We’re Back!

My favorite time of the year is December, when we get to go on our family holiday. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go this year due to what options were being presented to us online. It was a little scary there for a moment when I had to tell everyone that it may not happen because the opportunities we usually get at this time of the year weren’t presenting themselves. All of a sudden in the middle of November when we usually already have our holiday sorted, the opportunity presented itself. Mind you a lot of prayer had already happened leading up to this day, but for what ever reason two of the best places on the Gold Coast opened up to us, and all of the stars aligned at the same time. Everyone put in for holidays from work and everyone was approved. It was an exciting day realising how big a deal it was that not only did we get accommodation, but how awesome it was that everyone got their holiday requests approved. Today is the first day home after our great adventure to the Gold Coast. Friends and family like to tease us a little about holidaying on the Gold Coast, but for a family of six, its a two and a half hour drive down to the Gold Coast so we can drive us all down there, we don’t need to fly and we have a car to adventure around the place if we choose too. Between Helensvale and Coolangatta there are numerous spots to choose from for a great holiday, and we have never found the Gold Coast to disappoint. Would I like to go somewhere else, other than the Gold Coast? Yes, one day. For sure. I would love to travel. I would love to head north in the winter and one day I would love to cross the southern border and head down towards Sydney, but right now its about having holidays that aren’t going to financially burden us, and have holidays where we can have a great time with the kids. Now the kids are getting older, they want more freedom and autonomy, we need to feel like we can have some balance between being altogether all the time and letting them venture out. There is an art to getting a great deal, and it is simply looking at sites that offer great deals. In the past I have used Groupon.com, Cudo. com, not to mention wotif.com, booking.com etc. I have also been fortunate to get some great holidays at some ritzy places like the Q1 and The Circle through eBay.com.au holiday vouchers. There is an art to getting a great holiday. I would like to think I have picked up some pretty amazing skills with regard to getting great deals for holidays for our family. This year we were able to grab two weeks away, which was perfect. I love holidays and always find that while I am grateful for the getaway, one week away isn’t quite enough. By the end of the first week, I am literally only just starting to relax. A big year in my opinion means the need for a lot of life detoxing, and a week really isn’t enough. Maybe I just need to holiday more often throughout the year so that I don’t feel that a total life detox has to happen in the two weeks we have at the end of the year. I will campaign that as an idea for 2025…maybe, just maybe I will campaign for a mischievous mom weekend away every couple of months. I think that would be amazing!!! Holidays to me aren’t about finding the most expensive place to stay and living it up. Sure, it would be nice to stay at the Q1 again, or the Circle, or Chevron Renaissance. There are other places on the Gold Coast like the Jewel where it is literally on the beach at Broadbeach, which would be nice to try one day. But I have discovered the best places to stay are those that cater for families. A great place to stay is a resort or apartment complex where they have experiences for families at the resort. Where we stayed the first week had both an indoor pool and outdoor pool, a sauna and steam room, gym, adults lounge with pool table and coffee machine and cinema setup. There was also a kids room with pingpong table and game stations set up where I won Mario Cart for the first time ever. The kids room also had a futsal table and air hockey table all free of charge for kids to hang out and enjoy. There was a tennis court, multiple bbq areas, lawn bowls and a massive outdoor chess board. There was so much to do at the resort, absolutely no reason to waste hours at the local shopping center if you didn’t want too. Although if you did want to spend a few hours at Pacific Fair, they had a free bus shuttle to the shopping center and back – all you needed to do was keep an eye on the time and be at the right spot for pickup. Across the road was the beach and surf club. The best holidays are those holidays where you don’t have to leave the resort to have fun. The second week we were down in Coolangatta. The primary reason anyone wanting to holiday in Coolangatta is the beaches. The beaches are breathtakingly beautiful. For $60 you can hire a couple of surf boards for the day and off you go. Our resort had everything we wanted there as well. A games room, pool, tennis court, and of course spa and sauna. There were a variety of restaurants downstairs, but across from us was this amazing park area where they set up the Coolangatta Christmas carols on the Sunday evening. We were able to take part from our verandah, watch Santa parachute onto the beach, and the fireworks display was amazing. We were also there at the right time to walk through the Sunday morning arts and crafts markets that happen once a month. The girls were particularly happy about being there at the right time for the markets. Overall, we had an amazing holiday away on the Gold Coast. We have come home a little tired from the mammoth drive in the rain home, but also feeling good about the coming year. I feel as though I need more life detoxing time, but overall, I am happy to be home, getting back to the mundane jobs we need to do at home, not to mention Christmas shopping and watching some Christmas movies as we try to trick the kids into going to bed early, so we can wrap presents. It’s a lot harder these days to trick the kids into going to bed early when you need to wrap their presents. I’ll probably need to wrap some of the presents at the shopping center so that I can literally pile them under the tree when I get home. The great thing about getting shopping center present wrappers to wrap our gifts is that for a small contribution you are helping out a charity that helps others at this time of the year. I am not ready for the Christmas rush, so I am going to try and stay in this state of holiday after glow for as long as I can. I know there are things to do, and I know there is a time frame to do them in, but I really don’t want to move out of this ‘I have just had a great holiday’ feeling! Till next time,Merry ChristmasXO