for me it's good enough

Here's an interesting idea - how about an Oregon Christmas vacation? We've been curious about the Oregon Coast ever since we were kids, intrigued by the beauty of areas like Astoria when they were featured on movies like Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. The beaches look awesome, and yet they also have mountainous areas. There is also Crater Lake National Park, which looks stunning. Sure, they get lots and lots of rain but I grew up in the South and I love the rain. In fact, when I was living in the Midwest I missed it. Had we stayed there, my kids would never have had the chance to see what it was like to play in warm rain puddles or pick crusty dead earthworms off the concrete after a hard storm. I know it sounds gross, but as kids we loved it.

Christmas is a time for stress. It's like a ticking time-bomb with an anticipated buzzer, and then it happens and everyone is left exhausted and reeling from the time and effort we put into it, asking ourselves why we bothered to make it so perfect when nobody ever notices. It would be wrong of us to go on a vacation for Christmas, particularly if we were to leave the kids with the grandparents. But this is a good time of year to travel to areas like the Northwest, where you won't get thronged with the same crowds you might see in the Summer time.

New Year might be a better option. We could spend New Years in a beach house rental. Or, perhaps it would make more sense to try and get the entire family out for a trip. Get the grandparents to go with us, and split the cost of renting a large house somewhere near the coast. Renting a full house makes it so much easier for everyone. We get more space, we get our own washer and dryer so we don't have to pack so many clothes. We can cook our own meals when we don't feel like going out to eat. We weren't really planning on traveling for Christmas, but New Years wouldn't be bad. That way, the kids still get to come on the vacation with us, the grandparents get to see us for "the holidays" and we get built-in babysitters for when we want to go out on our own. :)



Since the grandparents are always complaining that they don't get to see the kids often enough, they shouldn't complain when we ask them to babysit, right?