The thing with family vacations is that they are seldom as perfect as you plan them to be, but in the end they add a bunch of stuff to the memory vault that you will share forever – funny stuff and irritating stuff and crappy stuff and amazing stuff.  Stuff that only this particular group of people can share.  It’s YOUR stuff.  That is what makes a rewarding family life – and as Hollywood has already discovered, vacations seem to produce more stuff than any other time.

Christmas week with our daughters here in Bucerias was mostly great.  But when we remember the Christmas of 2016, we won’t remember the perfect weather, the beautiful days at the pool and beach, the sweet children at the orphanage, or the delicious street food.

These are the things we’ll remember:

• The stuff we lost:
  • The prescription sunglasses
  • The purse with the IPhone and credit card
  • The necklace just purchased at the market
  • The keys to the car and house
• The stuff we felt:
  • The food poisoning
  • The busted up toes from surfing
  • The cold sore
  • The itchy head
• The stuff we chased:
  • The lice
  • The maggots
  • The ants
• The stuff we heard:
  • The chickens
  • The dogs
  • The goats and parrots and roosters and sheep
  • The unending fireworks

Those are the things we will laugh about together for a long time – kind of like the Las Vegas vacation where the car overheated the whole trip and we had to drive with wet towels on our heads,  or the Disneyland vacation where we ate nothing but 39 cent McDonalds cheeseburgers and Taco Time because we really couldn’t afford that trip at all.

But we also had some sweet moments together this week and one of my favorites was the day we played together and danced together with our Manos de Amor children.  I hope we’ll remember that afternoon too, because life must have some gentle moments to offset the harsh ones.  Some joy to offset the pain.  Some laughter to offset the puking!

Adios my lovely daughters Meigan and Brett – safe travels and come back soon. We definitely have more memories to create.  Hasta pronto mis hijas bonitas!

PS.  In case I’ve scared you away from ever visiting us, let me assure you that the maggots are gone, the lice are gone and the smuggled box of Borax took care of the ants – they’re gone too!