ok expats - tell me about holidays

[meowmix]

9 months into first year of expat-dom and suddenly realise that all my holiday time this year is going to be spent back in the UK trotting around relatives houses. Is this just the way it goes for expats?

we have been here for almost 3 years and dh has been back twice to the UK - to see his dad and then when his father passed away.

We as a family have not been back - we holiday in Aus. We do plan to go back but with 3 children now the cost is quite high - we would need to save for ages.

DH and I have made a joint decision that our next holiday will be just us and the children in some holiday resort with a kids club.
We have never had a family holiday.
When DS was a baby we came to NZ to bring him to visit his grandparents and great granny.
Then we moved here and since then ALL our money and DH's time off has been spent on 2 trips back to the UK (really really lovely but not a holiday and very tiring staying with people all the time), visits down to the south island to see MIL, moving house a billion times, hosting family visits here ...
So, next UK visit won't be till (xmas) 2009 earliest and either this year or next we will go to Fiji or the Aussie Gold Coast or somewhere, put the kids in a kids club for two weeks and get pissed.

well, as we are only short term expats (about 3 years we think), we are not going back home (to oz) for the duration. Part of the reason we are here is to travel, so we don't want to spend all our money and holidays going home (although we do miss it terribly). Family and friends have visited us though, so we are lucky in that.