I don't think I have quite as much going on as yo
u do, having only one DD11 but I still find it stressful worrying about the holidays and vacation. The plus for a cruise is that I feel it takes a lot less planning than WDW. I do pack more for the cruise than WDW which is a challenge but because it's fall when I start packing, the summer clothes are clean and hanging in closet, ready to be packed.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me until just recently that Thanksgiving falls that very next week after the cruise. It will just be us and my Mom though for Thanksgiving dinner and my boss already said I can take Black Friday off.
Do any of you have pets to worry about? I am so thankful that my Mom has agreed to house and pet sit for us. We have a Labradoodle and two cats that are 1 1/2 years old and are still in kitten crazy stage so I just don't feel comfortable leaving cats alone for more that a week. Mom house sitting will relieve a great deal of stress. We were planning to board the dog but weren't sure what to do with the cats. My MIL lived with us up until last year when she passed away so she was always there to take care of the pets. Miss her very much!
I'm sorry about your MIL, it is very hard to lose a parent. My Dad passed in February 2016 and Holidays especially still aren't quite the same.
No, no pets. My husband and I had many fur babies over the years since 2002, I worked in a vet clinic till 2010. We had dogs, a cat, a chinchilla, and hamsters. Once I left that job and they slowly passed away one by one, I decided raising 3 kids was enough work for this stage of life. When my 3rd child was born in 2014, he had severe excema and we found out he is highly allergic to dogs and cats. We had a Husky at the time he was born, so we ended up having to re-home her. That was very hard on my daughter, since our Husky was a Christmas "gift" for her
As my son has gotten older, his excema has calmed, but all 3 kids have come back positive for cat allergies recently. Both my sons with dog allergies. I had always wondered why the older kids had so many "colds",
Apparently, it was pet allergies!
We will re-test every 18 months or so, once the allergens are low enough, we may re-introduce a pet.
The week after our cruise we are doing 1 week stay in Orlando, so we are also planning a Universal/Legoland trip. So on-top of the cruise planning, I have the parks planning. I guess that's the added stress of this vacation. It will be the week of Thanksgiving like you said, so I'm interested to see how bad crowds will be!
On a non-related FANTASTIC note that I just have to share, my youngest is now potty trained and will be going to the kids club pull-up free with his big brother!
I was so worried to not have any adult time. You can't believe how relieved I am and how easy it was to just put him in undies and go for it!
and only 97 more days to go!
the show is in early December). Then birthdays/parties on top of all of that.... and I have to have time to plan a vacation!? 
