But other than that, here's few pics from over Christmas break...
Monday, January 6, 2014
On over thinking the holidays
I am really relieved when Christmas is over. Every year I seem to forget how stressful and money-draining it is. I enjoy decorating but I feel more and more like a grinch these last few years. For 13 years Brian and I usually split up when we go home for Christmas and sleep at our own parents' house (I'm not willing to miss out on my dad's filet mignon and Bri's not willing to miss out on seeing his fam). But this year I wanted to stay together for once and I can't help but feel overwhelmed because both our families have their own dinner plans and yet each one would like both of us there. And I don't know why they won't just invite each other over because they all like each other, they just have their own traditions they wanna stick to. And I think it's time we start making our own traditions, but that probably won't happen till we have a baby. So we split up. Neither one of us are mad at each other over this, it's just annoying not having a set plan together and not having any sort of tradition to count on. It's all up in the air and I'm not good with that. I'm bad enough with having to make everyday decisions, let alone a super-important-family-holiday-decision-where-I-could-let-someone-down with the decision I made.
But other than that, here's few pics from over Christmas break...
But other than that, here's few pics from over Christmas break...
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Christmas can be so hard when you're trying to keep everyone's traditions - I know the feeling! Your pups are so cute!
ReplyDelete-- jackie @ jade and oak
It's really hard to figure out where to go on holidays and to give up traditions. When we lived in Maine we'd spend Thanksgiving with one family, then Christmas Eve with the next family, then we'd switch back. We spent way too many apart so we sucked it up, but it was a hard thing to let go of for both of us. This year we were way too far away so we just did our own thing...makes the separation a little easier.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand. Jim and I have done the Christmas run-around together for a few years now. Both of our parents are divorced and the first year we crammed in visiting 3 out of 4 houses on Christmas ... big mistake. It was hell and we were so unhappy and stressed - Very Grinchy indeed. What really seems to help is coming up with a visitation schedule before we even step foot in our hometown. We plan out our trip home and assign an equal number of days to each parent. We then tell each respective parent what their day(s) are and stick to them - It's their job to make sure they're available to spend time with us. That's it! We do get a little pushback sometimes here and there ("Ooo! I'm making cookies tonight - You guys should totally drive over when you're done with Dad - It's only 30 minutes away!!") but we just say "No." and stand firm. We have a right to have a nice semi-relaxing holiday that isn't spent entirely in my Toyota Corolla on the backroads of Pennsylvania ...
ReplyDeleteFor the last 2 Christmases however, we have been stuck in Florida and unable to go home. On one hand this makes us sad because the holidays are all about warmth and family, but we are also totally relishing the fact that we can sleep in, stay at home all day in our PJs and have a giant Christmas ham all to ourselves :D
Hearing your story makes me so glad that we don't have to juggle the parents. Yule has always been a day we celebrate with friends, Christmas Eve is for family (when we are close enough to do so), and Christmas is a day for us. We have started our own tradition of going out to watch a movie on that day. It's funny because when we first started that, the movie theaters were empty. Now we have to purchase the tickets in advance.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to juggle family obligations over the holidays. Sometimes I am thankful that my parents and inlaws live so far apart that it can only be one family or the other.
ReplyDeleteMaking new traditions can be fun, but breaking (or slightly modifying) old ones can be hard. One year my in-laws went to England for Christmas and we celebrated with them when they got home. It was the best thing ever because it helped my MIL realize that it's not the end of the world if we don't actually celebrate on Christmas day, so we could start to spread out our time with families!
ReplyDeleteWe have a rotation, which started (accidentally) while we were dating. So far, we're planning to keep it this way after having children. We rotate between his parents' house, my parents' house, and our own house. Since we all live in different states, it's nice to know ahead of time whether or not and to where we'll be travelling.
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