A Mini-Vacation and a Resort Review

 

Happy New Year's Eve! 

We finally made it back from our mini-vacation and I'm so glad to be home.  I've always been a homebody, but even more so these days. Traveling just doesn't thrill me like it once did. 

However, we had a great time, in spite of a few hiccups, and made some memories, which is what it's all about!

We visited the city of Grapevine, which is known as the Christmas Capitol of Texas, and I would say it certainly lived up to it's name!

It had a Main Street, which was completely decorated and was set up like the set of a Hallmark movie. 

Every shop was decorated and there were Christmas carols being played on loud speakers. 

We walked and shopped and stopped for ice cream. We took pictures in the park and at one point, when our feet were aching, we stopped and just listened to the music and both agreed that it felt as if we were in the scene of a movie. 

Later that night, we drove down the street so we could see it lit up at night and it was beautiful. 

This was the resort we stayed in...The Gaylord Texan. If you've ever stayed in any of the Gaylords, you know how massive they are.  We used our Marriott points to stay, so it was a treat for our mini-vacation.

It was also decorated for Christmas, although I only got a few pictures of the inside. 

We've stayed at two Gaylord resorts over the years and though they are beautiful, we've decided they aren't our thing. They are too big to really enjoy. We spent 90% of our time walking from the room to the car or the event we wanted to see. It was so crowded that we stood in line for two hours just to check in when we got there. 

I'm sharing all of that, not to complain, but to inform, in case you've ever wanted to stay in one.

There are other resorts we've been to over the years, that are smaller and much more relaxing - Lost Pines Hyatt Resort and Rough Creek Resort - both in Texas - are amazing places to stay and much more intimate and relaxing, yet still offer plenty of family activities to do. 

Overall, David and I had a great time together and if you remember in my last post, I put out a challenge to see if we could go on vacation without his job bothering him. Well, that didn't happen. He ended up having 3 conference calls he was required to be on, so we're still going on almost a decade of him not having a true vacation from work. Not even sure what to say about that anymore.

It was a great way to end the year...making memories, having fun and then coming home. 

I am always ready to move on to the New Year and begin a new 12 months of trying to get more organized, lose weight, be a better meal planner, challenge myself to stick with the same paper planner for an entire year, and all of those fun things we tell ourselves are necessary. 😀

But honestly, I'm just so thankful the Lord has given me the greatest blessings already, which are right here at home (and a few miles away) in the way of family and friends.  Maybe that's why traveling doesn't thrill me anymore. I already have everything I need right here.

There is a saying I've seen a couple of times that goes something like this...

"Don't use the weekend to escape from the life you have. 

Use it to build the life you want."

I think I kind of feel the same way about vacations. It's fun to see new places, but that should be the goal, not trying to escape the life you have. Because the life (and home) you have, should be where the real joy is found. If it's not, then it's time to start building the life you want. 

And with that, I will say...

Until Next Time...

Blessings!