I hope those who celebrate had a great Thanksgiving yesterday :)
Eric and I may finally have figured out a "system" that actually works for us when it comes to holidays, wahoo (only took 6 years haha). The problem with Eric and I is that both of us are very close to our families and very set in our traditions. Neither of us would settle for casually celebrating Christmas a few days early, or eating Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday (unless perhaps ALL traditions and people who are usually involved would be there, which would never happen). Our attempt to visit with both families in one day was nearly always a failure because we would miss something we wanted to do or someone we wanted to see at one or both houses. Last year we decided to divide and conquer so we could both do what we wanted to do, but that wasn't really the best plan either. To make matters worse, Eric and I are both oldest children so we are the first people in the family to have other things we have to do on the holidays so it's that sense of, everyone is there celebrating except for me :(
This year we finally decided to split the holidays and spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Eric's. We'll be hosting Christmas Eve so we'll see both families then. I think this is the plan will work the best for us. If we are not worrying about what time we are going to get to the other house, we'll be able to really enjoy the holiday with each other's families. So far it worked well yesterday...
Some of my favorite dishes...
My first plate:
My mom even made a special pumpkin pasta.... Italian Thanksgiving?
After a delicious dinner, we headed over to my grandmother's house to see the extended family...
Overall, the day was great :)
How do you navigate the fun of holidays? What are your favorite traditions?
PS. Anyone Black Friday shopping today? I do not shop on Black Friday at all- I know you can get the deals other times (and online) and plus I can't stand crazy crowds of people :) Eric and I may run a couple of errands later today, but we will definitely avoid the mall!
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We're pretty lucky in that DH's family doesn't make a big whoopla out of the holidays b/c it is only his Mom, Dad and brother here (family in England). They are always easy going and schedule a more casual dinner either early or late, and we get the real deal with my big family. Works for us. :)
ReplyDeleteThat spread looks amazing - happy Thanksgiving!
sounds like a good plan. it must be so tough to have to split the holidays. i guess the upside is that most families do, in the end, understand. no husband yet for me so i don't have to face that yet
ReplyDeleteOmigod I hear ya. My parents and Erics parents live about 45 minutes apart but luckily Eric's family would celebrate on Christmas Eve. So here's how hour 24-26 went one year. I think this was three years ago it went like this:
ReplyDeleteChristmas Eve: Stop by my BIG family (entire Mom's side) shindig. Drive 45 minutes to Erics parents, open presents, eat dinner, play boardgames. Drive 45 minutes back to my Mom's, go to bed around 1 am.
Christmas Day: Wake up, have big breakfast and open presents with my family. Around 45 minutes to Eric's parents for Christmas Lunch. After lunch drive another 15 minutes to my Dads parents for Christmas Lunch #2. Drive back into town (60 minutes now) for my Grandma's Christmas Dinner.
Collapse into bed because you just might burst.
VERY STRESSFUL! So the next Christmas after that we did the divide and conquer thing and last Christmas Eric's parents actually joined MY family for all our festivities because Eric's sister (and her kids) were at the in-laws so it was just his parents.
This year is going to be tough for us because I know both families will want to spend a lot of time with us, especially since we live so far away and Eric's sister and her kids will be there this year but they weren't last year. I think we're going to have to do the divide and conquer thing again because the year we tried to do it all together it was just too stressful! We rarely go home for Thanksgiving because it's too far for a long weekend but if we lived near both families I think the splitting up Thanksgiving and Christmas would be a good idea!
By the way, Kelly. Check out how monster this comment is!!! Did we switch personalities??? ;) ;)
PS: I didn't even comment on your photos or day! How self-involved of me. The food looks VERY good especially the pumpkin pasta :D
ReplyDeleteI am TOTALLY down with an Italian Thanksgiving if pumpkin pasta is involved!
ReplyDeleteYum, pumpkin pasta?! I love that!!
ReplyDeleteNick and I have never spent a Thanksgiving together. It works out just fine because neither of our families want to be apart from us on Thanksgiving. We do Christmas even with his family and then Christmas day with mine. When we have kids, however, the Thanksgiving plans will HAVE to change!!
Glad you found a great schedule for your holidays. The food looks fabulous.
Oh good lord. Holidays ugh. Usually we have it pretty good/easy since our families and the locations of our get togethers are within 20-30 minutes of each other) and our parents live 10 minutes apart. But, when his sister/bil/nephew are home it gets crazy and we get angreeeeee. Thanksgiving I have spent with his family since we started dating because my parents went out of state to visit my relatives there and I HATED it. So itw as easy. Then my grandparents died and they stay in state and we went last year to eat dinner and then drove 15 munutes to do christmas with his side. This year we did all Thanksgiving with his family and I was miserable. The food was horrid. I had planned on doing one stop visiting when we have an infant but next year for the sake of my food sanity we ARE going to my aunts because I need to eat good food. What pregnant lady is NOT FULL ON thanksgiving? ugh. And then do the drive to his grandma's for their christmas. For Christmas, typically Christmas Eve is spent with his family (they always celebrate then) and Christmas Day with my fam. When his sis is in town things change at the last minute and we get irritated. When the baby is here next year we may have to limit our stops because Christmas Day can mean our house, parents house and aunts house. So we may have to have my parents over here which they would willingly do and then go see the whole fam at my aunts. Glad you had a great Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteyay for not being married and having less holiday stress! The bf celebrated with his family and I was with mine :)
ReplyDeleteI am glad you two found a system that works :)
Yum! The food looks so good - and I am having flashbacks of all the food I ate at my parents when I was home.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping the Barrister would come home with me for T-giving but he ended up staying here in St Paul. Can't really blame him as i would not want to give up my holiday w/ my family either... So I think we will probably put off doing that as long as possible...
We split holidays as well. So we did Thanksgiving with his family and we'll do Christmas with mine and then we'll switch next year. All that running around does seem to put a damper on the holidays.
ReplyDelete