Home for the holidays

Half my family is sunning themselves on a private beach in Cannes and will jet to Paris in the next day or two. The other half of my family is in Cape Town playing in child-friendly spaces with their toddler and having early pizza dinners. I'm sitting at home grateful for a moment to blog after shoveling another butternut meal into Baby M's mouth while Son is babysat by Barney. The house is a mess even though I tidied up the crayons after drawing, the puzzles after puzzling, and washed the dishes and bottles. In all of this domestic not-such-bliss, I can't help but wonder why I passed up the options of going to France and Cape Town. Someone, please remind me why I chose to stay home?