This year needs to be over.....

I can't stand this little week between Christmas and New Year, it's such a waste of time for me LOL

I want my house back to normal and I want the new year to begin but we're in this limbo where you can't really sit back and relax because the impending New Year's Eve celebration is just around the corner.

What do you do? Do you go out and tackle the big crowds and the drunks and crazy drivers or do you stay home like I do?

I can't remember the last time I went out on that night, it must have been in my teens because since then I've just pretty much ignored it LOL No I'm serious, we don't go anywhere, it's just a normal day for us and lately we don't even stay up until midnight, we just go to bed and wake up in a new year. Is that wrong? Are we missing out on anything special?

Anyway, Curt is back to work this week but the kids are still home on Winter Break, though I think next week can't come fast enough for me, the bickering and fighting between them is just ridiculous.

What is it with kids and the competitive thing? I didn't know that if one picks Frosted Flakes for breakfast and the other wants it too it's apparently called "COPYING"????
Really???? Huh, I had no idea!
There are also invisible boundaries around the house known as "my place" and "my chair".

Where is the memo for all the parents, shouldn't we have something on paper to teach us these kid rules?

I have a few things I need to get done today, like relieving the lemon tree of some of it's lemons, the poor thing is packed full and the branches are bending down with the weight LOL I think I'll spend some time in the kitchen afterwards using them for lemonade, lemon curd, lemon drizzle cake and whatever else I may think of. I'll probably pop some into the freezer to keep for another time.

There's also sweeping and mopping to be done around here, laundry to put away and menu planning for the next two weeks PLUS the grocery list for tomorrow.

I'll be making a few dishes that I haven't shared with you before, so you'll start seeing some updating on the food blog. Am also hoping that I'll get some knitting time in, I want to finish my little shrug this week so I can start on some new dishcloth patterns that I have been wanting to try.

We're also trying to plan another trip to Africa next year, but so far I'm not feeling very encouraged. To start off obviously it's a lot of money and the only reason we were able to afford it last year was because we used the tax return money plus the money we got from moving ourselves to a new house on base.....I doubt they'll let us move again just for extra cash LOL
The air tickets also seem to have gone up a bit, so right now it's a waiting game.....if we can't go to Africa then we'll be going somewhere else within our budget.

We want to do family vacations every year and there's so much to see without having to go too far from home. So we'll see, though I would LOVE to go back home again, it was great being there but it also felt rushed, we were constantly on the move and ended up not really just sitting down somewhere and chatting and catching up with everyone.

Here's where you come in. I need some ideas for inexpensive family vacations, tell me where you've been or where you suggest we go. Those places that you think everyone needs to visit at least once in their lives. Can you do that for me? Help a girl out, remember that I'm not American and so I really don't know much about the best places to visit or where they're at, just imagine I'm some foreign tourist and you're the tour guide. LOL

Alright, I need to get going on my to do list and grab myself a fresh hot cup of coffee, nothing like typing on the computer and taking a swig of cold yucky coffee. Blech!