What are your Day B4 Vacation Rituals?

[Pat_Elliott]

Originally posted by Bill From PA
Pat_Elliott,

Actually on June 4 I'll be in Reading, Pa. for a week of programming classes in a language called LANSA which runs on our IBM iSeries box. If you look closely at the pic from the Rose & Crown you'll see a twenty in my left fist, cargo pocket unbuttoned so as not to hamper the quick-draw a father has to master, but you'll be learning all about that soon enough, won't you!?

Bill From PA

Bill,

We speak the same language. Scary. I'm an outsource consultant for custom Rbase programs (ERP, mostly for restaurant supply). Scary. I'm sure that's data that greatly excites most of the board.
I've spent many a night closing the Peanut Bar in Reading. A great place to graze and water.


I've seen the picture often, but never realized it was from the R&C. I am so ashamed. But wouldn't it be more fiscally efficient to learn the quick-button, rather than the quick-draw?

Let me have that fantasy for another year or two. They don't start asking for money before they can walk, do they?

 

[carone0318]

I hear all of you women out there, I am just like you! I do everything!!!! There is one place I draw the line, I will not pack for him. I pack for dd (6), I pack for ds (2) and myself. I do watch dh pack for himself and sometimes say, you're gonna wear that!!! One year we were is WDW for a trip and dh asked "Did you bring the nail clippers?" I started to think how I could spend the life insurance money! I have to say one thing that dh normally does is bring our dog to "doggy camp" I let him be the bad guy, I'm the one that goes and picks her up, but this year I have to drop her off and I am not thrilled, I hope I don't cry

Actually though I am glad that I do it, because I know it is done right! I can't stand incompetence. If I start with the best, I get the best work. I just can't image that dh would think to bring everything that I do. Maybe I am not giving him enough credit, but I don't think that I am willing to find out anytime soon

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Enough! Just for the record, and I'll have Mrs. Elliott log on and testify, if need be......after DW packs her personal clothes, I pack everything else in bags, I load it in the car. I also plan the trip, purchase all the tickets, arrange the schedule, book the hotels, flights, rental cars. And I make the PS and dinner theater arrangements.

Oh, and I dress myself.

And I always match.

Thus dies another suburban myth.....

 

[Chloesmom]

I do this mad laundry thing for a week before we go. everything must be washed and folded before we go. I don't know why...I guess so I know what I can take with me. I have never cleaned before we went but this time friends are taking care of the pets and I do not wnating them to see my bedroom in it's usual mess so I am cleaning. I ALWAYS buy new underwear and socks for everyone. Once again, don't ask me why. I think I have a thing about the airport seeing old underwear. I make a list over and over again...adding and deleting as the days pass.
We usually pack the night before but I am going to pack DD's things tonite and mine tomorrow. DD packs himself but waits until that morning ( panic for me). This year I may ask him to set his things out and I will pack them. We are using space saver bags for the first time so we will see.
Oh, and since I am self employed in a family business and everything will fall apart while i am gone I must work double the hours for weeks before despite my family saying " everything will be fine...go and have fun"
I love the Disney Eve idea... and the champagne idea. And the cookie story was sweet.

 

[carone0318]

WOW, I'm impressed! You are a rare breed.

Actually, my dh would probably do more if he thought about it before I did. I have just recently said one thing, "I really would like to get the luggage upstairs." Do you think that he would take a hint.....NO, it's still in the basement. What he lacks in vacation planning he makes up with the kids. He wakes them up in the morning, gets them dressed, makes them breakfast, plays with them all of the time, and he gives them baths (I can count on one hand the number of times that I gave dd a bath and she is now 6.) He also puts our ds to bed every night, so there is no way that I am complaining. I'll do my part for vacation if he's doing the above things year round!!!

Just some good ol' fun

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Originally posted by carone0318
WOW, I'm impressed! You are a rare breed.

Actually, don't be impressed. I'm a simple product of necessity. I went into business for myself eight years ago and while I'm a an amazingly talented (and humble) programmer, I was an organizational mess, and if I didn't learn to dot t's, cross i's, and keep paperwork straight, I'd be broke. And then where would I go for vacation? Also, I travel for a living, which makes one mighty proficient at packing efficiently and still looking presentable, in a suit, the third day of a business trip.

