When I was just a friend of Lance's, prior to any co-habitating or even co-holiday visiting, I saw him spend what seemed like the entire holiday season on the road. He had one set of grandparents in northern Iowa, another set in the quad cities, a mom in town and a dad in the quad cities. I know it was very important to him that he saw everyone for Christmas and of course, they all wanted to see him, it just meant he spent so much time in the car. To complicate matters a little, Lance's birthday is on the 23rd, the same as Tom's. And it had been a long-standing tradition that Lance and Tom spend their birthdays together.
Once we were married, we had to consider my people in the mix as well. Luckily, my people are all contained in the same area. So while we did have to drive clear back to Wisconsin, once we were there, that was it. There were some years that he and I spent our entire holiday vacation time traveling from relative to relative just to get them all in. That was when we were living in Minnesota and the large visiting circle took a long time to complete. It was great to see everyone, but we always felt like we needed an extra vacation day to recover from it all once we were back home.
A couple years ago, Lance's dad and Tom became snow-birds, so they essentially removed themselves from the Christmas travels and the birthday celebration tradition. With that side of the family, we all celebrate at Thanksgiving time. The location changes from year to year, so it gives everyone a chance at a short commute to celebrate. I love it. I think they have a brilliant idea with Christmas in November. And so far, pretty much everyone has always been able to make it, which makes it one big party. I love that there are so many cousins and kids to mix with. It reminds me a lot of my people. There is always someone with a baby and it's usually pretty loud :)
And Lance's mom has had dibs on Christmas Eve for a while now. Although, there was the one year I asked that we celebrate a couple weeks earlier because I was due to be 40 weeks pregnant at Christmas. With pregnancy comes perks. I think that may have been the same year we worked bacon into the otherwise pretty solid menu of liver sausage and waffles.
When we became our own little family of 3, we set down some ground rules regarding Christmas. No traveling on Christmas Day. It is important to us that Hannah get to wake up in her own home Christmas morning. Christmas is our day to lounge in jammies, play with new toys, and graze on special-only-on-this-day food, all day long. We've only done this for two years now, but it has been fantastic. I love knowing that for this special day, our family is creating memories and traditions for years to come.
We have done the same thing now that we have kids. Before, we would drive all over the midwest trying to see as many people as possible and make everyone happy. Now we still have scheduling stresses, but we know that we will be home with the boys on Christmas Day, period.
ReplyDelete