It’s coming up to that magical time of the year – Christmas.
I took the family away to our staff Xmas party this year for two fantastic nights in Noosa. After we booked in on Friday night we let Miss7 choose the meal for the night because it was her birthday. She wanted Italian so we took the kids to a Pizza & Tapas restaurant – something for all of us 🙂 Then we went to Hastings St for icecream and a night walk along the beach.
Two things are evident from this photo: one, Miss7 is making good use of her new camera, and two, she took her Hanna Montana dvd with her. I think I’m nearly Hanna’d out, because I’m starting to care about the characters. Actually, I don’t mind the kids watching Hanna Montana at all – the writers haven’t made all grown ups idiots (like on Lizzy McGuire).
We took the kids swimming three times over the coarse of the weekend, and to the beach twice. We ate out twice in restaurants, had McDonalds for breakfast on the Saturday and went to a cafe for breadfast on the Sunday and even hit up the Tewantin Market before heading home. Expensive stuff. Or it would be if we didn’t save up all year for this.
I pay $30 a pay into our staff club so I receive about $700 when the staff party rocks around. This means I can pay to upgrade my room to accommodate the whole family and afford to feed us. Planning ahead is the key.
I was the only staff member to take their family this year, most didn’t even take their spouses. A lot of my fellow workers simply enjoyed some time to themselves or alone with their partners (grrrrrowl). Finding babysitters for my lot isn’t easy, but I enjoy taking them with me anyway so we can swim and laugh and eat out. Besides, there was no way Tracey was going to leave little Miss0 for two nights.
What I love about taking the kids is we have some quality time away from laptops and games and televisions and all the other junk we feed our days when we’re home. Plus, the weekend is discounted, because the basic room is paid for, and a meal or two of mine is included. We look forward to a couple of days of no cooking and swimming and talking.
But maybe next year we’ll make it about Tracey and me and only go for one night but farm the young’ins out. I gotta say, it would be nice to lie in together and get through a meal without mopping up a spilt drink or hunting under tables for discarded shoes.
But then again that’s all part of the fun 🙂
Related
