Home for the holidays....ugg!

We've been home since September and we've really enjoyed it but I still feel the longing to be on the road. We are heading out again after New Year's. Don't get me wrong I love my family but being with them really drives me nuts. I think I love them more from a distance. My kids are starting to understand why family can make you crazy. Places we have to go, things we have to do for others, expectations from family,.....now don't think I'm trying to be a grump or a hermit but when people realize that you home school they automatically think you don't do anything all day long and you can be at their beckon call. This really burns me up.

Since it's hunting season around here family expects that my children can go to the deer camp anytime. Hello!! We still are having our lessons each day. "Well can't they skip it for a couple of days"...NO, NO, NO! Their school is just as important as public school children's. I've even been asked to sit for 6 hours and wait for the cable guy to show up. "Sure cause I don't have anything better to do". Now it would be different if the ones asking were family that cared about us and had things to do with us but they don't. They just figured that I'm sitting at home eating bon bons all day. We do have some liberties that others don't but they shouldn't just assume that we have the live of lesiure.

I've entertained the notion of skipping Christmas like the "Kranks" intended. We come home for Christmas to purchase gifts for family members that we don't see or much less talk to all year and for what? Is that really celebrating the holidays the right way? Our children are selfish and greedy around this time of year. They compare what they get to what their cousins get. It really burns me up. We ask for lists of what they want and have to do our best to get them something that they will like when in reality we don't even know the kids very well to know. We're just swapping money. I call my husband Scrooge but he really is right on things. If we spent all the money we spend on Christmas for our own family then we could really do something nice together....like a cruise! I feel bad about wanting to do that, like I'm letting everyone down, but in all honesty I'd much rather do that then fighting the stores, paying for things we won't use, and the kids getting presents they really don't want or need. I'd rather enjoy family with dinners and visiting together but noone has time. Thanksgiving is a joke. Noone wanted to have dinner and visit. Everyone was too busy.

Times have changed. It seems that family traditions of gather and spending time together is non-existant. That's why I love our lifestyle. We are together 24/7. My husband is working but we're there when he comes in and supper is cooked, kids are happy (for the most part), and we do things together. Movies, bowling, riding bikes, playing a board game, playing a sport, or just visiting together. People don't get it cause we aren't normal. I might as well go full weirdo and skip Christmas next year. The kids are for it already, so next year the lights will not be hung, the tree will not be trimmed, and gifts will not be wrapped. I'm thinking of someplace warm and sunny with white sandy beaches. Now that's a Christmas dream.