family, holidays

Scheduling the joy of the season

Shannon

turkeyWhen I knew that CSP & I were serious, and that it was highly unlikely that our families would be merging into a big, loving Disney musical family, he & I sat down & discussed a holiday schedule.  He’s the only child so if we aren’t with his parents on a holiday then they are all alone unless they make plans with other friends and/or family.  Splitting the day is not an option for us as our families are all day celebrators and running between two houses while making sure each family gets good, quality time with us is not my ideachristmas-tree of fun.  We talked it over with both sets of parents and came up with a schedule that we’ve been following now since our first set of major holidays.  It works for us and our parents.  CSP’s parents know what to expect so they make plans ahead of time and it ensures that they are not alone on Christmas or Thanksgiving.  One year they even went to NYC for Thanksgiving.  Works out great.  Our schedule is this:  if my parents get us for Thanksgiving then they also get us for Christmas Eve and CSP’s parents get us for Christmas Day.  The next year we alternate.  New Years Eve & day are up for grabs, as are the other holidays throughout the year.  CSP is a grocery store manager so he often has to work on Christmas Eve til 8pm (SUCKS!  DON’T go to a grocery store on Christmas Eve!  It gets later every year!), and every other year or so he’ll have to make a stop in at his store on Christmas Day.  New Year’s Eve he’ll often have to work til 11pm and New Year’s Day  & Thanksgiving are wide open.  He might work at 6 am or til 11pm or even overnight.  I loathe his job come holiday season.  Although he does come home with funny stories, like the time this one elderly lady who always wore headphones to keep the government out of her head (her words) returned her egg nog because it didn’t taste right.  That’s because it was half & half.

So…do you & your mate/partner/spouse/booty call have a schedule for spending time with your families around the holidays or do you just wing it?

Published by Shannon

I am a married mom to 1 pug, 1 pughuahua, 1 Frenchie, & a feist. I'm a Color Street stylist, a major planner, loud talking, and big laughing. I started this blog in August 2001.

8 thoughts on “Scheduling the joy of the season”

  1. All Holidays are spent with my family since Pete’s live thousands of miles away. We have visited his family for Christmas, but we didn;t get there until the day after. I can not be away from my neice ona holiday! Brandon’s family is pretty used to the fact that Laura and Alyssa will be with us on a holiday.

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  2. We spend every single holiday that I have off with my sister, which is about a 7 hour drive. We used to alternate but ever since my niece and nephew were born we have always gone there.

    Neither of us like my husband’s parents very much. You know why 🙂

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  3. We spend christmas eve with Steven’s familiy.. every other holiday we are with mine.. they just arent big celebrators. Although for the past several years we have done 4th of july with his people. We celebrate Thanksgiving every year with my Dad’s extended family.. and christmas day is just “us”Its pretty quiet since Jasmin always spends christmas day (from 3pm on) with her Mom’s people.

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  4. Since Joe is Jewish and I am not, we only have one holiday to split, so we alternate Thanksgiving day with our families. Whoever doesn’t see us on Thanksgiving day gets us the day after. Then, we spend Christmas with my family and Hanukkah with his, though my family will join his and his parents spend Christmas with my family. We usually spend New Year’s Day with Joe’s family since they usually do a big, southern New Year’s Day meal. My family has never really celebrated it.

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  5. Since my mom and sister live in the mid-west and the weather is the pits in the winter, I don’t usually see them for Thanksgiving or Christmas. My mom is afraid that we’ll get stuck in a blizzard if we go out there. My sister and I used to alternate visits, but we fell out of step with my mom’s illness. Usually we spend the holidays with Ben’s family…every.single.holiday. There are days I can’t wait to start our own family traditions.

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  6. Husband’s folks are more scheduled than mine. We usually spend Christmas day with them and then visit with me the next day. My parents are pretty flexible so they don’t mind that I don’t see them on Christmas day, although I would like it if we did. It’s just too much to try to see everyone on the same day. Besides, if I wait until the next day, I can spend more time with them than I would have originally. Pretty much the same goes with Thanksgiving.

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  7. Just curious do your families live far from one another? Perhaps they can go to each other’s houses for the holiday since CSP is an only child and all?

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    1. Both sets of parents live about an hour away from us, in opposite directions. They have never gotten along with each other. So mixing it up for the holidays is out.

      Shannon

      Sent from my iPhone

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