Take the Trip

Last month we traveled with friends to Manzanillo.  Its a beach located on the Pacific coast of Mexico that is about 3 1/2 hours from our home.  We went with three other families rented a house and made zero plans.  You know what?  It was the best trip ever!  Seriously.  All 10 kids got along. All 8 adults got along too 😉.  The kids swam, built sand castles, we sang all the 90's country songs, laughed til we cried and ate until we couldn't eat anymore.  It was a wonderful time and so many memories were made.  I am so thankful we just took the trip.  We didn't over analyze the housing or the agenda.  We just hopped into the car and off we went.  No regrets.

On the way home it led me to wonder why we don't do things like that more often.  I think there are several reasons. 

 1.  I think it takes an effort to NOT have a plan.  

• We are creatures of habit. We like to know what is coming.  We like to know how out time will be spent and we like to know the cost.  Not just monitarily...

2.  New places can be scary.  Where will you eat? What will the accommodations be like? How will      the days be spent?

• It doesn't hurt to do a little research on the front end - especially when traveling to a new place. Since we live in Mexico, most of our adventures are here.  We always check here to make sure it is safe.  I also like to know about toll roads, gas stations, restaurant or grocery stores around our accommodations.  
• I usually pack a cooler for snacks since, unlike the US, there isn't always a gas station or fast food restaurant every few miles.  And I always pack these for the girls to be able to go to the bathroom ... anywhere.
• For when you get there - I love trip advisor to find things in the area to do or places to eat.  I have also found from living overseas that sometimes facebook is a really helpful resource.  It seems that even if a company doesn't have a website, they have a facebook page and they are usually full of helpful information.  

3. And the last and most important reason, I my opinion is... traveling with kids is hard.  Sometimes it seems like it's just not worth it.  But I am telling you - IT IS.  

So -pack the suitcase(s). The cooler. The sand toys or hiking shoes or tent or whatever it is and just go. Go make the memories. Go see something new. Go. Just Go. Just take the Trip. 

Restart

Hello - you may not remember me.  It's Jennifer, you know, the one who moved from DC to Sri Lanka, wrote like 4 blogs then moved to Mexico.  That's right, it's been almost two years since my last post and I am in Mexico. While its been a wild ride filled with lots of adventures, it's also been a time of settling for me.  I feel like I have a vision for this blog.  I have time to invest in it. And I hope to see if this leads to something more.  What that is, I really don't know.  But I do know that I have something to offer.  Experiences to share.  So I will peck away in my little corner of the internet for as long as I can.  Or until life circumstances shift... again. I will leave you with this... my absolute favorite picture from last years dia de los muertos celebration.

Travel Plans

I just recently blogged about my word of the year.  Now in retrospect, I think it probably should have been travel.  Because the Lindholms are gonna do some serious traveling in 2018.  We will be PCSing (we are getting reassigned to another posting). But in addition to that, we will finally visit the Maldives!  It's been on the list since we found out we were posted to Sri Lanka.  However, when we got here, we realized how truly expensive it is there, and we have been waiting for the right time aka budget to come along.  Finally, it's here! We will be going in the spring! Erik turns 40 this year and so do I, so we are going to celebrate with a short get away sans kids at an amazing resort!  Kurumba is a resort on North Male Atoll Island.  I haven't decided yet, but I am looking at the all inclusive dining option so we can just be lazy, and do room service, or beach side pool bar lunches... and not be stuck to the buffet dining times or even to making a dinner reservation. Those of you with kids truly understand the freedom in not keeping ANY sort of schedule  - even if it's only for a few days!  The resort offers water sports such as sailing and snorkeling.  We can book all those things when we get there.  But I am doing my best to research all the fun stuff now, so we can be sure not to miss any opportunity.  As much as I want the private villa out in the ocean like this:

Photo Credit

We are settling for a room with beach access.  I mean, we want to enjoy the trip, but budget is still a factor especially because we have decided to go to ...drum roll please....
 Europe in early June!  We are in the early planning stages right now, and I will totally keep you posted, as well as be asking for any tips you may have.  We will be flying into Amsterdam - we have family friends in the Netherlands, so either on the front or the back end of the trip, we will definitely be spending some time with them.

