You've got to see this...

Living in Europe, we travel a lot.  I want to make the most of our time and see all that we can see while we are there!  My kids have seen many a cathedral, museum and UNESCO World Heritage Site, but they have never even seen Mt. Rushmore!  So this blog is for all of my Expat friends who are moving back to America!  The Family Vacation Critic gives us "12 Places Kids Should See Before They Grow Up"...mine have only seen three!  How many have yours seen?

Sold, to the lady sitting on Facebook...

"Anyone have any evaporated milk to part with this morning?  I have JIF peanut butter if you have evaporated milk!"

That was my Facebook post bright and early this morning.  Boring isn't it?  Yep, I was posting about evaporated milk, not something fun and exciting like...

"Just rode the elevator with the Dalai Lama!" or "Just got asked to write an article for National Geographic!"  Nope, evaporated milk was what got me excited this morning, especially when someone told me where to find it, and what it would look like in my local grocery store...that's what life has become!

You will often see these types of posts in my Expat community.  People looking for all kinds of things, the comforts of home, why in fact just this morning there was another post from someone looking for chocolate frosting.  Not homemade of course, but a good old can of chocolate frosting.  Peanut butter and salsa are also hot commodities in the Expat world, and oh the negotiations for pumpkin at Thanksgiving time is enough to give any Christies auctioneer a run for their money.  It is in fact so sought after that I have seen people offer babysitting hours just to get one more can.  It's kind of like a crack addict selling their child for one more hit...okay, maybe not that bad, I got caught up in the moment, but it does get crazy!

What about you, what is the one thing that you couldn't live without in your pantry?

We have crossed over to the other side...

I think it's happened, and I'm not sure exactly when.  We may have crossed over to accepting our host country as our "home".

I have noticed recently that the complaints are becoming fewer and farther between.  I personally find myself listing more of the things that I do like, instead of the things that I don't.  I find myself making excuses for the aloofness of a local, and even find myself taking on the traits of my hosts.  I say "excuse me" far less than I used to, and have even found it very annoying when people say it to me too often.

I think the kids have crossed over as well.  The other day, the oldest expat said to me how much he "missed" his friends in Germany.

Of course this has happened after living in a location for a year and a half...because, that's usually the point when we start to think of our next move!

"And so this is Christmas...

and what have you done?"  John Lennon asked us this question, and as I was listening to Christmas carols this year I started to think..."what have I done?"

Honestly, I haven't done much!  I give to a regular charity, I donate clothes and toys to local charities, but aside from that I haven't done anything.

We have been given an amazing opportunity to see all of the things we are seeing.  I try to help my expats realize that they are seeing things that people save their whole lives to see, or in some cases may never see at all.  They don't get it, and they probably won't until they are older.  All I can hope is that at some point they will realize how lucky and how blessed that they are.

What can we as parents do to help our kids realize this?  

My kids have more time off of school then you can believe and I have been thinking that we need to do something...something that makes a difference in some one's life, as well as our own!

I had heard about volunteer vacations before, but never thought much about it, until this year.  There were no more excuses, the expats were old enough, we had enough time.  2013 will be the year!  

There are hundreds of websites that can help you decide what volunteer vacation you can take...if nature is your thing, you can help clean up the forests.  You can help the homeless, children in need or animals.  You can make at as easy as taking a Saturday and picking up trash at your local beach or local hiking trail, or you can spend weeks digging water wells in Africa!  

Take a look at the links below and see what you fancy!  We will be making our volunteer vacation decisions over the next few weeks, so tune in to see what our expat family decides to do!

http://www.volunteerguide.org/vacation

http://globalvolunteers.org

http://www.gviusa.com/volunteer-options/volunteer-vacations

http://www.americanhiking.org/volunteerVacation.aspx

http://away.com/features/top-ten-volunteer-vacations.htmll