Holidays during a year away from home, really?...by Twy's Twavels

"Does every day feel like vacation? Looks like it from here :) Hope you are all well!"

This was a question one of my Friends asked recently.

My response:

"Nope - we have ordinary days or parts of days...
we have grocery buying, home schooling, traveling or just-sitting-doing-not-much times.
We're on 'holidays' the next few weeks as we travel to get back to Canada.
Today we have a 4 hr bus ride - but before we leave, we're kayaking."

I had an email before we left encouraging us to have a good year of holidays...
I responded that it was less of a holiday and more of a time together reconnecting
and having an extended family time.

Arden gets emails asking him about our holidays from his co-workers...

So...here's how I would describe the difference:

We're on "holidays" from our regular life of travel when...

-we're in a hotel with two beds (that range in size from two queens,
two doubles or two 3/4 size beds and we are co-sleeping with our children
because there either isn't enough room or enough days in one spot to warrant
the setting up of our portable cot for Maelle)

-we have to go out to eat for most of our meals because we don't have a kitchen
or enough days to go out and buy a supply of groceries (yahoo - a break from cooking!)

-we have a break from regularly planned home school lessons...
although this doesn't mean that learning is not happening -
because the best education happens when our minds are awake to new experiences
(for example, today I also learned about the Chiclero and the importance of this geographical
area to that by-gone era - see Exotic Chicken's blog for more details...and I missed my
Grandma Reimer.  This brought back memories of whenever she came to Belize or Mexico
to visit extended family. She would bring home a large quantity of Chicle to put in her
candy dish for her Grandkids.).-we explore locations for a shorter period of time and
have a few attractions that are the reason why we are there (for example, in San Jose we
saw where I lived, the down-town highlights and then in Guatemala City we saw the zoo
and the archeology museum)

We're "living" in another location other than our home in Sioux Lookout when...

-we're in our camper, cooking meals and living all together on the road

-we're in a long-term apartment with enough beds and space to stretch out a bit such as in
Playa Chiquita, Ocotal, Antigua, Atitlan where we stayed for 4-6 weeks each

-we buy a supply of spices, cook a big pot of black beans, find local markets and keep on
going back to our 'favourite' sellers

-we have chores for our Children to participate in like washing dishes, clearing the table,
folding laundry, cleaning up their school books or sweeping the floor

-we have time to read books together

-we wake up listening to the same sounds as 3 weeks ago and are 'accustomed' to the
local noises such as howler monkeys howling and parrots 'talking' at 4:37 am (Playa Chiquita),
boat 'bus' driving by hitting waves at 6:13 am (Atitlan), rosters crowing and iguana crawling
onto the roof at 5:24 am (Ocotal), or those black bird squawking at 6:04 am (Antigua) - it takes
a bit to not jump out of your skin when the first howl starts...

-we get to know the gardeners, guards, pool staff, cleaning personal, shuttle drivers or
live-in caretakers - learning about their families and the things that they do in their work
(for example, the guards in Antigua stay mostly awake at the condo complex for 48 hours
in a row and one had a newborn baby girl who my Mother-in-Law bought a little dress for)

-we 'settle in' to the campground or the condo...put our comfies on and have 'boring' days
of regular stuff like pronouns, multiplication, banking, insurance bills and cooking breakfast,
lunch and supper...

-our bags are unpacked and our clothes are in a dresser or shelf

So...that's how we are rolling this year away from home - travelling together and with a few
holidays in between.