Warm Hearts Happy Family

My family just kicked off this Christmas Season in the most perfect way.  The Great Wolf Lodge way. 

December marked the 5th annual Snowland at Great Wolf Lodge; a holiday celebration featuring indoor snow, caroling, and seemingly endless family fun.  Not only do you have the thrilling indoor water park but you get all of these activities as well:

·         Holiday Story Time with Mascot Rowdy the Reindeer

·         The Writing Depot, where children can write, decorate and mail letters directly to Santa

·         Polar Wolf Walk, a wintery nature hike for kids to site penguins, polar bears and more

·         North Pole University, complete with educational activities to earn a diploma and special gift

·         Toy Creation Station, where children can create toys to keep or give to a friend  

·         Wrapping Depot for guests to have presents wrapped on-the-spot

·         Special musical guest performances

·         Holiday caroling

·         Santa appearances

·         Animated Great Clock Tower holiday performances

As soon as my family entered the lodge we were embraced in a winter wonderland with sparkling lights, snow, a roaring fireplace, topped off with holiday music and decorated trees. There is holiday joy everywhere you look, and you can’t help but instantly get that warm and fuzzy feeling only happiness can bring. 

After checking in we started our day in the indoor waterpark.  The kids had a blast and so did mom and dad!  After that we headed to the lobby to enjoy cookie decorating and hot chocolate;  followed by a stroll down candy cane lane where the kids got to vote for their favorite decorated tree.

We ate dinner right in the lodge restaurant and let me tell you–the food was delicious.  And to my surprise, extremely reasonably priced!  We followed dinner with a visit with Santa Claus; and of course my son proceeded to ask for a gift way outside of our holiday budget–don’t know how we are going to get out of that!

We then changed into our pajamas and went back into the lobby for caroling and the thrill of real snow falling from the ceiling.  The night ended in our room with a special room service order of cookies and chocolate shakers.

The weekend was filled with great memories and fun and my family is now making Great Wolf Lodge a part of our family traditions.

Snowland runs December 5 through December 25th. 

I would like to thank Great Wolf Lodge for providing my family a complimentary stay to discover and share the wonder that is their annual Snowland adventure.

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One of my main frustrations with my husband is…well… it’s rather quite vain if we are being honest.  But bother me it does. 

He doesn’t look good in pictures–ever. Not because he isn’t totally studly in every way, but because he looks like he belongs in a prison cell and not in our living room.  In almost every picture.

He can not seem to figure out how to smile like a normal person for the camera.  But I am not complaining about that–it is a small miracle if he even attempts a smile.  Most of the time I get this:

Do you see where my frustration comes in? We all look so happy, and my husband looks like he is dead inside–living a life of dull boredom that is killing him slowly from the inside out.

The opposite is true however. He is the LIFE of the party, a giant kid really–trapped in an adult body. He is full of energy and happiness in general.

Except when I say lets take a family picture. In true bratty 7 year old form he pouts and refuses to smile.

So dear husband of mine, if I were you I would start smiling or else our children’s children are going to look back and think you were one grumpy ass old man.

The End.

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Let me preface by the fact that men have come a long way baby.   There is a culture shift happening–a movement really–in which men  are plugged into their families.  They contribute equally (or in my case more) in the household chores.  That are tender with their children, they are not afraid to let their nurturing underbellies show.  They co-sleep with their children and they really brave few might even be seen wearing their babies.

My man fits most of these yummy qualities.

But a man he still is.

And apparently men still reserve the right to check out and have adult time anytime that meets their man fancy.

Like when we are at a large gathering and all the men disappear into the garage/basement/backyard/anywhere that the women and children are not.  They hoot and holler, drink beer, smoke and just enjoy feeling “free” for a few hours. 

All the while the women are gathered similarly except their time is spent as a human juggle gym, a milk bar, a monster catcher, a boo-boo fixer a spill cleaner-upper and more.

Men gallivant off to play basketball or golf in their free time.  

Women take the kids to the park.

Men escape into their man-rooms of the house when the day has drug on just a few hours too long, while the women fight with over tired kids and bed times.

Men tally up all they have done until they have filled their “time-card” and are eager to punch out…

I think I am going to try these sneaky man tactics.

How about I clean up after dinner, give baths and put on their jammies only to flee as fast as my legs will take me down to the basement so I can turn up the surround sound to drown out all that is happening upstairs.  To drown out the fervent protests to bedtime.  To drown out the sound of a teething baby’s cries.  To drown out the exasperation in my husbands voice.  And to drown out the sound of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song filling our home for the 1,895,00 time.

Or

I can join a golf league and leave my phone in the car so I am 1,000 percent unreachable because as you know, it is absolutely against golf etiquette to even think about your phone in the presence of the golf gods.  The only way to please these gods are to drink, smoke, tell dirty jokes and scratch your balls.  Shit, I wonder if scratching the sweat between my boobs will suffice.

Or

I can pretend like I am taking out the garbage/getting something out of my car/watering the flowers but really sneak into the neighbors garage to get away and throw back a beer.

Or

I can give my husband my boobs so he can nurse the said teething baby all night long  while I lay there asleep pretending not to hear a thing.

So yes, men have come a long way but still have things pretty damn easy if you ask me.

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Families need heroes–people who do little things for the ones they love everyday just for the sake of their happiness and for their well being. 

My husband is one such hero and a remarkable father and husband.  A true man both physically (yum yum) and emotionally with a love that radiates from his very core.

Not only does he show his family he loves us by his words and hugs and kisses, but his actions tell us the same story.  I had a very busy day planned yesterday and had to have both kids up and out of the house fairly early so when I got an unexpected visitor–the once a month kind of visitor–and no means of dealing with it (pads people, talking about pads) I was frustrated to say the least. 

I told hubby of the situation on the phone and wasn’t even entirely sure he was paying attention to me.  30 minutes later he walks through the front door with a bag of feminine goodies and smile.  He left work to go to the store just to make my life easier.  Just to make my day a little bit better. 

OK, so that was a bit on the sappy side for a story about tampons, but I am telling you it is the little things that make me thankful.  And make me absolutely grateful I married the man that I did.

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Staying positive and uplifted and joyful can be almost impossible for many families in our current economy. And I get why. The news is full of unemployment rates, layoffs, company bail outs, and greedy CEO’s. Seems the old saying holds true; the rich keep getting richer while the poor — you get what I am saying.

The thing that helps me is to remember all the things I do have. I refuse to give up my power; refuse to let finances or any other stress put a shadow over my families well being.

Yesterday my husband came dangerously close to a lay off. Our household can not survive without his salary. Hell, we are just barely surviving with his salary. When we learned the news we immediately went to our worst case scenario and worked backwards from there. We had a game plan within the first five minutes which took much of our anxiety away.

In the end, his job is secure (for now) but the day made me proud. I was proud of our teamwork, proud that we pulled together instead of letting the stress make us crazy. I was proud that we never skipped a beat and our children are none the wiser. Because in the end, for me, that is what happiness is. If my children feel safe and secure and happy, then my world is all good.

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