The answer is very carefully. Actually it all starts with having a loving and supporting family, which we do. Although all three sets of our parents would love to see us every holiday they also understand that they have to share us and many times it doesn’t quite equal out.
Now that we’ve got Hunter we know our time with family becomes even more precious. We live in LA and Laura’s family is in Las Vegas and my family is in Tucson and I have one sister in the San Luis Obispo area. Seeing everyone isn’t as tough as it was when we lived in New York but it’s also not as easy as just cruising down the street to spend time with our parents who are now beaming grandparents.
We used to try and visit everyone during the holidays but that will much harder now and we will also want to start our own traditions at home with our son.
How do you balance seeing family during the holidays? Do you find it easier or harder after you have kids?
Jessica Marie Dollar
18 Nov ’11 at 7:33 amWe split and alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between my family of origin and my husband’s family of origin. With my family of origin, there is another rotation between the family meeting at my house, and my grandma’s house. My mom is happy to have someone else host. Paul’s family also alternates between his mom’s house and his grandparents house. He often will only see his younger siblings, though, as his older sisters have decided to focus on their own family traditions at their respective homes. So, far, it seems to work for us.
Built by Kids
18 Nov ’11 at 9:32 amWe alternate as well but its just tough since they aren’t in the same city and we have siblings who are also not in the same city so we feel bad that someone is always missing out but we also understand that we need to do what’s best for us but we wish we could be everywhere at once.
Lucydesk
19 Nov ’11 at 2:57 pmA lot of families with new babies decide to stay home on Christmas but travel for Thanksgiving and one other holiday like Easter or July 4th. You as the parents of the grandson invite everyone to your home and they just need to except they all need to get along or they should plan on not coming. It works best when all the parents stay at hotels or other relatives home so that no one parent grouping is seen as special. Or you can rotate that honor. Good luck.
Built by Kids
19 Nov ’11 at 3:23 pmThat’s a great plan and we did that last year before kids and it worked out well. One issue is that Timothy’s parents work on Christmas eve and it’s not in the plans to ever get away during that time but fortunately they aren’t very far anymore.