J-M Christmas 2013: Heading Back (4 of 4)

On Day 9 of our trip, we headed back toward home. I am continually amazed by how chill the bambinos are with road trips. They hop in the car for a day-long drive, as if it is nothing. We are so lucky that they are so good at road tripping.

We took a detour for a Christmas visit with Gamma in Arlington, Massachusetts.

After a nice visit, and some time playing at her icy pond and playground, we headed out for the last leg of our journey.

There is something really steadying about going home. Even the trip — as long as that trip feels right around the border of Connecticut and New York — is grounding in some sort of way. There’s so much time in the car — to just be, to drink coffee (or to toast ‘cheers!’ from the front seat with caramel macchiatos), for the bambinos to watch videos on the DVD, or to just watch the distance go by. Even Dash has come to enjoy the ride.

But then there is the next day. Of facing the unpacking. And laundry. And grocery shopping to re-stock the fridge. And the beginning stages of attempting with all our might to get our lives back on track and manage the annual post-holiday let-down (which, for us, involves a great deal of behavior modification for a certain threesome). Which is all almost as overwhelming as the pre-holiday planning/plotting/packing.

And of course, this year, our first day back was spent with Braydon constructing the playhouse that Santa had left in a huge box at home for Meera.

That Santa. He sure knows how to put a smile on the face of our bambinos! 😉

At the end of it all, after we were settled back in at home, on the one day between our unpacking from the trip to New Hampshire and the packing back up for our trip to Connecticut for New Year’s Eve (yes, we are crazy; yes, we headed immediately back out the next day), Braydon and I were sitting on the couch, the bambinos were in bed, a bottle of wine had been opened, a movie was on the tv, and we hit pause to discuss that inevitably looming question: ‘Is it worth it?’ When it is all said and done, is it really worth it?

This blogging that I do helps me to answer it. Because in the constructing of the story — in the stringing together of the photographs, however grainy and imperfect the iPhone snapshots are — in the making of our memories, I find my answer. I am, like so many mothers are and always have been, the keeper of traditions, the teacher of ethnicity, the creator of rituals, the maker of memories for my little family.

“It is worth it,” said Braydon. He is so sure of it. “Yes, it really is,” I said.

And then we pressed play again.