In the US, holidays are long-term in the shops (buy decorations weeks if not months in advance!) and short-term in the days off. As far as the business world is concerned, Easter falls on a Sunday, so no holiday required. In Europe, I grew accustomed to Good Friday also being a day off, which makes sense in terms of religious significance. "Easter Monday" off is also quite common, mostly as a holiday to give people time to travel home from wherever they've gone (traditionally to spend Easter with family elsewhere). Here in Australia, we are being introduced to the idea of Easter Tuesday as well. While a few places are open, most are closed. Markus's office is closed. It's a five-day weekend for almost everyone! New to us, but who are we to scoff at extra family time? We're having a blast!
Ellie's last day of school term 1 was Thursday. She will go back again on Wednesday the 29th, so we've got two weeks more to play with and enjoy. Markus took the remainder of this week off, so for 3 vacation days, he gets 10 days with us! We're vacationing at home, and it's great! Due to the school holidays, most people head down South to Margaret River (gorgeous beaches, world-class wineries) or to Rottnest Island (so popular over Easter that there's a lottery for cabins held back in November!), but that means both places will be overrun. We've opted to stick around and do a few daytrips from home. In terms of kid-friendliness, we couldn't vacation anywhere better than here anyway. The beach, the river, the playgrounds, the backyard...all while maintaining our normal eat/sleep routines. It's pretty darn good. The weather is cooperating beautifully. There has been a fluke hot spell that has kept the evenings warmer than usual, but it's not hot enough to require the A/C. Yesterday, we had a rare overcast, then rainy day, but even that was enjoyable. Markus and Ellie did some work around the house, and we all went for a post-storm walk on the beach. There was such a range of blues and purples in the sky and blues and greens in the ocean...a camera couldn't capture them. It was breath-takingly beautiful. If we had painted it, we would have been accused over over-exaggerating the colors, it was so stunning. All at our doorstep. We are feeling very spoiled.
2 comments:
Vacations at home are the absolute best thing you can do for yourself as long as you can actually distract yourself from the day-to-day routine and force yourself to relax. I'm proud of you guys for doing exactly that - it's well deserved family time!
The vacationing at home sounds terrific!! I hope you all continue to deserve some much deserved family fun and relaxation :)
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