This is how my vacations go

We spent Christmas 2018 in Germany, visiting my family. It was one of those vacation trips where you end up needing to recover from it.
As it has happened on previous vacations, I worked until the last minute because of some meeting which I facilitate. Which means that I rushed home from work to finish my packing, to jump into our ride and off to the airport we went. We sat and enjoyed a drink before take-off, but my mind was spinning, thinking about home (new puppy getting trained and Gino (the old dog) dealing with his separation anxiety). While my husband was happily chatting away and enjoying the first hour of our vacation tremendously, my anxiety level spiked over the dreaded long-haul flight, the much too short lay-over in London and the thought of driving stick-shift in the winter. Of course, in the end everything went so much smoother than I had anticipated.
.... Except for that time that I almost killed us on the icy road, because the car stalled in the middle of a junction and I could not get it going again.
.... Or for the dreadful cough that began on day two, (lasted for 4 weeks) and prevented me from having a normal conversation with my mother who I had not seen in two years, because every sentence that I tried to formulate would end up in a coughing fit.  Same goes for conversations with my son or my sister or my nephew or anyone for that matter. Ending up with me nodding every now and then to the monologues of others. Forget about promised phone calls to my friends over Christmas.
..... And then the news with photo from my daughter that our washing machine was broken and had spilled water into the kitchen.
The cough got to me and I was not feeling well most of the time. Goodbyes were short and bittersweet.
..... And to top it all off, was the text message when we landed in San Diego that water was leaking through the bathroom ceiling, but not to worry as my daughter had placed a bucket under it and was trying to reach the neighbor upstairs who was on honeymoon in Thailand.

Other than that, a great trip and restful vacation.  (Still in recovering mode).