Family Staycation (and 3 Recipes)

Last weekend my family took a staycation.

We pledged to spend time with one another at home for the entire Labor Day weekend. We were to pretend that we were out-of-town, enjoying each other, our surroundings, and the local entertainment all from the comfort of our own home including our comfy beds, our well-equipped kitchen, and our shrinking-from-the-price-of-gas bank account. Most importantly, we were to act as though we were someplace else, not answering the phone (because if we were out-of-town we would not have heard it ring), working in the yard (likewise, we would not have a yard to work in), or doing any of the mundane maintenance that usually fills up our weekends--and then some.

We had a great time, but we encountered a few little snags.

While the notion of a staycation is a sound one--save money, save gas, explore your home base, be together, rest at home, eliminate travel time--we found that it only works if you follow some basic rules:

1. Everyone needs to commit to the staycation. It is not allowed to be tempted by outside friends or other commitments. You pretty much need to pretend like you are out-of-town and stick with it:
   • If friends call to invite you to a movie and a pool party, you need to turn them down.
   • If your boyfriend wants you to watch the entire second season of Heroes with him at his house (a worthy goal), you need to politely ask if you can do it the following weekend instead.
   • If you have laundry, grocery shopping, and yard work to do, either do it before the staycation begins or after the staycation ends.
   • Out of the four of us, Nicole was the only person who fulfilled this requirement, turning down all outside opportunities with friends. I was the one doing the grocery shopping and the laundry. Mark was doing the yardwork. And the Heroes request? Well, Beccah is pretty madly in love.
2. Involve everyone in brainstorming a long list of things to do together. This way everyone has made contributions to the weekend's preferred activities and there is at least the option to do the things that each individual is interested in:
   • Put way more activities on the list than you actually have time to do, that way your choices will seem endless (which is exciting!) and you really will do the things that are the most important to you as a family.
   • It also eliminates the frustration of having to come up with new ideas every two hours. There's nothing worse than feeling like you've spent the entire time together deciding what to do or where to eat.
   • We failed this one on two levels: not only did we not come up with a big long list before the staycation began, we didn't involve Beccah in our planning, so she wasn't as invested in the weekend. Bad Cath! Bad, bad Cath!
3. Allow for some down time and/or alone time. Family time is more fun when you can take a break from one another every now and then.
   • By the same token, also take advantage of the quiet time to chat with individuals and connect to each other in that all-important one-on-one format.
   • We did OK with this one, although we would have liked to have spent more of this kind of time with Beccah, see numbers 1 & 2.

This is not to say that we didn't have a lot of fun. Because we did:

• We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Trio Cafe,
• the girls and I got pedicures at The Cottage Retreat Day Spa,
• we watched The Bucket List,
• we went downtown to the Broadway Center Theater to see a fantastic French suspense movie entitled Ne le dis a personne (Tell No One),
• and we had a great meal at Red Rock Brewing Company, our excellent, local brew pub.
• We also had a great Labor Day party with my mom, my brother, Larry, and Beccah's boyfriend, Barty, on Sunday evening serving
  1. Blue Cheese Crusted Tomatoes,
  2. Maria's Pulled Pork,
  3. Cath's It's All Greek to Me Pasta Salad,
  4. and corn-on-the-cob from our local farm stand.

And while I'm thinking that a Labor Day party in the backyard is also pretty seriously against the rules because there is so much work that goes into it--it was great to connect with our extended family as well.

One of the best parts of the staycation? Getting to spend more time with Barty than we have in a while. It was nice to have the reminder that she's attached at the hip to quite a very nice young man.

All in all, our family staycation was really fun. We did more things than we probably would have on a Labor Day weekend at home, especially together as a family. But there would definitely be some things that I would do differently next time around, and I hope you can benefit from our experiences should you ever decide to give it a try.

Or maybe you already have attempted a staycation? I'd love to hear how it went and any tips you have on what to do or perhaps more importantly what not to do in order to make it a success.

Cheers!

Comments

[travelinoma]

What a fabulous idea! I can see it would take some self-discipline to set aside the everyday chores, but it sounds like you had a great time. Today I turned off the phone and stayed in my pajamas all day, and it was like a vacation. I missed the maid, and the room service guy, though.

[Ms. Maxwell]

Haven't tried a staycation, although with young children I have to say that the concept is hugely attractive!

What I want to know is which set of feet are yours...they all look young and beautiful! If I had to guess, I'd say that yours are the ones in the pink flip flops because the toes on the right foot are curled as though to hang on, off balance, while taking a photo from the top. :-)

[Jan]

How was "Tell No One"? I read the book, it's by one of my favorite story tellers: Harlan Coben. Im hoping it is still showing in my area, would love to see it!

[Stefanie Hamilton]

We usually rent a cabin at Mahoney State Park, which is halfway between Lincoln and Omaha. It feels like another world. Those are our staycations, because it's only 30 minutes away from our house.

[susan opel]

Bad, Cath. Bad, bad Cath! That was about as cute as those 30 painted toes!