Photo Credit

But we also plan to see Paris, London... Erik really wants to see Normandy, I wouldn't mind seeing Spain... but honestly, I have never seen any of it, so I will truly be happy with whatever we plan out.  I think right now, we will definitely see Paris (Lifelong dream of mine) Then decide whether to just do more of France, or maybe a Eurorail trip and just take in an entire European vacation... hello Lampoons!  It's still in the dreaming phase. If I am being honest, it was brought on by the fact that my sister is in France right now... and I am loving all her adventures.

Photo Cred: Stolen from my sister's FB page -so  jelly!

We had originally planned to do an epic out west journey this summer, but with several factors in play such as the date Erik will be able to join us in the states and the kids school schedule, we have decided to postpone that and replace it with our European trip.  We will be having a layover in Amsterdam on our home leave, so it will be quite easy to take an extra amount of time and do some site seeing. The only site seeing we did on our last R & R was the Starbucks in the airport in Amsterdam. While I must say that was a lovely sight, we do want a little more!  This trip will be so fun and to be able to share it with the kids.  I cannot imagine a better experience. As always, we will keep you posted!

Last idea I have brewing... one I haven't really even hashed out with Erik is Ella's birthday.  She turns 13 on November 22 - which happens to be Thanksgiving day this year.  I really want to take her to New York.  There are so many wild cards to this trip, though.  We don't exactly know when we will arrive at our next post.  We don't know how much scheduling flexibility we will have, and honestly.  If we have just moved to a new post, I am not sure how keen I will be to up and travel again.  After all, the way it is looking we will be bouncing from house to house this summer and that really isn't ideal for the length of time we will be in the US.  ( a completely separate blog post).  However, if all the stars align, it will be NY on the smallest budget ever!  So I will be more than happy to share our tips and tricks. Really, New York like most other big cities can be done fairly inexpensive if you stick to the freebies and cheapies.   However, I feel a Broadway show is a must and maybe the rockettes - so it may not be as cheap as I hope. We'll see.

Really, if you think about it, my Less word of the year is allowing for the more... more traveling, more adventure, more family time.  And I truly couldn't be happier about the possibilities before us!

Honoring Holiday Traditions While Living Overseas

We get tons of questions from friends and family members about life overseas.  One of the more frequently asked ones is "How do you celebrate _____ overseas?" Whether it be Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Having been through a year of celebrations now, I feel like we have found a good balance between honoring the important traditions of our family and the things we love most about the holidays and being open to a new type of normal.

I'll start off by saying that we are truly fortunate.  Because we are in the foreign service we have an Embassy staff that helps keep the "American" feel of certain holidays.  For example, they put on a wonderful Halloween festival yearly.  It allows our kids to dress up, "trick or treat" and enjoy fun and games.

Our Little Unicorns at the Embassy Halloween Carnival

Rosie The Riveter and James Dean heading to the Marine Halloween Party

They do this with Easter, Christmas, and other holiday celebrations as well.  It helps keep us connected to other Americans, our traditions, and takes away some of the loneliness that can accompany the holidays for some.

While these activities are invaluable, really the key to having a "Happy Holiday" while living overseas is figuring out that balance between linking old traditions with new ones. For example, last halloween, our kids carved pineapples for the holiday.  It was fun and they enjoyed the tradition of carving while embracing our new island.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Back home Thanksgiving with my family meant more to me than any other time of the year.  I absolutely loved to be at my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving.  The food is amazing and its practically the same menu I have been eating since I was old enough to remember.  I love that there is no other competition - no gifts, no extra parties... just a day to enjoy family.  My sister and I always do the black friday shopping when we are together.  It's hilarious, sometimes we buy a ton, sometimes, nothing.  Almost always we laugh hysterically and stay out all night! It is a time I cherish more than anything.  Thanksgiving last year was hard because I realized how truly far we are from friends and family, but it was also good.  It helped me see that it's a time to be thankful, and family can take on many different faces.  We celebrated with friends, we ate, laughed and enjoyed the day. This year, the friend's faces changed as happens in this lifestyle, but we still had an amazing time celebrating and counting our blessings with new friends.

Our "Friends"giving was such a fun way to enjoy yummy food and great company!

Blurry picture alert!  But a new tradition began this year.  Erik and the girls made the pumpkin pie for dessert!

