More Flights and Family Time

As we were walking through the door carrying suit cases and Lexi on Sunday, my phone rang. On the caller ID, I could see that it was my mom. She asked how our Thanksgiving trip went and then proceeded to tell me that all of my siblings and their entourages will be visiting her in San Diego for Christmas. That made me a little sad that we wouldn't be going. Then, she stabbed the sad dagger in my chest. She offered to buy our plane tickets. She already checked the flights and we could go Wednesday to Wednesday. Unfortunately, this isn't a matter of paying for the tickets.

We have 2 issues keeping us from going. One (main reason): we both have negative hours of vacation and sick time. This has never happened to me before. I usually get money back at the end of the year for not taking all of my time. This year, however, we had to take many days off for Steve's mom (death bed, funeral, and burial). Given the fact that we can't take time off, flights to California are just too long to only spend a short time there. Two: Steve's dad should NOT be left home alone for his first Christmas without his wife. This isn't such a big deal, because my mom said he could come along. I am guessing he would also have problem getting the time off because of issue #1. Of course, those days off were put to good use, but now I want extra days. We deserve that right? When you have a difficult year because of parents dieing, companies should double the amount of time off they give you. Just a thought. My company would probably let me, but Steve hasn't even been at his job for a year yet.

It looks like we'll be stuck in Miami knowing that we are missing out on an amazing Christmas.

Tags: Christmas Trips, Family Time, Vacation