Holiday Shuffle

On the radio this morning they were talking about what different people do for the holidays - do you rotate holidays? Do you visit multiple houses in one day? Do you jump ship and vacation on the holidays to avoid the hassle? This is what I call the holiday shuffle.

Prior to having EM, if my memory serves me correctly we had been kind of rotating Easter and Thanksgiving with Easter w/G's family (or not at all since when it's his family's holiday it's his choice if we attend or not and he usually chooses to skip since he hates holiday food) and then Thanksgiving with my family. We then would do Christmas Eve at G's family annual party and go to my parents/brothers (whoever was hosting) on Christmas Day. As much as I love being wih family on the holidays it always stressed me out. Trying to make it fair between the two families was always hard since they both want to see us. I actually came to dread the holidays (mostly Christmas - which is typically my favorite holiday) because of having to make all the drives and shuffling between families. I could never fully relax and with both families kind of near by (at the time my inlaws were about 15 mins away and my parents/brother were almost 2 hrs away) it wouldn't make sense (or make anyone happy) to rotate between YEARs. I always ended up having a good time with both families and like I said I loved spending time with them but after our 2nd year of doing so G and I both told our families that once we had kids, things were going to change. We said that we were no longer going to travel for Christmas and that we wanted to start our own traditions. We hadn't really discussed Thanksgiving or Easter though, but we figured that out now.

So once we had EM we were excited for the new holiday changes. Having EM a week before Thankagiving last year it only made sense that we were going to stay home with our one week old. We celebrated Christmas with my family a few days before Christmas and that was going to be our new thing. My mom said as long as she could have everyone at her house for a nice meal and present opening she was happy. We ended up going to his parents Christmas Eve party since there was no reason to sit at home alone but said going forward we would be hosting the Christmas Eve party (just with a 6 wk old this year it wasn't feasible). Christmas Day, we woke up and did Christmas morning with our new little family of 3 and told the families they could stop bye if they wanted to but we weren't hosting anything other than an open front door. Last year we moved about 45 mins away from G's parents and they did come over for a few on Christmas day. Since we already celebrated with my family earlier that week, they spent it with my brother's family. It worked out very nicely. So that was last year.

When Easter came around, we were still getting settled into our new house/new baby routine and decided to skip it all together but made the plan that going forward we would spend Thanksgiving with G's family (who now live down the block) and Easter with my family. I figured Easter was more fun for kids with egg hunts and baskets so it would be more fun for EM to be with her cousins on Easter than Thanksgiving. 

So that brings us to the current holiday season. We are going to G's parents for Thanksgiving Dinner and going to the UCF vs. USF game on Black Friday!  

For Christmas, we are hosting a Christmas Eve party and then Christmas Day we are holding true to our plan of spending the morning just us and the door is open for anyone who wants to pop bye. Because of vacations and such, my Mom isn't getting her "early Christmas Day" but she'll be with all of us on a cruise from December 19-23 so I think she'll be happy with that and then of course coming over on Christmas Eve. Other than getting back from a cruise the day before hosting a party and the normal party planning stress that comes with that, I can honestly say I'm completely looking forward to the entire holiday season this year!! 

What are your plans for the holidays? Do you do a holiday shuffle? 

And just because a post isn't complete without a picture, here is our little family from Christmas last year and then one from our Christmas shoot this year! (Not the one that is on our Christmas card since those only went out today and I want it to kind of be a surprise for those who haven't stalked my FB yet)