Meandering Around the World

It was a lovely one. From this point on everything will be marked as the last …. to be had in New York City since when we return from our RTW trip we will be landing in our new house in Radnor, PA. But literally everything went so beautifully. Our annual Christmas party, where we invite 100 people and 75 turn up went like clockwork. 15 years of doing it has greased the wheels pretty well and this year we didn’t even have to frantically throw things into boxes and into closets since we had already gotten rid of so much clutter. We had plenty of food, too much champagne and the best, biggest tree in Manhattan. We picked it up right in Union Square from Joel, the guy who comes to the market every year right after Thanksgiving with his trees. He told the kids the whole history of our tree – it is a 29 year old Fir that originally came from New Mexico. I had no idea Xmas trees can’t grow from seed in the North East, they have to be started down south and transported up as 2 or 3 yr old saplings! In any event, he thought it was a 12 ‘ tree but we have 12 ‘ ceilings and still had to cut off a foot at the top and the trunk before it would fit. As it was, the branches would poke M & DE when they sat at the dinner table! But it was definitely big enough for all our ornaments, even the ones we usually have to keep back and display separately. I wonder if I am going to be able to contain myself from collecting ornaments from every stop we make on this trip?

M & L were angels and singing doves in the Church’s annual Christmas pageant and DE was a Villager. They were all beautiful and this was the very first year since M was Head Angel that both V & I sat in the pew and simply watched instead of rushing around backstage wrangling or taking photos. And the lottery gods understood it was our last time so they gave us a seat right up front and center so that when the little angels come down the aisle, both M & L (and Cadance and Josie) ended up sitting right next to us, couldn’t have been more perfect.

Then of course, there were all the rituals and traditions of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. M & L and even DE left out their letters to santa along with the cookies and carrots and jumped into bed. I thought I was so organized I decided to go to the midnight mass next door at church. I meant only to stay for a tiny bit but the singing was so beautiful I couldn’t leave. I paid the price however, when I was still wrapping presents at 4 am, how did that happen!?

Three hours later I was woken up by all 4 kids piling into my bed with their stockings. Even, M, our 17 yr old insists on everyone being together and pulling treats and trinkets out one by one, one after another. I think that is the part they all look forward to the most year after year. My favorite tho is after when they all emerge into the living room and see the Santa gifts laid out (or piled up!) on the coffee table. This year, everyone got everything on their list – American girl dolls, horses and stables, comics upon comics and for M – an entire cake decorating kit complete with a cake turn table! She has become very crafty lately what with baking and knitting.

And then from that point on was just joy and happiness, everyone opens presents one at a time so we can each see what everyone got – I hate the idea of turning around and just seeing ripped up wrapping paper beside a huge jumble of gifts! Actually, my kids very often start playing with or reading whatever they open and have to be prodded into opening another present (most often by L who keeps her nose to the grindstone). That happens most with M, so she always ends up with a a stack of unopened gifts long after everyone else is finished. In the afternoon we have wonderful neighbors who always invite us over for Xmas lunch which means V. takes the kids over and I get to take a nap!

Xmas continued the next day when our best friends and godfathers came over for Boxing Day lunch – I have discovered the caramelized richness of roasting and went a little crazy – lamb, brussels sprouts and cauliflower all roasting away at 500 degrees sent the smoke alarm off at least 5 times…. The plan was to drive up to our country house the next day but we awoke to – completely snow choked roads. Broadway, an fairly important avenue in the center of one of the most populated cities in the US looked like it hadn’t even been plowed! Stalled buses and taxis blocked the roads. Woe betide any car that tried to turn onto a side street, at every corner drivers were trying to push their cars out of snowdrifts. The kids, of course, went out to play in the garden of Grace church next door with Luke and James. After a while the girls came bursting back in declaring they could no longer feel their legs. Once they had taken off their completely soaked jeans, it was abundantly clear the the snow had been up to their thighs! Then, instead of sliding off the road on the way to Millbrook, we took the far more prudent course of taking the girls to see their very first New York City Ballet Nutcracker.

So all in all, we did all the things we usually do one last time, enjoying each to the fullest without a hitch. Now we are ready to start from scratch and have a brand new experience next year.

I am worried about lots of things. Most importantly, will my kids be bored, will they be fussy and miserable, will they hate us for taking them out of their school and away from their friends? Will they want to go home two months into the trip? And then, how will we cope when they are fussy and bored and hate us and want to go home?

Secondarily, I’m also worried about finding a pace for our travels. I like seeing or doing at least one new thing everyday when traveling but my kids (and spouse) love lazy days and we frequently find whole days go by where they have not gotten out of their pajamas, especially during vacations. So I know we are going to have to build in some regular down time but how? Given that we have gone halfway around to world to get to some place, it seems like blasphemy to sit around and watch TV for hours in a hotel room! Actually I am assuming most of the time we will not be staying at places fancy enough for english TV but that only means pent up desire will want to be met! Compromises will have to be made. They will be bringing movies loaded onto itouches and ipads so they can definitely get their fix while in transition on buses and trains and we will factor in beach stops where we really do just chill, not to mention already promised waterparks and zorbing (tho somehow that doesn’t seem to count as “lazy” but whatever) but there will be a certain amount of “we are in Borneo, we need to see some orangoutangs today”. Some people have suggested keeping one day a week quiet to just organize and do errands and that’s a good idea. But does that means just staying in our room and doing laundry or does a day of meandering around town and stopping for chai count? Do they have to get out of their pajamas? We’ll have to see.

We are not buying a RTW ticket because, frankly, there is no way we could stick to a preset itinerary and we know changing 5 or 6 tickets simultaneously will be ridiculously expensive, not to mention limited to whatever cheapo seats were on our RTW ticket category. More flexibility obviously allows us to pick and choose where we want to go and when we want to go. We have enough of a budget to decide on the fly where and how to move on and enough time to settle in one place if it turns out we like it. However, this does mean I will always have to be nailing down the next stop on our itinerary as we move. And personally, I am just a little bit worried about being stuck on the computer researching and booking tickets/accommodation rather than out exploring. Then I will begin wondering why it is I am the only one capable of sorting out logistics, get resentful and have a big blowout with hubby in front of the kids, everyone crying on the side of the road… Really, planning for all eventualities.

You may wonder why I am not worried about health issues but I figure, those could happen anywhere (my daughter picked up a MRSA infection in my uncle’s house in England, and broke an ankle stepping off a curb in New York city), they are not regulated to South America or South East Asia. We are planning vaccinations, already picking up malaria pills and going to be sensible about mosquitos in general. Quite frankly, if something happens, it happens and we will deal with it then. I hope it won’t!! But they have hospitals and doctors who are probably well versed in whatever tropical ailment we encounter. And going back to my kids’ love of lazy days, they’d probably jump at the excuse of a tummy bug to hang around in bed and play games on their Itouch. In their pajamas.