Staying Home for the Holidays

As the holidays approach and people gear up for family get-togethers, I am feeling relaxed and happy. Several years ago, my husband and I decided that we would no longer go to family member’s homes to celebrate the holidays. Instead, we stay home on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The holidays have become so much more peaceful.

Like most couples, when my husband and I got married, we were faced with a decision about how to spend the holidays. My parents expected us to come to their house while his parents expected us to come to theirs. We ended up going to both. We couldn’t go to one and not go to the other. Well, we could, but only if we were willing to hear about that particular injustice all year long. Once we bought a house, we thought things would be easier. We would simply invite everyone to our house for dinner. Well, that only worked for one Thanksgiving and has never worked for Christmas. His mother insists that she will still have to cook whether she comes to our house or not and my mother has a large group of people at her home every year so she has to cook as well. We even tried hosting a Christmas breakfast. We asked everyone to bring their gifts to breakfast. We would exchange gifts then and that would free us of our obligation to venture out at dinner. Needless to say, we were still expected at both houses for dinner anyway. Santa leaves gifts at my parent’s so the kids have to go there and my mother-in-law insists that we at least stop by and eat. With four kids to drag around, it soon became too much.