A Wedding & A Flight Around The World
September 4, 2012 in Asia, Malaysia, North America, Thailand, Travelogue, United States
My cousin Ruth and her fiancé, Bruce
In one short week I’m leaving my family.
It’s true, but don’t worry, I’m not abandoning them completely, I’m just hopping continents for a couple of weeks to attend a wedding. My sweet cousin Ruth is marrying the man of her dreams and she did me the honor of asking me to be her matron of honor. Who could say no? Continents not withstanding?
I think I’m going to get the award for longest commute to the wedding, and that’s not a distinction easily won in my gene pool.
I’m rather excited. I’ve been watching airfare for months, making comparisons on Orbitz, Cheap-O-Air, and looking for cheap flights on flights 24, Kayak and Cheaptickets. The key is to keep looking, have flexible dates, search multiple airports and then strike when the iron is hot! This time, it was cheaper to fly from Kuala Lumpur than it was from Bangkok (what’s one more country, right?) and to go through Tokyo via Chicago than it was to fly through the UAE like we did getting here this spring. Mid week flights are cheaper than weekends, so I’ll be taking off on a Wednesday afternoon.
This week is all about packing and getting ready for my trip and preparing the family to make it without me!
I’m collecting treasures to take home to friends and family:
- Souvenirs
- Wedding gifts
- Birthday presents
- Art pencils that are a fraction of the cost here
- Novelties like dried durian fruit
- And even a topper for the wedding cake and presents for the bridesmaids
I’m excited. It’s going to be a fun trip.
But the other half is getting the family ready to do without me for a few weeks. My teenagers are completely capable of running the show around here and they’ll be up for the challenge, but I’m doing my best to make it easy on them by:
- Making lists of what ingredients go in the meals they like to make market day easier
- Organizing their school work to be self sustaining
- Giving each kid his own special job while I’m gone
- Writing little notes for each kid for while I’m gone
- Helping set up routines that will make it easy for Tony to work and things to run smoothly
- And, of course, making lists of what they’re hoping hard I’ll bring back from America
They always have a good time when I’m gone.
They get to do special things with Daddy, like watch all the movies I can’t stand (the new Three Stooges is on the list for this time!) and they have game fests and junk food parties. Tony is great about letting me go and making the time pass quickly while I’m gone!
Do you have any suggestions for ways I can make the time away special for my family here, or special for my cousin who’s getting married? I’m open to both!
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do you think your cousin will have a guest book? At my brother’s wedding we set it up on a table with a couple of chairs and lots of different coloured pens. we also wrote up some questions on a board to help jig people’s creativity. I think they included: what should Laura know about Zac? why should they name their first child after you? and a couple more in this sort of vein…. worked well! key to its success is to nominate a couple of social people to keep making the rounds to remind people to write in the book and as matron to announce it a few times over the course of the evening….
have you thought of hiding a few treats for the kids in places they won’t find immediately (like back of underwear bag, behind some books, etc…..
Tanya, these are GREAT ideas!! Thank you so much! I’ll definitely be hiding a few things. I think they’re having people sign a picture frame of one of their engagement photos at the wedding, but I’ll work that question idea in somewhere!