There is so much that go in to making the holidays great for your family. SO MUCH! It’s so much that I often find myself dreading the holidays coming around.
You might be surprised to find what stresses me so much about the holidays. It’s not the buying of the presents or the wrapping of the presents. It’s not even the cooking of the meals or even making sure my Christmas tree is perfectly decorated. My biggest stress of the holidays has always been SCHEDULING!
I have total respect for the turkey and don’t bring out my Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving, but with our family, I have to start thinking about which family we will be with and when very early on.
Between my husband and I, we have four sets of parents. Our parents are all remarried and that gives us four different houses we need to get to during the holidays. To make it a little more difficult, our parents all live in the DFW area.
Since Thanksgiving is only one day and Christmas basically consists of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we used to wear the roads out making sure we hit every house. This was before I had children. When I had my first child, I realized that it was time to start thinking about our little family, first. I love all of our parents and I love sharing in the holidays with them, but I decided it was time to put my foot down. I needed to start creating traditions for my little family and I needed to decide what was most important to my husband and I, for our kids.
For us, we decided that it was most important for our kids to wake up at home with our little family on Christmas morning. We now have lunch at our house on Christmas day and try to make the right decision about where to spend our Thanksgiving and Christmas day as well as Christmas Eve. I know that we can’t please everyone no matter how hard we try, but I know that as long as our kids are happy, everyone else will be, too! That’s what’s most important.
It’s a struggle every year and whether you have multiple sets of parents or just your parents and the in-laws, I know it’s a constant struggle for many moms to plan which house you will be at on what day. Remember that you’re creating new traditions for your family and you are responsible for your little family, first. If you remember what’s most important, the rest will fall in line.
Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear how you decide to spend your holidays with extended family. I’m always looking for new ideas on how to make everyone happy.
