Holidays, finally...

I was very excited and happy at the end of last week - I had planned a week off from work, for Christmas. The plan was not to do anything special, just stay at home with the kids and the in-laws (while wife was working that week) and celebrate Christmas. The happiness was due to something else - it was my first week off after the end of July, so after more than 4 months and a half.

I have done several things during these 4 months and a half, but none of them could count as actual days off. My parents were here for two weeks, my wife's aunt for another two, in both cases covering school holidays. One weekend we went to a wedding (without the kids), I went for another in London to see a friend, I drove (2100 km) a car to Romania during another weekend, I stayed at home with a sick child one or two days... But not actual days off work in which I could relax and do nothing.

And I have been quite active at work during these months too, as I had taken over a new team: new people to know, new things to learn, new boss and colleagues to adapt to... and a lot of things being expected from me. No problems there, just one more reason to really be excited about a week off. And, by the way, this is also the reason why I don't post often...

Anyway, I was really happy about this week. And then Monday 23rd came, first day at home with the two kids and the in-laws. The mother-in-law is (very) ill. The father-in-law divides his time between taking care of her, cooking (and Romanians do not joke about Christmas cooking) and trying to play with his grandsons. The problem is that they don't really want to play with him and there's also a language barrier. So they were constantly 'daddy this, daddy that'. To top it off, it has rained heavily most of the time, which has limited my possible activities.

In the evenings, when my wife was back from work and when she was not working (e.g., Christmas day), it felt like a normal evening or weekend. In the rest of the time, it felt like a very stressful week. So screw holidays, I'm so happy tomorrow morning I'm going back to work!