Thursday, December 29, 2011

What part of 'vacation' don't you understand?

I am married to a very hard-working man, for which, I am very grateful.  He takes both his paying job and his job as keeper of the castle very seriously...maybe too seriously sometimes.  Like today, for instance...


I am on day #7 of my Christmas break (one of the very nice perks of being employed by a school system).  In those seven days, however, there has been very little down time for me.  If all the pre-Christmas activities...shopping, baking, wrapping, cleaning...and all the Christmas events...going to see my husband's parents, hosting the big family get together for my side of the family, having our traditional Christmas breakfast with our little family unit...and all the post Christmas tasks...getting mountains of empty boxes and shredded wrapping paper bagged up, taking down the tree and decorations, making a return to two weren't enough, our youngest son has had basketball practice every morning at 9am except on Christmas Eve and Christmas itself.  With all that, there has been little 'vacation' to be found in this break as of yet.  


So this morning, on day #7, we finally had the opportunity to sleep in, slow down and just have a lazy day.  Oh wait, remember that hard-working man I'm married to?  Yeah, well, he doesn't believe in a lazy day.  


As I sit in my office hiding from his to-do list, I can hear him repeatedly calling for our fifteen year old son to come help him as he tiles and grouts the shower in our main bathroom.  My son's response...or lack thereof...indicates to me he has the same opinion about my husband's incessant need to stay busy as I do.  


What's wrong with the occasional day of sheer and utter slothfulness?  Spending the day in one's jammies, watching made-for-tv movies, playing mindless games on Facebook...how can that be such a terrible thing?   Will the world stop spinning or the sun cease to shine if we just let everything go for a single day?  Can there be any real harm in just taking it easy and doing absolutely nothing of real value for just a 24 hour period?  


As I hear him working away, I almost feel guilty for just sitting here now...almost.  It isn't that I don't have a to-do list of mine own.  I haven't been to the grocery store in almost two weeks.  I need to get the Christmas decorations down to the basement.  The checkbook needs balanced.  These are all things I could easily do today that would satisfy his need for us all to stay productive while not causing me to feel overworked on our very first free day. 


Maybe I'll even go offer him a little help...or at least company...while he works.  He always seems to appreciate that.  And after all, I really do enjoy the fruits of his labor so it's the least I can do...literally, it's the least I can do.  <g>


I guess I should just give up the dream of a totally lazy day...at least until January 4th.  That's the one day he'll be back at work, but I'll still be on vacation.  :-)







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