Winter break vacation is the best idea ever!

 We totally cut out the whole part of break where everyone just loafs around the house and gets mad at each other and screams that they’re bored and breaks all their new toys. It was awesome! We had a fun family celebration, went to the beach, and then everyone went to school and I am on breeeaaaaak— it’s perfect.

We rolled into Madison on Saturday to unpack the car (required a ladder— car topper **eye roll**) and immediately hit the grocery store for chicken and salad. (We ordered one more garbage dinner for the kids and cooked for ourselves because after our final pizza lunch we just could not even with the fattening restaurant food). We shoveled out and restocked on Sunday and then the kids went back to school Monday. Harry still has 2 more weeks at home, and I have 3. **chef’s kiss**

Ben! Had a winter break! For the first time since he was a professor at Blackhawk Tech! And this made aaaall the difference. We are already talking about where we’ll go next year (WILL I BE A FREQUENT FLYER BY THEN? I HOPE SO).

This photo series is definitely my favorite memento from the trip

 Jack got a fancy camera and tripod for Christmas, so he brought it along to take awesome family pictures

We ate at our favorite IL pizza place on the way down and then ate there one more time on our way home (mostly to pick up Minnie’s Owala, accidentally abandoned on 12/28). We played euchre, pool, Cards Against Humanity, lots of Go Fish, and even Candy Land in a TN hotel lobby. Ben and I listened to a book in the car, and we all enjoyed Stockard Channing reading Ramona and her Father. Harry and Jack got to do a few things on their own, as did Ben and I. Everyone doted on Minnie. Car fighting was minimal. All three bros played on Cooper’s MetaQuest the whole trip.

EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

And now we’re back to reality. Sigh.

I will say we really screwed ourselves over by leaving the house kind of a mess. It looked clean when we first walked in, but then we noticed the overflowing laundry hamper, all of the trashes in the house that needed to be emptied, a fridge full of expired food, coffee dregs in both pots, etc. Next time, I will take care of Future Me before I go. It would have been wonderful to have a Costco Instacart scheduled to arrive and also a casserole or a pan of enchiladas in the freezer waiting to be cooked. Also! I forgot to water my wonderful plant ladies before we left and they were very sad and wilty.

Oof— and we left Minnie’s lovey in TN (and I could not call the (really awful— will never stay there again— if you are reading this blog, you are too old for Tru by Hilton) hotel to ask for her because I used my actual real name to leave them a 1-star (pretty snarky) review. SO I had to rush order a new one. Plus the Ziploc bag of kid medicine got drenched in liquid ibuprofen, and Coop is allergic to ibuprofen, so we had to throw it all away and start from scratch (meds, ointments, etc). But! Still! Plus one for winter break vacation!