The "BIG 4-0" Celebration!

Well, I did it. After months of mulling it over in my head and talking to a few friends about the possibilities...I sent out the big email "invite" to a group of "travel junkie" friends.

And the story goes like this...

In January 2008 I will be turning the "BIG 4-0"! I can hardly believe it! And I got to thinking about how I might want to celebrate this "earth-shattering" event. Now, I'm not keen on big birthday celebrations for myself in general...but I started to think 40 is a milestone, why shouldn't I celebrate it in a way that would make me happy?

CL and I had been talking about going to Ireland for a week (maybe 10 days) over the last few months and I keep thinking about when friends Sandy and Alan did their 5th anniversay trip (with 20 of us!) in Tuscany. Renting a villa for a week and having a blast...that was one of the best vacations I've had. So I had it lodged in my brain that I might want to plan a trip like that some day.

Well, the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. But first I wanted to find out if CL had a problem with opening the trip up to more then just me, her, and one of CL's friends. CL didn't have any problem with it...hey, the more the merrier we say!

So then I painstakingly composed the email invite...my brain was reeling...what should I say, how many people should I invite...finally after about a week of working on the invite I was happy with what it said. Then for whatever weird reason I kept hesitating to hit the send button. The email sat in my draft box for about a week.

Then I figured out why I was hesitating. I love planning trips, but taking on planning a trip for more then just me and one friend could be alot, and then what if those who decide to come don't enjoy themselves...I would feel awful. Then I remembered advice Sandy gave me...I'm not going to be able to please everyone and I need to know that going in...so going with that philosophy I started feeling better about hitting the send button. Plus I was really putting the cart before the horse because I didn't even know how many people would want to go. I may still end up going with just CL and her friend...which is ok with me, but think how much fun it would be to celebrate with a group of good friends. So I finally hit the send button and now I'm just waiting to hear back and find out how many people want to go!

Now I am anticipating planning a week in Ireland to celebrate my "BIG 4-0"! It will take a lot of work, but will be so worth it in the end!