You may not have noticed but I have been gone for over a week.  I have been on family vacation.  It is a family vacation that involves not only my family but also my sister-in-law’s family.  Two families.  I repeat; two families.  Family vacation is in some ways an oxymoron.  Vacation is supposed to be a time of rest and relaxation but on family vacation you are suddenly thrown into the mix with a group of people that you love dearly, spend little time with throughout the year and suddenly you find yourself bunking in an eight by eleven room with five of them.  You find yourself meeting for dinner with close to twenty of them.  You find yourself in recreational activities with fourteen of them.
If you are in the Suder family (which is my family) then you find yourself seeing your most annoying qualities manifested in slightly different ways by people who resemble you but live their lives completely differently then you and while those qualities seem fine and dandy when YOU display them they don’t have the same charm when seen them several times over.  If you are in the King family then you find yourself surrounded by blood relatives who seem to come from opposite ends of the earth.
While this is all very interesting and heartwarming it is not always what one might call relaxing.  What I have found out about family vacation is that it would go a lot smoother if each of us had a “room of one’s own.”  It’s all fine and dandy to spend your days with the ones you love but your nights too?  Now that’s a bit much.  In our cozy scenario we had an all-night reader, a snorer, a teeth grinder, a cover stealer, and a constant mover.  Some of us were all five of the above.  It seems to me that if we all had time to recoup and get a good night’s sleep we might be a little kinder about our differences during the waking hours.
But alas we are not a rich family in that manner and a room of one’s own is a far away dream and frankly we should be happy that we have such a large and loving family who is willing to hang together.  And though we may be different, what fun would vacation be if we were all the same. There would be no charming, intelligent, puzzle-making French Herve; or sophisticated stylish Kelly; or quirky Aunt Monica who all the kids adore and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body; or Carol who is always up for a good time she just wants it to happen in a clean place; or Uncle Zamir who scuba dives in the surf and is practically a tennis pro, at least compared to the rest of us; or the crazy bachelor Uncle Pete who can make the kids laugh just by looking at them; or easygoing and generous Uncle Bill; or fun-loving Bubby who really just needs a nap; or quiet smirking Uncle Mike who nobody can ever quite tell what he’s thinking; or me who is a control freak and can’t relax but just wants to loll around in the surf and play Monopoly.
Then there are the kids who are growing up to be as different as mismatched socks and finally there’s Charlotte.  Every family has a Charlotte but you really only get one; she’s kind, funny, helpful, clever and a joy to be around for both kids and grownups.  Oh how we love our Charlotte. So though I am tired and happy to be home in my own bed and with a room of my own, I do feel richer when I am surrounded by the ones I love, even if I can’t get a wink of sleep.
P.S.  I miss you Charlotte!