The Sun'll come out...

The days leading up to a vacation are some of my favorite (excepting the actual days of the vacation, of course).  I love vacation (who doesn't?) but the planning and packing and mapping out of the itinerary are also a great time for me.  And when I am doing it for a family vacation, I get downright giddy with all of the anticipation.  I love daydreaming about what the days ahead will bring, knowing the only thing I can be sure of is that everyday life will be suspended for a bit.  The daily grind will fall by the wayside and we can just live in the moment.  It makes the "usual" just a bit more tolerable for those last couple of days, because I know that soon, there is a magical time coming.

And I don't mean magical in the sense that it has to all be perfect.  That there is not a cloud in the sky, or traffic on the roads.  That my kids won't whine or fight with each other and they will eat everything I put in front of them.  I am realistic.  What I mean by magical is that we are all there together and there is nothing we have to do except enjoy that fact.  The routine we can usually set our watches by, goes out the window for a few short days and we are left with the freedom to make it up as we go along.  There is something very liberating about that when you live with toddlers.  Especially toddlers that thrive on schedules.  And at home, I am a stickler for schedules.  Yes, I am one of those moms.  But on vacation I chuck it all out the window.  My kids go to bed a bit later, they skip a nap or two, and eat a bit more junk than would normally be allowed.

So, as I finish up the last of the laundry and the packing today, I am already itching to be on the road.  I am like a kid on Christmas Eve.  I want time to fast forward so that it is tomorrow noonish (and then time can slow drastically down).  Tomorrow our adventure starts.  We will load Stinkerbell in her car seat, pick MadHatter up from preschool and make the first magical stop of the day - the McDonald's drive through (a real treat for them) and then proceed to let them eat in their car seats (another magical moment already???) and drive the 2 hours to the Colchagua Valley.  We will then spend the rest of the week visiting museums, horse back riding, biking and of course, wine tasting (this is the Napa of Chile).  But perhaps most of all, just enjoying each other's company and allowing ourselves to blow wherever the wind takes us.

I hope your week is magical too!

Chao.