Monday, December 24, 2007

Happy Holidays. I think.

Hi there from in-law land! (children mentioned, but barely)

I'm currently working today from the in-laws house, actually breaking the "no computer" rule the lady of the house created for everyone.

You see, it's not just a normal Christmas at the in-laws. I was forced, by guilt, to come to in the in-laws here. Along with that fact, my family joined 9 other people, not including the in-laws themselves. In total, there are 15 people here. Mother in law, Father in law, Myself, my husband Tom, my 2 children, Tom's Aunt Diane and her granddaughter aged 17, Tom's other younger Aunt (18 yeard younger than his mom), her husband and their 4 children aged 15, 13, 10 & 7. In a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house. Awesome, eh?

I must admit though, it's pretty darned nice. That's because Tom being a momma's boy, he's spoiled. His mother would ~never~ allow him to "suffer", so we have one of the two master bedrooms. (They bought a house and added on another living room and another master bed/bath that is practically the size of the original house). So although I'm sharing a room with Tom and my kids, I have my own bathroom. That's crucial, so honestly, I can't complain. All the kids are well behaved. None of that teenage angst you see in some brooding teens.

The only thing I can still complain about is I'm not at home. I never went anywhere for Christmas when I was growing up. I have a semi-large family, 6 kids, so maybe that was why we didn't go anywhere. So it's weird for me to leave. And since I do have kids, I kind of want them to spend Christmas ~at~ home. But Tom always went to his grandparents, so here's the part of marriage where I have to compromise.

What about you? Do you spend Christmas generally at home? Somewhere else? Or a mix?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Nancy. I hear ya about wanting to be home. We just moved back closer to family and usually we did Xmas eve at home alone with our kids. This year we are off to my Aunts a few towns over. So, not THAT bad. But we are coming home tonight and are actually hosting Christmas here at our house!!!! I don't know how I lucked out on that one, but we don't have to go anyplace tomorrow. We normally would drive all our creation on Xmas day! So, I am very happy about that one. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Heather

Io said...

Wow! I can't imagine being in a house with that many people. Good luck getting through that. Growing up we went to our grandparents, but as a kid it was fun to run around with my cousins and get stuffed into bedrooms like sardines.
Now we stay home for Christmas, which I like. My parents live in the same town as we do, so we just go over to their house for food. My sister stays with us, so we do have one guest - considering we have one bathroom it's about at capacity though.

Glennformer said...

I'm mostly in favor of just being firm on Christmas morning at home, especially when there are young children involved. However, everyone meeting up at the parents'/grandparents' place for dinner and more gift exchanges later in the day or the next day has been the norm; easy when only one set of parents/grandparents are local. I appreciate anytime to be with extended family, since getting connected/reconnected is great, but that's usually been more of a Thanksgiving or other holiday thing.

Happy Solstice, and otherwise Happy Holidays to all!

Searching said...

We used to go to my grandma's when we were little but when we moved several states away we had no family below the Mason-Dixon line. So now I either work or go to my parents' house with my bro and sisters and their SO/kids. Hubby is at work so he will drive in tomorrow, as will my brother. I'm going tonight to play my flute with my 12yo sis for church. :)

But, if it were up to hubby we'd stay at our house for every holiday and not see family at all!

Dr. Grumbles said...

Happy Holidays!

We usually go to California each Christmas to see D's family, but this year we are on strike and staying home. Just the two of us tomorrow.

Scott said...

Hey Nancy,

It's interesting because everyrone has different traditions and everyone wants to be with their family during the holidays. The hard part is that you can only be in one place at a time. Do you think that you guys will alternate Xmas now...one year at home one year with his family?
Tracey and I both come from split families who live on opposite ends of the state and I have a step son so we need to split his holiday between his father and us. So....we usually seem to spend more time in the car driving from place to place than anything else.
However, this year if very different. Colby didn't come home for Xmas but rather got transferred to Connecticut Children's Medical Center. So Tracey and I will spend tonight here with him. We'll go home to spend some time with Evan (my stepson) tomorrow and then she and Evan will go over her family's. I'll come back and stay with Colby tomorrow night. So given our situation this year we're pretty much scapping the whole holiday thing. But it's for good reason...for our son. And it won't be forever, it will just make next year's Xmas all the more special!
So although time with the inlaws may not be ideal...it's family none the less and it's a good thing to be able to share eachother's company. : )....at least for a day or two. If nothing else you have an IOU that you can chalk up to use with your hubby at a later date. LOL
Have a wonderful holiday and keep those blog updates coming.

Scott

Glennformer said...

Oh, one more thing. Being alone X-mas morning totally sucks.

q said...

Growing up. we never lived near family so we were always home. Hubby was always carted back and forth between parents, and grandparents house and never got to "enjoy" the holiday. Once we had kids we started our own tradition. If anyone wants to see our kids, they will come to our house. That means waking early and making breakfast and having a full spread for everyone, but it also means that there is no driving all over the city (or from state to state) to see everyone.

jenn said...

That is quite the crowded house- I thought 6 adults in 3 bedrooms 2 baths was tight- that's nothing!

I miss going to my grandma's for christmas eve. That was always our christmas- we were only about an hour away but once we got there it was officially christmas. Staying up all night with stories & cookies & laughing until you cry. Then we'd go to my dad's family on christmas day- but always back to grandma's. I miss her & the traditions & the fact that the whole family got together on that one day so much.

Tom & I have parents 600 miles away from each other with us in the middle- so until there is a reason to put our foot down & make them come together here- we are the ones to travel. We are doing the every other holiday- every other year thing. Thanksgiving with mine, christmas with his. Next year we will switch. Unless we have a good excuse not to, but I imagine we'll still be traveling.

Anonymous said...

Being 4 hours away from family now, we have decided to not travel on Christmas Eve or Christmas anymore. I am all for being at home for Christmas. I hate traveling on the holidays with all the traffic. I like to wake up in my home on Christmas morning. I also like that we can stay in our jammies all day and can't do that if I am at my in-laws. Which is where we would always go on Christmas. We would see my family Christmas Eve and go to my in-laws Christmas day. We did that up till this past year.

It was so nice not having to worry about going anywhere. We drove around on Christmas Eve and looked at all the Christmas lights. Which will probably be a new tradition for us. I told my families I would more then be happy to host Christmas at our house, but if they can't do that we would have to celebrate with them either before or after Christmas.

Amy