We're 52 hours away from the start of our long-awaited family holiday. "Excited" is an understatement. I am looking forward to being unplugged from the internet for the bulk of the trip almost as much as going shopping in the blessed outlet malls of America. This is a long overdue opportunity for hubby, the kids and me to escape together and live simply, without the distractions of work and show schedules, extra curricular activities, dragging routines.....I look forward to waking up after sunrise (or less than 30 mins before is fine too) and eat breakfast all together for more than 2 days straight. It very much is time for the five of us to reconnect, recharge, and remember how to appreciate each other.

Call me a hippy, but even the drive down will be "unplugged". We are deliberately without a portable dvd player and handheld video games, and doing this a more old-fashioned way. We borrowed a bunch of books-on-cd from the library (yay Free) and we will brush up on the car games throughout.

There's just one more thing left to do - buy a map. Very important.