Again. It’s that time of year again, which means this particular dilemma is a yearly thing for me.
Our anniversary is in December. Originally, we thought this would be great and would give us an excuse for time out for Christmas shopping. Where we live, that means a few hours out, if you include lunch. 
Our shopping options are pretty limited, and we do a lot of our shopping online. I’ve also gotten better about looking at the post-Thanksgiving (which is my birthday this year) sales and trying to get up early and getting stuff before the mobs hit. Or going in between the mobs. Either or is fine. And that’s only if the stuff I want is on sale.
Every other year, we spend 3 weeks over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday hunkered down in the Texas Hill County. This is our year to go. I am hoping to have the chickies set up to where we can do that, but I admit to having separation anxiety, as we’ve not gone on vacation at all since we got them. (We had a staycation, but that doesn’t count ) So, that’s on the radar.
Those are all things I think will work out. What I’m stumped on is the anniversary get-away.
Every year, I hem and haw and we end up staying put.
On the one hand, a weekend trip out for us would be nice. But we have “requirements.” In a perfect world, the room would have a kitchenette, a king-size bed, a two-person jacuzzi, and a fireplace, preferably a kiva. All of these things we have at home. Well, ok, we don’t have a kiva, but we do have a fireplace.
I also want to be in the mountains. Option number 1: there is a town where I can find all of these things that is just over an hour away. There is, however, no real shopping, as it’s a ski and touristy town. We don’t ski. The shopping is all outdoors and pricey stuff that we wouldn’t buy because what would we use it for? So, it would not be a Christmas shopping venture. 
The second part is what to do during the day? While we love the mountains, there really is nothing else to do in this town during the winter if you don’t want to ski, so that means staying holed up in the room doing what we would normally do at home. Ok, so we could be in the jacuzzi and see the fireplace and the tv at the same time-that’s a perk.
But at $170 a night plus food that close to Christmas, makes me wonder if we wouldn’t be better off to just send all the kids to the in-law’s for a few days…… it just seems like a lot of money for doing what we do when we’re at home is all. And, if we are doing our three weeks vacation, I’d rather save that money for when we’re actually gone, as it would cover most of the lodging (we RV) for that entire time.
Option number two: where I’d really like to go is over 200 miles away (one direction) and does have very good shopping, and I found a room with a cheaper price tag. I think I can give up the 
kitchenette (take a cooler like usual), and it has the king bed and a kiva, while the other room just has a wood-burning fireplace. It doesn’t have a jacuzzi. 
Lower cost, but more in gas; good shopping. In the mountains and away from home.
Normally, I go back and forth, as neither of these options is a clear winner. It’s hard to justify that kind of money that close to Christmas, whether or not you are taking an extended vacation.
I have, however, hit upon Option number three . (ya’ll know I’m option 3 girl, right?) I don’t know why it took me this long!!
In November, I have a regular visit to the rheumatolgy clinic at a major teaching hospital in a relatively near city. What I’m thinking now is that since we have to go up the night before, that we can stay in the regular hotel and check out as usual that following morning. Go to appointment early am. Hope they let me out at a decent time. Drive to other city; check in to the other hotel; 
do some shopping and goofing around….
This hotel in particular says it has rooms with jacuzzis, but no pics.And actually, I have a lot of sifting through options to do in the one city, so maybe I ought to get to it……
Which option gets your vote, and why?
