Exodus

I'm not sure if it's a military-in-general thing or a DLI thing, but around here Christmas break is called Exodus. This year, our plans are actually pretty low-key. We are going to Utah to pick up a car we had to leave behind this past June. For such a simple trip, things sure did complicated in the planning!

Originally, I wanted to go at Thanksgiving. The rest of my family was there, and it would have been a lot of fun to see them. Then we found out that Nathan's Thanksgiving break consisted of that Thursday, Friday, and the weekend. Not exactly enough time to get to Utah and back again and feel rested enough for the start of class again on Monday. We considered just having me go, but I really didn't want to leave Nathan alone during such a family-centered holiday.

That brought us to Plan B--Christmas. This too, proved to be problematic. All of my siblings are currently living in Provo, and I really wanted to use this as an opportunity to see my family as well as pick up the car. However, they are leaving to visit Mom, Dad, or in-laws. Nathan and I tried very hard to find a time when he was done with class and at least some of my family would still be there and cheaper airline tickets were available. (I know that is a horribly written sentence. I hope you get the idea.)

That proved to be a lot harder than it sounds. We worked on this conundrum for 3 hours before finding a compromise. In order to accommodate as many schedules as possible and get the cheapest airline prices possible, we decided to divide and conquer. I am leaving this Wednesday so that I can have time to spend with my sisters Lindsey and Michelle. Nathan will join me on Monday and we will visit with his sister Diane and then drive back to Cali on Wednesday.

This was definitely a compromise as it means I will be missing Nathan's birthday this Saturday. That does not make either one of us happy, but we figured it was better this way than being apart for Thanksgiving. Luckily, we have some friends from church who are more than happy to take him in for the day and celebrate with him.

Despite that one (big) negative, I'm really excited to go. I can't exactly say I need the vacation or anything since I STILL am unemployed, but it'll be nice to just have a change of pace and see people I don't get to see very often. I'll be able to hang out with the sisters, see my friend Ann, and go to an annual family Christmas party for those who live in the area. It'll also be nice to get our car back after 6 months. I'm sure Lindsey and Jared will miss it though! :)