The holidays are over again

And with that, my Christmas holidays are over, and I am slowly settling back into my Scottish routines. Although it will be a few days before I’m over the jetlag. (But I will survive that.)

This year, the whole of my visit was spent at my youngest sister’s house, as that’s where Dad is staying for the winter. It was a different visit than what I’m used to, as I felt like an observer in someone else’s world, but that’s just one of the changes I will be getting used to as the year continues. Holidays, as I knew them in recent years, are over, and it’s time to move forward with new traditions. Again.

In addition to the change in location, stormy weather and flooding, coupled with snow and ice in the mountains, meant we didn’t take any road trips or go on day trips (save for a single day trip to Cle Elum and back). Of course, the Christmas holidays tend to make things more challenging anyhow, with all the activities and such. There were also a few days when I was taking care of a sick house (a nasty illness that floated through everyone except for Dad and me, the two people who fare the worst with a cold).

But whilst the holiday was different from what I imagined, and whilst I had a lot of time to contemplate my changing role within the larger family dynamic, it was a good holiday. I got to spend a lot of time with Dad, and I spent more time than normal with Royann’s older boys, who are now adults. I also got a fair amount of running in, mostly at the gym with Dad. And I managed a few geocaches, which is always nice.

Importantly, Dad and I have made some rough plans for the summer, which include me doing a lot of work at the family house before we set off for our traditional summer road trip. I’ve also had a good review of my remaining things in storage at the house and have come up with a plan for transporting them home to Scotland, by way of extra luggage. A lot of extra luggage. And that’s a lot of extra money, too. Indeed, this trip, I paid for three extra bags, meaning four checked bags and my carry-on. So, the process of (finishing) my move has started.

That said, once again, my bags did not make it home with me. However, they made the following London-Edinburgh flight and were couriered the next day. The bonus to this is that I will get an automatic refund for the extra baggage I paid for (3 extra bags are not cheap!). If I’m lucky, this will happen again! But the bags are now home with me, where they have been unpacked and the laundry done. Now I need to figure out where to put all the treasures I brought home. (I have plans; it will be fine.)

Once I’ve recovered from jetlag, I will start looking at flights for my summer holidays. Which, I know, will be very different from summer holidays in recent years. It’s that change that seems to happen so often in life.