Although "weight" is a big deal in our lifestyle, and can sometimes affect our decision to bring along "frivilous" extras.      We always make a point to decorate for every holiday.  It makes our home feel like ours and reminds us of all the fun ways to celebrate whatever the holiday may be. 

Last Christmas Erik's mom was here to celebrate.  It was a good first year because we had family here.  I didn't know how this year would go, but it was truly amazing.  I think we started a new tradition by putting our tree up REALLY EARLY. 

But it was fun, and we binged on hallmark movies and of course our favorite family classic Christmas movies.  We baked... a lot... we shopped, we wrapped gifts, we stuck close to our family traditions of eating on our china every night in the month of December.

I have shared Aunt Evon's Sugar cookie recipe HERE

Christmas Shopping at Pettah Market.

Our December Tradition of eating off of our fine china continued.

The family Elves found us, so of course they hid and caused mischief.

We did a family advent study, and participated in the Carols Service at church.

But we branched out some too.  There are many here, especially with the embassy construction that don't have families with them.  That meant we opened our home on Christmas Eve to some new faces. It was a magical night filled with laughs, lots of food and some great memories.  I am so thankful we got to meet even more new friends!

So now on to the point of this entire blog:

1.     The most important thing in this life is to realize that some things will never change no matter where you are.  There will always be people that need "family" to be around or a home cooked meal.  Those people may be other embassy families, they may be someone down on their luck, they may be someone experiencing their first Christmas/Thanksgiving/Mother's day without a loved one - who knows.  But we are called as Christians to offer hospitality.  And although that may look different from year to year, opening your home is a tradition in itself.

2.     You can honor your traditions anywhere in any way you like.  I didn't get to go black friday shopping with my sister, however, we face timed, we laughed together and we still had time to connect.  And as a family, we hung out poolside all day on "black friday" it was amazing and I enjoyed every minute of it.

"Different isn't always bad, different can be fun."  This is a saying that Anna's kindergarten teacher used to always tell the kids.  It's so true.  So your day may not look like it used to, it may not even look like it was planned to, but it can still be fun.  That is an attitude that you can choose.  It is hard sometimes, trust me, I know, but it can be so so good, if you commit to be positive about the experience.

3.     Just because you aren't sad doesn't mean you don't miss your family or your "old way of life."  I know for many foreign service families and expats, they grew up in this life, so following in their families' footsteps is just par for the course, but in our situation, we uprooted our family to embark on this adventure.  Our kids had life long friends, we had lifelong friends, we had family traditions, we had family that looked forward to holidays with us, planned around our schedule, tried to make any occasion special for our children.  They love us and were our biggest support group.  Leaving that was the hardest decision we ever made.  I have now spent two Christmases away from my parents, sister, brother-in-law, precious nephews and niece. We have been separated from cousins and aunts and uncles.  Did we miss them this year? Yes, terribly.  Did we spend some nights reminiscing about holidays of the past, either when we were children or even since we have been married?  Of course we did.  Were we sad?  No, we were not.  Why?  Because we didn't allow ourselves to be.  We decided that we were too blessed to spend any holiday fretting about not physically seeing family members.  We would connect with them via face time, we would pray for them, talk to them, then we would commit to making memories that our children will be able to reminisce about when they are  grown.  Whether or not they're spending the holidays with us or not.

I struggled with the title of this blog post because my first inclination was to title it something like making it through holidays as an expat or in a foreign country, something like that, but the truth is I didn't make it through.   The Lindholms thrived during this fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas seasons.  And that will carry on into our new year.  Foreign Service life is hard, Sri Lanka is hard, but we are better for these experiences.

What are your some traditions that follow you anywhere? I wanna hear!

Negombo

While the kids and I were in the States for the summer, Erik found a cute little town north of Colombo called Negombo.  Negombo was settled by the Portuguese and therefore you will actually see more churches on street corners than buddhist temples in this area.  It's full of busy fish markets and some beautiful coastline.

After Erik's little tour of Negombo, he put it on our bucket list.  We headed out early for a beach day at the Jetwing Beach Hotel in Negombo.  It is only about an hour's drive north of Colombo, so for a family that despises roll away beds and suitcases, it makes for the perfect day trip.

