Franglo

It’s kind of like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, we cram five days of work into four. The reward; the coveted three day weekend. In theory this is supposed to be relaxing time but enter stage left the requirement of family engagements for holidays.

It was a crazy busy week at work but I was able to work from home on the Thursday. The joy of working from home, you can multi-task in between conference calls. Laundry can thrown in the washer and the dryer; all that is left to do is the folding at the end of the day. Lunch hour can be used to run out and get the last of the ingredients for the family meal etc. I had a super productive day at work and personally.

This year we decided to host Easter dinner, it was an opportunity to show off the finished Renos. For us, dinner took place on Friday night to accommodate custody schedules for holiday weekends. Even thought we kept the meal simple, it sill meant running to Costco on Wednesday night when I got home to pick up the main ingredients. Thursday I was able to fetch the last items from the grocery store.

We started cleaning the house on Thursday and this continued on Friday. I started the meal prep early so we would not spend the entire time in the kitchen when the family arrived at 3:30.

The menu this year ham, roasted herbed potatoes with parmesan cheese and a spring salad with candied pecans, berries and an Asian dressing. Dessert was a black forest trifle which I was able to make Gluten Free. I cheated and used a boxed cake mix; I now understand why this was such a game changer for women, so quick and simple. With dinner prepped, I had time to run away to the pet store to plan our future fish family.

The family arrived at 3:30, consisting of another 5 people, so we became a group of 10. We have started do dinner in two seating’s, the kid eat first and then the adults relax and enjoy their dinner. It’s an even seating 5 kids, and then 5 adults.

The family gatherings are always hard for me because they are entirely in French and unlike class where there is a theme, in normal conversation it’s all over the place. At the end of a family function I am physically and mentally exhausted.

We did end up with lots of chocolate, we turned the Easter Egg Hunt into a trivia contest, correct answers could be exchanged for eggs. We are set for chocolate for the next 6 months of so. The kids had a great time and the adults had time to relax with wine.

Saturday, was the last of cheerleading until the start of the next season in the summer. We went to watch the middle child perform her routine for the last time this year and we got to see some of the world teams perform as well which is always exciting.

A year ago we had our beach ceremony in Cuba where we made a life commitment to one another, we celebrated our first anniversary. We shared some champagne with the kids that night with dinner to commemorate the occasion and then had some time to relax that evening.

Sunday the kids where heading to church with their Mom, so they were gone by 8:30. We went back to bed and slept in, followed by some lounging around the house looking at family vacation options for the summer.

To truly celebrate our anniversary we went to a Nordic spa in the afternoon and spent some quality time relaxing, cuddling on chairs getting some quality alone time which has not happened since January. It’s always nice to reconnect once the crazy subsides and renew our commitment to our relationship.

Back to work today, the total new people in the office – two. My other half was smart and took the day off. Food for thought next year…