First family holiday abroad: one month count down

There’s just one month left until our first family holiday abroad. It all became a bit more real for me last week when I took a trip to Manchester with work.

While sitting on the plane, flicking through the inflight magazine, I realised the next time I flew would be with an 18-month-old sat on my lap!

The reason for leaving Tin Box at home is we’re going to Sweden for a wedding and couldn’t take off enough time to make the 2,400 mile road trip enjoyable. So, we’ll be spending five nights in hotels where we won’t have to make up our own bed – ooh, the luxury!

Tin Box Tot’s passport arrived last month, I’ve applied for our joint E111, and all the accommodation is booked. A part from checking in and running the security gauntlet, the logistics are sorted.

Now comes the complicated bit: what to pack?

I’ve already decided on my hand luggage – a holdall that I will be filling with various things still to be determined, such as toys, colouring books and snacks.

We haven’t decided if we are taking a pushchair. Our Quinny Buzz, which we have had since Elizabeth was born, is too big. So we are thinking about borrowing or buying something more compact. Mr TB has even suggested forgetting about the pushchair all together. I’m not convinced – especially as we are flying at 6.30am when TBT would usually be asleep.

A couple of things we have been able to agree on are our SAT Nav solution and what to do about a car seat for TBT. Our plan is to use Google Maps in our iPhones to navigate between Stockholm and Karlstad, and pay for a toddler seat through our car hire company.

I really need to give more consideration to what I’m going to put into our hand luggage and hold bags. After all, on this holiday we’ll not be able to rely on Tin Box to transport our stuff.

I’ll update you on how the packing is going over the next few weeks.

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