The cost to use the hotel and beach facilities was about 4500 lkr which amounts to a little over $30.00.  We opted not to eat the buffet offered on the weekends because our kids are quite picky, instead we just enjoyed the pool bar with it's fish and chips, chicken satay and burgers.  We found a shady spot under a coconut tree, and enjoyed the view.

It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday on a reasonable budget.  And as I mentioned earlier, for a family that really wanted to avoid packing yet another suitcase, it was the perfect get away.

Things I will do differently next time:
There is a neat little coffee shop right outside of the hotel.  I think a coffee and breakfast stop there would be nice.
There is a very good looking sushi restaurant right down from the hotel for dinner on the way home.
Our adventures are modified to our family dynamic.  Meaning, we stick to a hotel that provides us with all we need, but just the same, our kids see lots of the world, they otherwise wouldn't know existed, and we get some sun and sand in the process.

Travel with kids? How are your getaways modified?

Our South Florida Vacation

So, we just spent a little over a week in South Florida. It was a welcome break from all the snow and ice of Northern Virginia. We enjoyed a visit with family and a week full of beach trips, golfing, swimming, bocce, bike riding and lots of early morning strolls with the baby. We are relaxed and refreshed and arriving in Virginia with enough vitamin d to get us through... Hopefully:)

We stayed at Kings Gate a community for ages 55 and over. It's been low key and they community is full of grandparents so they're so welcoming to our kids!  And it was winter break for some northern school systems so there were even some kids for our girls to play with. I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some of the hidden treasures of the Port Charlotte/ Punta Gorda area.  There is a lot to see and do and I encourage you to give it a look if you're thinking of escaping the winter blues!

Beach:
We tried Englewood Beach.  It's a public beach in Englewood - about 30 miles from Port Charlotte.   This beach is different from what we are used to on the panhandle of Florida, it's darker sand and full of shells.  It's a great beach for families.  There is a playground for kids and a huge changing area/bathroom pavilion.  We went twice.  On the first day, there was a lot of shark teeth on the shore, the kids had a blast hunting shark teeth.
I think next visit we will try Siesta Key.  Several people recommended it.

Ice Cream:
Near Englewood Beach is an ice cream shop called Swirls and Curls.  This is a fun stop!  It's all outdoor with a relaxed seating area with corn hole and checkers to play while you enjoy your yummy ice cream.
On Thursday night before we flew out on Saturday, we enjoyed homemade ice-cream at Cubby's in downtown Punta Gorda.  It was FANTASTIC!

Shopping:
The Fisherman's village outdoor mall is such a fun destination!  It's filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, children's shops even shops that sell oils and soaps. There is also a military museum that we want to be sure to tour next time we visit.

Dinner:
At the end of The Fisherman's Village on the second floor is a restaurant called the Captain's Table.  The food was good, but to be honest, the with a second floor view of the sunset from the outside seating area, I don't remember much about my dinner.  It was absolutely breath-taking and I just kept telling myself "this is beautiful and we get to have dinner and enjoy it"  it was a great evening!
We also had pizza from Bella Napoli it was amazing.  I highly recommend the Bella Napoli special pizza.  Sliced meatballs, sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions...it's amazing! (we had it twice!)

Entertainment:
We had our kids with us so any outing had to be kid friendly, but the Tiki Hut was a great blend.  It has a live band, colorful Adirondack chairs for sitting and sipping your drink of choice, and a dance floor or beach volleyball court for the kids.  Not to mention it meanders along the bay so all views are waterfront.  It's also a great sunset destination. We may do that next time we go.

The trip was relaxing and all around a wonderful week full of time with our kids and Erik's parents. It did inspire us to dream a little... I think next visit we will try a few other adventures such as:
1. An Air Boat Ride
2. Road Trip - We will shoot for Miami or the Keys.  I'm thinking more than likely we will try for the Keys.  It's beautiful, and we have always wanted to go there.  For some reason, we seem to always put it off.
3.  Charter a Boat:  Either a Deep Sea Fishing trip or Possibly a Sail Boat for the day.

I will close this post with a few more pictures of our wonderful vacation! If you're interested in more information about this area check out this link...and this one too.

What are you doing to beat the winter blues?