The Master's Golf Tournament

My husband learned earlier this year that The Master's Golf Tournament 2012 was holding an application process to select a group of citizens to attend the practice rounds, and the tournament play, at a reduced rate. The winners did not receive any monetary item for being chosen, but would be given the opportunity to purchase a ticket at a reduced rate. Only a limited number of applicants would be selected.

My hubby also learned the price of the ticket if he was not chosen would be significant. He would have to buy it "off the street" at regular price. The difference would be hundreds to thousands of dollars; not in your favor. He decided to take a chance with the application process, knowing that if his application was not chosen, then he would not even consider attending - as it is out of our budget in how we choose to spend our money.

I am glad he decided to take the time to fill out the application and send it in on time. It paid off.

He woke earlier than usual this morning in order to get a jump on the multiple work To-Do-List that he needs to complete before we head off next week for our last vacation of the summer. I stayed in bed with two sleeping tweens downstairs, and my boy tucked in his room.

My hubby came back to our room about fifteen minutes later with this wake-up call, "Hey, Honey ... are you awake? Wanna go to The Master's next year? They accepted my application!"

Yep, wide awake!!! He opened his email to find this nice greeting.

We shared the news with the kiddos just before dinner tonight.

Three numbered bags sat on the table with certain clues inside. With each bag's contents they had to guess what this was all about.

Bag #1 simply had a Coca Cola can inside. This signified the Coca Cola Headquarters tour that we can take in Atlanta. They thought that the word "Can" was part of the clue, not Coke specifically.

The next bag had a golf ball, the Master's postcard my hubby whipped up on the computer, and the Magnolia branch. My son thought we were headed to Palm Springs to play golf. The kids have been in private golf lessons this summer, my husband has up'd his game in the last few years with private lessons too and many early mornings on the course, and we have talked to them about someday going to Palm Springs to play. It was a valid guess, but no.

The last bag - which was obvious - had the Georgia Aquarium DVD that my son received as a Christmas present years ago and has been longing to go to ever since, and the paper with the words Spring Break!  They put it together on bag 3.

Our Master's tickets have been purchased, secured, and it's a real vacation already plugged into our calendar. The planning of the itinerary will come in the later months. But we always find that we build a great road trip out of one idea. So while The Master's will get us on this vacation - I know we will branch out to other states and cities during our week's vacation (ie: South Carolina beaches).

This couldn't have come at a more perfect timing in so many ways and details - but I will leave that private for us to remember. Truly perfect. We are so excited.