As of Tomorrow We Will Have Christmas Plans

Kyle and I have been doing a lot of talking lately...what are we going to do for Christmas? Even though we said we weren't going to be coming back to the states until our rotation here was over it was kinda unspoken that we would probably end up coming home for Christmas.

But going home went against or travel budget philosophy: The more money we spend on going places we've already been the less money we can spend on going places we haven't been yet.

Then, we had to consider the 'home sickness factor'. I equate going home to visit now like sawing off my arm then putting a band-aid on it. It might make things a little better now but in the long run it's not going to help anything and probably will just make things worse.

I'm definitely homesick right now, and I think Kyle is a little bit too. When we came home in September we had a great time and really enjoyed it but coming back to CH was the pits! It was like 'Ha, ha! Look at where you could be!'

And the money. I can guarantee you that no matter what we spend on a vacation in Europe we will spend more then that on a vacation in the US. Why? I mean we wouldn't necessarily have to pay for room and board in the US. It's because I can afford things in the US, and they have Mexican food, and the Gap, and literature in English...

Then there's the memories... What sounds better? "Remember that time we lived in Switzerland and went home to Kansas for Christmas?" or "Remember the time we lived in Switzerland and went on a Mediterranean cruise for the holidays?" - yeah, definitely the last one.

So, after a lot of 'I want to go home but I know we shouldn't' we finally made a decision and we will be booking our trip tomorrow. We're going to take a cruise.

We leave for Barcelona in a week where we'll spend 4.5 days before we board the boat for a 15 night cruise! The best part? It's maybe $100 more then the 7 night cruise and we will be on the water December 21-Jan 5 - that means we'll be traveling for both Christmas and New Year's!

We will definitely miss everyone over the holidays (we already do, more then you know) but think that this is probably a better arrangement then coming home right now (plus, we just saw you all in September, right?).