And DW is pretty good at packing, too. She just gave up because I did it better But I think she's taking me for a ride. She's started doing stuff like washing a dish on her night to do the dishes, staring at it, and saying "oh, I just can't get these things as clean as you do." And she knows I'll do the dishes. And she drinks a beer, watches ESPN, and scratches.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Usually we drive,

- oil change/fluids, checkup for the car is a must (no more than 1 week before trip)

Day before:
- Fill-up car with gas
- check air in tires
- car wash
- make sure everything is packed
- pack car
- get cooler ready (minus ice)
- move radar detector to the "trip car"
- id's/ap's
- cash/credit cards

My DW does the mad laundry thing and cleans out the fridge (my brother who house sits for us gets annoyed that there's no food in the house, but he's single and goes out everynight anyway.

Then we're ready to go (anything we forget we can buy down there) Let's Roll!

 

[gonga]

If I had my DH pick the clothes he wanted to take on vacation, the only things that would match would be rips and stains!

he is so careless with his clothes. I but him designer clothes and hide them in my closet. I take them out of hiding for vacations and other occasions when it warrants it. If I do not do that he will take a $100 Tommy Bahama shirt out of the closet to do the lawn, just because it was the first thing he could grab. After doing the lawn, he will proceed to drip ketchup or mustard down the front because a hot dog just isn't a hot dog if you can't eat it in 2 bites! When we go away and he pulls out all these new clothes (or new to him) he askes me wow when did I get this? This is nice! - yeah its nice, because I hid it from you and saved it from the rath of the lawn day!

It is not easy!

 

[mmounsey]

This is a great thread! What else does everyone do?

Other than making sure the house is clean (especially the kitchen)---beds made, laundry done---I never cook the night before, always takeout.

I love the Disney Eve idea as well...think we'll pop in a Disney video that night as well.

 

[photobob]

Like everyone else the day before is a huge preparation day. I usually take off from work and get all the necessities done. I usually mow the lawn, go to the bank and store and take the kids with me so the wife can pack, hopefully she will have taken a double dose of paxil as she is prone to what I like to call "trip fits."

Here is where our ritual differs from others. I don a shaved head. However for our trips to WDW I let my hair grow for a couple of weeks beforehand. The night before we draw a mickey mouse outline on the back of my head and carefully shave around it leaving only a Mickey on my head. It makes for numerous comments and fun on our trip. I'll have 30 or 40 people stop me to take a photo of my head..So if you see someone with a Mickey on their noggin May 24-31 you have seen Photobob...

 

[kayeandjim00]

Disney Eve! That's great, and this is a great thread. For this trip we are leaving on a Saturday and our week looks like this:
Tuesday - DH and I both get haircuts
Wed - Vacation Celebration with DH Family (DH's dad takes everyone out to eat when any of the "kids" go on vacation.
Thurs - PACK, PACK, PACK, the bank, Laundry and order out pizza.
Friday - Relax before we leave, go out to eat and stop to get magazines for the flight.
The whole week is great because it's a buildup to the main event! WDW!!

 

[Belle5]

Very fun thread!!! Photobob--I hope we cross paths. I would love to see your shave art!
Does anyone else shut off all the toilet valves in the house before they leave? Wouldn't want to come back to a flood in the house, ya know!
I do every stitch of laundry in the house a week before we leave (no small feat, I assure you) and confiscate all the "nice" shorts and t-shirts, socks and underwear. We dress in the "left over" clothes (with stains and holes) for the next week. Everyone wears the "ugly" clothes cheerfully because they know what THAT means!!! I've got 4 days until the MOST important laundry day of the year.
How pathetic is this? Our house must be totally spotless before we leave because what if we die in a car wreck or plane crash and someone MIGHT see our house dirty!!! OK--I don;t tell the kids that's why we clean--it's my little secret. It paid off last year, too. My FIL (in Tampa) passed away while we were on vacation and I had to have a friend come into my house and get funeral clothing and shoes for all 7 of us. Whew--was I glad we had cleaned!!!

 

[goofymom23]

We always seem to start our vacation a week out. We get in the fever and start eating out more, you know you can't go to the store for food when you leave in a week so we have to prepare our stomachs for eating out. Then we do the bank, the packing, the cleaning, and the celebrating. Stop the mail and let the neighbors know we are leaving. We try to make the vacationlast as long as possible, when its over its over until 6 months later, but before it begins you can make it last longer. WOW we are leaving on Thursday, we can't wait, tomorrow we cut grass and load the van.

