This Christmas was the first one as a little family of three, which warms my heart. However it threw up a lot of hard decisions for us. Usually at Christmas my husband and I go our seperate ways on Christmas Eve, to spend Christmas with our respective families, it's what we've always done.
We have our 'Christmas Day' on Christmas Eve, so it's not like we miss out on anything. We both love spending Christmas with our families so it works for us, though I appreciate some may find it strange that we're married yet don't spend Christmas Day together. But this year was different - would we go to one of our families? Or spend the day just the three of us? Or try and visit both families? It's something we discussed numerous times and was such a hard decision.
We have our 'Christmas Day' on Christmas Eve, so it's not like we miss out on anything. We both love spending Christmas with our families so it works for us, though I appreciate some may find it strange that we're married yet don't spend Christmas Day together. But this year was different - would we go to one of our families? Or spend the day just the three of us? Or try and visit both families? It's something we discussed numerous times and was such a hard decision.
I didn't feel ready to miss out on my family's Christmas, I'm certainly not a child anymore but we do Christmas the same as when we were little so it's such a special, nostaglic day for us all. I love spending Christmas Day with my family and I love the fact that my husband loves spending it with his. So where did that leave Isabella? Our families live about 1.5 hours drive away from each other, so it's wasn't really feasable to visit both in one day. The only real choices we had were to spend it with either of our families, on our own or seperately as usual. Did anyone else have this tough decision since having children?
We settled on spending Christmas morning at our house, as a little family of three and then went to our own families late morning. That way we got the best of both worlds - quality family time with both of our families and creating special memories with Isabella. As I'm still breastfeeding Isabella came with me and I was so excited!
I couldn't wait to open our stockings altogether on Christmas morning and then get to spend the rest of the day being the 'child' at my family home. It wasn't an easy decision and will only get harder next year when Isabella knows what's going on a bit more...but I just don't feel old enough to let go of my original family Christmas Day quite yet.
Do you find deciding where to spend Christmas Day a hard decision?
Feel free to leave a comment :)
Helen x
We are 50 mins from my parents and 30 from husband's.The in-laws asked if we would go to theirs for the first time with William. This would be my first time not having Christmas with my parents. So, we got up at 630, got ready, opened our stockings, set off to my parents at 8, then spent a good hour half opening presents there. Then around 10ish we set off to the in-laws and were there till 9pmish. It was a long day (I came down with a cold) but was worth getting to see the grandparent's faces when we opened their presents to William! Next year though, Christmas may have to be at ours (squeezing everything into the car was tough) and whoever wants to come can do!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had the perfect balance between seeing everyone - it's always such a juggling act anyway...let alone when children are added into the mix! I hope you had a lovely Christmas with your family and that your cold goes away quickly :)
DeleteHelen x
My other half and I have Always done the same and spent the day with our families as you have. It's funny as people always thought we were strange but we loved it that way. However we decided to do our own Xmas this year at home the three of us. We visited both parents in the morning and then had a relaxing afternoon / eve at home. It was lovely. I'm quite happy to do that now as feel we see the parents in the morning so nobody misses out. I don't think I'd be able to choose one or the other as I'd want to be with my family - this way, I feel it's a win win for everyone and to be honest, it was lovely to be at home in the afternoon / eve and not have to drive or rush anywhere!!
ReplyDelete:) X X
We've also had a few shocked faces when we tell people we're married but don't want to spend Christmas together! It's ideal if both sets of grandparents live near each other - then having the evening to yourselves is just perfect. A lovely end to a very busy day by the sounds of it! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a happy new year :)
DeleteHelen x
The thing is, when I've had that shocked face from people, they went on to say how unhappy they were with the way they were spending theirs so I used to think st least we are happy so what's wrong with that!
DeleteYes I guess we are lucky they live v local to one another, it makes it harder for you with that distance.
Glad you hAd a nice time :) X
I feel I am a bit of a people pleaser and there was no way that I could have made one set of grandparents miss out on being part of their grand daughters first christmas. The only way we could do it was to invite everyone to our house for lunch. It worked out really well!
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