anyway, that's it! Those were our Christmas miles - each and every one of them!!! 

How was YOUR holiday season?