this year’s christmas is essentially over now. we had a pretty nice one, i must say. not that we don’t usually. but another nice, merry christmas. š
it was a little different than last year. every year we usually do christmas eve with adam’s dad (his dad and mom have been divorced since he was little), and then christmas morning here, then off to my parent’s and then to his mom’s (where all his siblings usually are…he only shares his dad with 1 out of his 3 siblings, so xmas eve is just his sister’s family and dad)…the order will sometimes change, but usually that’s how it works.
THIS year, things went differently…xmas eve was at his sister’s, where his brother’s family was, as well as his sister’s…his other sister was out of the country so we didn’t see her this year. then christmas morning here…and then off to his dad’s where we saw his sister and family again and then lastly to my parent’s, where this year my brother wasn’t there. also missing this year was his mom. so we were missing 3 close relatives this year. š 2 out of the country (my brother tim is currently in the country georgia helping with an election and adam’s sister sarah is in the czech republic where she lives.) and 1 out of state (adam’s mom is currently in chicago visiting her sister).
anyway, still just the same amount of running around but just a different order. its ok but i still hope we can streamline it all better someday because i prefer to not have to have so many commitments of places to go.
when i was growing up we didn’t leave the house all day and in fact didn’t get dressed even…it was always a jammies day. and we liked it that way. but now it feels a bit hectic with so many more people and with all the running around. i’m mostly used to it now, and its not a huge deal to me anymore but i still would rather not have to run around so much. in a perfect world.
i know the thought of others is “what’s the big deal? we had to do all the running around, why is it big deal to her?” well…its not what i grew up with. i didn’t grow up in a divided family, nor a large family. that’s just not what i experienced. and what’s ok with some people isn’t for others. my philosophy is just because someone else had to do it doesn’t mean everyone should. but hey, that’s me. at one point i was really bothered by this running around to the point that i really wished that i could just have everything here and not have to run around all over the place. but the reality of that is that there’s still a crazy running around because there’s the preparation of getting the house ready for everyone to come here. and there’s no getting around all the extra people when you blend families through marrying someone from a big family. no way to avoid that. he doesn’t want to be deprived of seeing his family on special occasions anymore than i want to be deprived of mine. and i wouldn’t dream of expecting that of him. that would be so wrong.
anyway i digress…this is kinda an old issue because like i said, i’m mostly ok with the running around at this point and my kids will just grow up dealing with it. and i guess if i think about it i can find some good in it because when we divide things up like that its less chaotic at any one gathering. with the exception of the one big gathering at my sister-in-law’s house, where there is all his siblings and their families and now my sister-in-law’s husband’s family too…the rest of the gatherings are quite small in comparison. so that’s nice. i like smaller. the larger gets a bit much for me. but my kids seem to be handling it better. i prefer intimate but my kids will just know how to handle this because this is all they’ll know. i guess that’s not a bad thing. i prefer them to get to know people on a more intimate basis, but we have to figure that out for other situations, not christmas. christmas is just always going to be basically a madhouse. and i just have to deal with that. ok. i think i can do that. it wasn’t bad this year. it was actually pretty nice.
another merry christmas! š
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