Winter Vacation

It's Winter Vacation!  I have to remind some of my Northern Hemisphere readers about the how this works (when it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the northern part of the earth is tilted towards the sun--remember the "axis"?  That means that the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away, so we have shorter days and cooler temperature, lesson over).   Most schools here have a 2 to 3 week vacation.  If you have the means and the time off of work, then people like to travel.   We've opted to stay in BH, because the dear hubby has to work LOTS and I'm not up for traveling solo with 3 kids.  I realized this a few weeks ago, so I've made some tentative plans for us.  And this is important, because our dear empregada Irene is on vacation too.  Usually employees save up for one big paid (by law) vacation at the end of the year, but Irene has some things to attend to that require time away from BH.  So, I'm not only in charge of the 3 kids, but all the cleaning, cooking, shopping, and laundry.  So, here's the plan:

1.  Plan lots of play dates.  I was very thorough this year at taking inventory of who is traveling, when they are traveling, and making sure friends knew that we are here and we would love to get together. 

2.  Teach the kids how to help.  I already have the kids doing chores and tasks that actually help me.  But during the next 2 1/2 weeks, I'm going to work at teaching Bea how to take a shower by herself (she's 5, with rather difficult hair), teach Dora how to bake something, and have the kids take out the trash and sweep the floors daily.  Also, I'm going to ask the hubby to take care of the ironing.  Sorry Mom, I still don't share your love for ironing.

3.  Take advantage of the free events.  Even though things get quieter in town because there are more people traveling and less people shuttling their kids to and from school, there are plenty of events going on.  Here are some that we are considering:

Festival Saci 
Park Events
Oi Telecommunications Museum
ArcelorMittal Diversão em Cena performances
Fiat Museum (I talked about this before here)

4.  Enjoy time together as a family!   I'm very grateful that my schedule is pretty much the same as the children's school schedule.  This may not always be the case, and we may not always live in a place that has such a high value for vacation, relaxing, and spending time together as a family.  It's my hope that even though we're not going to the beach or a resort or traveling to the US, that we can relax together, play together and enjoy ourselves.