​The Best Gift to Give Yourself Before Vacation — Family Vacation

Coming home from vacation can be rough: Not only are you not on vacation anymore, as evinced by the suitcases stuffed to the max with dirty laundry and the fact that your bedroom window probably doesn't have a postcard-like view of white sand beaches or snow-capped mountains, but there is also regular life waiting for you. You have to deal with that inbox overflowing with emails and — here's the real rub — you have to feed yourself! Through that pina colada-induced brain fog, you might (vaguely) recollect something known as meal planning.

When I used to come home from vacation to an empty fridge, I dealt with this return to reality with a jar of peanut butter and a bag of stale pretzels. They would satiate my hunger until I could dash to the grocery store.

Now that I have a baby and a toddler, I can't employ the same laissez-faire technique. (Sadly, I don't have a grocery genie to make food magically appear in my fridge when I arrive home.) As a mom, I've come to rely on a single strategy to ease the transition back to real life. It takes a little bit of planning ahead, but it's definitely worth it.

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