Vacation All I Ever Wanted

So the SYO and Big have the greatest grandma.

And she doesn't even know the URL for this blog, so this post is not just sucking up to the MIL.

Every week or so the SYO gets a letter in the mail from said grandma. Lately, it has contained this cool thing from their local rag. Every week the rag publishes two very similar photos. The purpose is to identify the 8 or so differences in the second photo as compared to the first.

We LOVE this game. The are very subtle differences and often I have to look at the clues before finding all 8 differences.

The most recent photos were of two kids in the back of a car clearly loaded for the family vacation.

On the sheet grandma had sribbled a little note that went something like this:

[SYO], I think that this week's is easier than last's. What do you think? Have a great vacation!

A couple of mornings later I found myself wondering what she meant by "Have a great vacation!" We aren't really going on vacation any time soon, although we are heading to visit Cousin et al. Her sister is coming in from Greece for the month with her family and we haven't seen them in years. But I wouldn't exactly call that a "vacation" in the strictest sense of the word. . .

Was she sad that we were going out of town? That she wouldn't see the kids for a few days?

I wondered this aloud to BioMom and the SYO one morning as we were waking up slowly, the boy in the bed and the girl in the rocker, reading.

Me: What do you think Grandma meant by "Have a great vacation!" on the puzzle she sent.

SYO: Oh! That was a little "joke". . . [She actually put her fingers up in the universal sign for quotation marks] . . . You know. . . VACATION . . . like the kids in the picture.
She said this matter-of-factly.

BIOMOM: What little note?

This simple interaction goes a long way in exemplifying the intricacies of each of our personalities. Me, aware of the little communication, but unable to identify the subtle humor; SYO aware and in complete understanding; BIOMOM oblivious despite the fact that she had focused competely on finding all 8 discrepancies with the SYO.

!