Back to reality in 2022

We just got home from our week at Disney. It was…interesting. My family (R and I, plus the teens) did six days at Disney parks and one day at Universal. My brother’s family (he and his wife, plus their four kids and the kids’ three partners) did seven days at Disney and three at Universal. My sister did four days at Disney, and her two daughters did one day at Universal with us. Basically we didn’t get to hang out as a group as much as we’d intended, but that’s not really surprising - my kids are the youngest by far, and a bunch of my sister’s French in-laws (from her husband who passed away twelve years ago) decided to come too so I knew it was going to be a bit of a shitshow.

Disney is doing a decent-ish job of crowd control. Reservations are required for the parks, and masks are required indoors. Universal, however, is not even pretending to care about Covid, though they did also require masks indoors - we had two-park passes so we could do both Universal and Islands of Adventure, and both parks were just packed. I had thought that would be our longest day in the park but it ended up being one of the shortest - we stood in line for five hours and only went on two rides. It was just too crowded.

My sister’s husband was being an absolute ass all week. I thought he might, he doesn’t speak French and he likes to be the center of attention so I thought he’d be a bit pouty but he was literally just a jackass so much of the time. He ended up not going to the parks with us at all on New Year’s Eve, but my husband and son were both tired too so they all just hung out at the house (separately) and got some rest. My sister and I took the three girls to the Magic Kingdom and had a pretty amazing day. The park did early fireworks at 6:30pm and we somehow managed to be riding Big Thunder Mountain at that exact time, so we got to see the start of the fireworks from the ride. It was absolutely gorgeous! Then we went back to the AirBNB and the French family had made dinner, including foie gras and some special drink they brought from Guadeloupe, and it was lovely.

Don’t get me started on the AirBNB. That’s a story for another day. Let’s just say I’m glad it’s over and we’re home.

On New Year’s Day, we met my brother, his wife, their oldest son, and his girlfriend at the restaurant in Japan in Epcot and had a lovely dinner. It was a great way to end this trip. That was always my mom’s favorite restaurant, I have so many memo

ries of going there on family trips. I know this won’t be the last time I go to Disney, but something about being there with my brother and my sister (and all the kids) made it feel somehow formal and final. I’m very close to my sister, but I made a point of telling my brother we need to be intentional about keeping in touch now that mom’s gone and we’re done planning this trip. I hope we really do, he and I don’t agree on everything but he’s my brother and I love him.

We drove home today, and tomorrow is R’s 50th birthday. The kids don’t go back to school until Wednesday and he’s taking the day off to relax on his birthday, but I do have to work tomorrow as we’re still fairly understaffed and I think there was a Covid outbreak while I was gone. I’ll take him out to dinner on Tuesday to celebrate his birthday, I won’t be home until 9 tomorrow night. That reminds me, I need to go wrap his gifts!

Speaking of Covid, I’m going to be hella careful with masking and doing my best to keep my distance for the next few weeks. But the French family and my niece who came from Sweden all had to test before their flights home yesterday, and all were negative, so I’m hoping that bodes well for my family.

I’m just tired and my feet hurt, but I’m so happy to be home with my family and my dogs. I’ll even be happy to get back to work tomorrow!

No resolutions this year. I want to save some money, and I want to read 100 books. Guess I should get started on that ;)