TMI Tuesday #8 - Christmas Craziness
Beth's Mom asked a question over on Beth's blog that I wanted to answer. I started typing it all up in the comment box over there, and then I looked at it and thought "Oh my God, This is way too long for a comment. And anyway, it would make a good post for myself since I have nothing else to say, what with the overwhelming tiredness." So here it is.
How do other people divvy up the holiday celebrations between the two sets of relatives? Is it usually a big fight, or do your readers alternate amicably?
Do the grandparents care what is fair, or do they insist on seeing their little dears for every occasion regardless of what anyone else wants?
And how about your readers? Can they stand up to their respective families and do what they darn please?
I have 4 sets of parents. Rob's mom and Dad are divorced and remarried and ditto for mine. My dad has been married to Leann for a good 20 years or so, so she's family and so are her kids. No offense to Mom here, but her husband is a relative new-comer (at 10 years). I just didn't grow up with him. I was out of the house before they got married, so it's kind of hard to settle in real well, you know? Rob's parents have both been re-married forever too, so everyone pretty much gets along okay. They could deal with being in the same room together - and have - pretty easily. The problem is that there's just not a big enough room. Every year I host a BBQ and all sides of the family are invited and usually 30-40 people show up. It would get crazy to try to have that at the holidays indoors. So I rush around to see everyone, or I don't. This year it's a little of both.
I try to take everyone's plans into account and work them in somehow.
Dad and Leann always make it easy by picking a weekend day before Christmas to have their celebration. That was last Sunday. All the kids get to play togther while the guys watch football, mostly. Leann always has a great dinner set up and we hang out. She also usually has Christmas day dinner available to anyone who is free. I have never been free for it, though. (driving time = 55 minutes one way)
My mom always has a Christmas buffet. (mom's driving time = 40 minutes) Early in the morning, she sets up appetizers and grazing foods and people are invited to stop by at any time and visit. That's usually a pain in the ass for me, because it's not an actual gathering, so I'm not going to see the rest of the family at any certain time, so it's just me visiting Mom. And I'd rather do that while there aren't other various people randomly stopping by. We usually do a meet-up sometime or another around the holidays whenever convenient. This year, though, my grandma decided to have a Christmas party this Friday. She usually - hmm, I don't really know what she usually does. I think she goes to my uncle's then goes to my aunts the next day? Whatever. This year I can go there and have a party with my mom's side of the family and it doesn't clash with anyone else's plans. Ally loves going there and playing with all the cousins and so we're happy. Plus, they're having Casey's pizza. I love Casey's pizza. (grandma's driving time = 1.3 hours)
The bad thing is that we're going to Rob's mom's the next day. So we might end up driving after Grandma's Friday night. Yuck. It's a 2.5 hour trip form our house. It'll be much longer from there. But. It will be night and the kids will likely fall asleep and we won't have to load and unload the vehicle twice. Hell, maybe Anya will even sleep better in the car. Ha! We always try to spend Christams with his mom. She's got less family around and Rob always wants to let her know we love her by showing up. (Hi Darra, we love you) For many reasons, the holidays are a little hard for her, and she always makes the most effort to come see us and help out, so it only seems natural. This year, her husband has a new schedule and will have to work a little on Christmas eve, so we will be there on Saturday instead. If Rob's sister shows up (which is not certain right now. Circumstances are iffy) We'll just come home and spend Christmas Eve trying to get things cleaned up and put away from our travels, and spend Christmas at home. Otherwise, Darra might come back with us to be part of our holiday at home and Bill can meet us after work Christmas Eve or somehting. We don't really know. (driving time = 2.5 hours + 1.3 hours if we leave from grandma's)
Oh and Rob's grandparents actually live in the same town as Darra, so we'll see them if they are there. They might be in California (at Rob's aunt's house) though, so I'm not really sure. They usually go out there, but they are usually gone before now, and I haven't heard anything about it, so I'm not sure. (no driving. Yay)
Rob's dad doesn't have any set plans yet. He usually goes to his in-laws for Chirstmas and catches us whenever it's easiest for both of us. This year, Glinda is under-going chemo, so all bets are off. I hope she feels well enough to enjoy the holidays. (driving time = 1 hour if we go there. Usually they come to our house)
Most everyone is flexible and let us decide where we are going. Thank God, because it's hard to coordinate with everyone. I want to see everyone and all, but it really messes with the kids schedule to be travleing that much that often. Ally starts missing naps and it's hard to continue our food training (which is going great. Last night she tasted a bite of lasagne. Said she didn't like it. Chewed it up instead of spitting it out. So she didn't have to eat it and got a PB&J instead. Those are our rules - one bite and you can get something else if you don't like it. No arguments last night Finally) and accident-free (potty-related) days. Anya doesn't sleep as well during the day, which makes the night even worse and in someone else's house to boot. Just stressful. Worth it, but stressful anyway.
We do occasionally set our foot down and not see people when we need to. We don't always see Mom on Christmas Day when she celebrates, because we want to be home for the kids to play with their toys. I remember growing up and going to my dad's house after Christmas and being annoyed that I couldn't play with all the neat stuff I had just gotten. I want the day to be relaxing. Especially since the rest of the holiday isn't.
Posted by ktjrdn
at 12:47 CST