The Calm Before The Storm

My spouse and I recently cooked for our son's wedding weekend, which consisted of a rehearsal dinner for 120 people and the wedding dinner for 250 people. We did a fair amount of planning ahead of time for the event, and we had the desserts for both events in the freezer long beforehand. We were roasting a pig for the big day and had some help lined up for that arduous task, but we hadn't quite nailed down what we were going to make other than that. So, what did we do? We took a quick 4-day vacation to clear our heads, calm down a bit, catch our breaths, and planned the menu. We went to my spouse's family house in central Vermont, a place that his grandparents bought before WWII and which he has been going to all his life, and I have been going to for over 40 years. When I think about it, it is the place that each of us has been going to longer than any other place period, and certainly as a shared experience, Vermont is it for us. We both feel a sense of peace there, and we have long established things we do as well as something new, but hands down, we have a reliably good time there. I have to admit that when we got to the airport on Thursday morning before the sun came up I had serious second thoughts. Is this a good idea? Abandon ship with very little actually done and take time for us? It turns out it was an excellent idea--my head stopped spinning with all that I had to do and say, all the meeting and greeting, all the emotions that such events are bound to stir up, and just focused on peace and place.