Do you know anyone that always has to be in the limelight? I’m talking about the kind of person that will go out of their way to get invited to social events and to make sure that everyone they know is aware of it. This type of activity never interested me a great deal. I have attended a few upper level social gatherings and found them to be pretentious and a bit boring. My girlfriend on the over hand tries to attend every possible social event that she can. I love her dearly, however she does like to name drop, especially in political circles and this gets annoying very quickly.

Through the years my husband and I have decided that we are no longer going to attend social gathering that were not fun. We work hard and do not want to spend our off time attending events or spending time with people that we do not enjoy. As a result we do a great deal of entertaining in our home and are also invited to other’s homes for dinner parties and other gatherings. We used to be involved in New Year events where all the important political and business people would be. These New Year parties were usually fund raisers, so we would start the new year and end the old year spending money on causes that we were losing interest in. Many times these funding raising events are held in conjunction with New Year events so people can use the donation as a write off for their taxes.

Three year’s ago we started a new tradition for New Year’s. We get together with three other families that we are close to. Our children are close in age and get along well. We have a potluck supper and spend the evening playing games and visiting. One year we had enough snow to go sledding together. It is a relaxing time where we are not fighting crowds, we are not spending large amounts of money at fund raisers or in restaurants and no one is having to travel. It is a safe way to spend the holiday and also include the children in the evening. I like the idea of spending the beginning of a new year with people I love and who love me. It makes it easier to reflect back on the good that has happened through the year. My girlfriend is disappointed that I have stopped going to the social events with her.  After listening to her descriptions of the parties she attends, I am glad I am hanging out with the neighbors.

When my girlfriend proposed that we take a sailing vacation together, I was not thrilled about the idea. We are as different as night and day in many respects. We do not have the same ideas about romantic places at all. For her, the best place to get away from it all is in the middle of the wilderness.  My idea of a romantic place is Manhattan. We balance each other out pretty well, but it makes things difficult when we have to decide on vacations. Usually, we take turns but this time I wasn’t sure if I could abide by her decision. You see sailing holidays scared the pants off me.

Although everyone in the pictures from her sailing holiday pamphlet appeared to be having a good time, all I could think about was that they were just awaiting their inevitable death beneath the waves. I knew that the Greek sailing holidays company that she was considering had a pretty good safety record.  I researched them at length but even still, I could not get over my fear of not having land beneath my feet. I had never been on a sail boat trip before, even a small one. What would happen if I found out that being aboard a ship made me seasick? Were the people who spent their entire sailing holidays throwing up over the edge of the ship? Would I be the first?

In the end, I had to give in. After all, I was planning a trip to London the next year. I knew that if I vetoed her decision, she would veto mine. Before we knew it, we would give up vacations entirely. I didn’t want things to get to that point. Getting on the boat, I was practically shaking. She had to hold my hand! Within a couple hours of starting the trip, something strange happened, I calmed down.  I actually had a great time aboard the sailboat. There were many interesting people there to talk to and there’s something very soothing about the endless rocking of the waves. We didn’t have any bad weather the whole time. If anything, it was a bit too mild. That made for days of gentle sailing and nights of calm, restful sleep. All in all, I couldn’t have asked more of my sailing holidays. If she enjoys London half as much, we’ll have a lovely trip next summer.