Families and the Holidays: A Blessing or a Punishment?

Okay, don't get me wrong here, I love my family! I really do, but sometimes during the holidays don't you feel that they can put unreasonable expectations on you? Everyone says how the holidays are a time to spend with your family, which I agree with, but how much time is too much? Let me just start this out by explaining what my holiday schedule is like just for Christmas Eve and Christmas so you can understand.

On Christmas Eve we go over to my wife's Aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner. I love spending the time with them, and we have had to expand Christmas into Christmas Eve now as our families have become bigger. My wife and I have one child, and her cousin and her husband have two. When you total the family it includes the 3 kids, 7 adults and any other number of visitors. This combined with the fact that the kids are all under 2 years old results in a lot of starts and stops during the evening's activities. Due to this we have decided to move the adult's gift exchange to Christmas Eve. This does help in that we are not rushed eating our meal, we can eat it and enjoy socializing with the family. Then after that we will exchange the presents between adult members of the family and for the kids that will not be at each other's house the next morning "when Santa arrives". Of course this is combined with the interruptions you expect with kids that age of diapers, temper tantrums, snacks, etc. In the end it turns out to be a full night, but everyone has fun and enjoys theirselves.

The next morning my wife and I will wake up along with her mom who will spend the night so she can be at the house to see our one year old open his presents. He will open his presents and then the adults at the house will exchange ours. Then the mad dash begins........