 

[bryantslovedisney]

What a Great thread...Here i thought I was the only neurotic
one!!
Well, we are 47 days out and I'm already getting nervous...
Sure i have the usual household things, farming out the pets,
making sure i have coverage for my business(as a realtor,
if you ever want your business to triple, start telling people
you're going on vacation!!) and then to boot I need to have
everything of importance in one central locatioN!! Last year,
there was a forest fire about 1/2 mile from my house and
we were on EVACUATION ALERT...which means be prepared
to leave within minutes of being called!! I'm relying on my
friend to go to my house, if need be, and throw all of my
stuff in her car...so I'm thinking it needs to be easy!!
Besides all of that...We have the traditional Disney
"Shop til' You Drop" at the mall getting matching colored
shirts for all 5 of us(it helped Security tremendously when we lost
our 5 year old at Animal kingdom 2 years ago!!) We all
do the 1 month before "Disney In-Training " walking,
Making sure we are all fit to walk the estimated 10 miles
a day that you do at WDW, We all get new sandals from
TEVA and get them broken in, Check our luggage situation,
Make our PS reservations, Get our haircuts , watch our
old WDW trips on Video once a week....
So by the day before we are done and ready to
relax...We all dress up in our corny Hawaaiin Attire,
the boys have their disposable cameras to take pics
on the plane, and we're off to Never Never land!!
Whew...lots of planning and work, but what a way
to escape from reality!

Can't Wait!!

 

[addie]

These are great ideas!

Last year here is what I did right:

1) Had our entire trip planned and maped out WEEKS IN ADVANCE. It was DH's first time to DW and he called me "Disney dork" for all of the planning but after we were at the parks and he realized how smooth things were and all the time we were saving he was sooo grateful.

2) I also had our carpets cleaned the day before we left so we came home to the super clean feeling.

Here is what I did wrong:

Spent the week watching the Olympics (very exciting because we live in Salt Lake) however I was still packing when DH woke up to get in the shower for our flight!!!

I was up and doing laundry all night long, and did not get to sleep until I was on the plane!!!

This year we will have our "Disney Eve" and a nice dinner out sounds fun!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

OMG... I thought I was the only one in the world that had to hide DH's nice clothes so he wouldn't ruin them. LOL

Ditto to all those that said THEY had to do all the planning, packing, etc. Me too- ofcourse. But probably only because DH knows he'd never hear the end of it if he packed and forgot something. He does pack his clothes but I inspect his luggage before we leave. The man has to have atleast SOME matching clothes that are presentable for public while on vacation. LOL That's when I haul out the nice clothes I've been hiding.
LOL
(or just recently bought if necessary)

I do the new undies and socks also. I don't know why. LOL

I also do the washing of clothes the week before and then commandeering the nicer clothes- and we all wear the less nice clothes that week. LOL Although on some trips (not necessarily just to WDW mind you) I have been known to wash clothes all night and still be packing and preparing the house/etc when everyone gets up to go. But that's okay- we usually drive wherever we are going (most of the time) and so I sleep on the drive. LOL

 

[carone0318]

One thing that I didn't mention that we do in our house is the countdown chain. I started this 2 trips ago when my dd would ask how many more days. Well, now we always do the chain for 60 days and she takes the rings off. We are 21 days out and she can really quantify it with the chain. We alway like to watch previous trip videos and look through the scrapbooks.

We also do the scrubby clothes for a couple of days thing.

 

[Virgo10]

I leave lists all over the house for the husband and the daughter so they'll know what to do when I'm gone. I usually get in a huff by the end of the day because I'm exhausted. Then I think about where I'll be in less than 24 hours and crack up laughing.

I've been preparing for that last day for at least 2 weeks now. I'm so tired from running around trying to get everything organized, I'll probably collapse once I get on the plane. But Ahhhhh, 13 days of no housework, no Ebay, no meal cooking.
WHEEEEE!

Roberta

 

[E&B's Mom]

We usually do last minute packing (I'm a planner, so usually this is all that's left). I always schedule a manicure and pedicure. This year I'm picking my DD7 up at school and surprising her with a manicure and pedicure too!

 

[TinkHappy]

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry...then I pack...EVERYTHING!!!