Holiday Traditions with In-Laws

For this week’s Because I Said So Buck and I are going to discuss:

“Family holiday traditions.  How do you feel about your in-laws, do they come and visit for holidays or stay with you?  Do you host holiday gatherings in your home?”

Holiday Traditions:
Every Thanksgiving my family gets together with my father’s mother.  This includes both my parents, my two half sisters from my father, my aunt (father’s sister), my children and my nine nieces/nephews. Most years we have had Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house but this year we are tossing the idea around of actually having it at my house.  My grandmother hasn’t been feeling as well lately to really put her through the stress of preparing her home for so many and cooking. 19 people gathered in one home to eat is a lot and that’s not even counting if my sisters or I bring someone home for Thanksgiving.

Every year after we eat Thanksgiving dinner my mom, my middle sister and I go through the Black Friday ads.  Just the thought of being at the stores at 4 AM, fighting the crowd to get the best deals gives me the chills.  I swear it’s a complete adrenaline rush. The three of us circle the items in each sales ad and make a list.  Ocassionaly we will go to two separate stores and call each other to try and get what is on all our lists.  This way we don’t miss Target deals while at Walmart but truly it depends on the year and the sale.  We also ask all the kids to try and make their Christmas lists and go through the ads with us to see if there is anything they want on sale.  Last year on Black Friday my mom, sister and I literally shopped all day and I believe by the end of the day we nearly had our Christmas shopping complete.  I was so sick with a head cold I remember sitting down in the floor inside Victoria Secrets at the mall while my sister and mom shopped.  It’s funny looking back because I probably could have fallen asleep right in the middle of the crowd.  By the end of the day I couldn’t even talk because I had lost my voice but let me tell you I saved a ton, had fun and finished my shopping.  I even had it wrapped by the end of the weekend.

My kids and I always put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We don’t decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving but we sure can’t wait long after to pull out all the decor. I love the holidays and love watching the kids help me decorate.  Each year they get their own new ornament to place on the tree and we usually take photos of them doing this. Normally their ornaments consist of whichever character they like that year.  Last Christmas Noah’s ornament was Cars, Gab’s was Disney Princess and T’s was Tinker Bell.  Not sure which ones we will get this year.

In-Laws:
Since I am currently divorced I will answer this question based on my former mother-in-law. I can’t say my Mother-in-law comes in town and stays with me over the holidays because she doesn’t really live that far.  Usually when she comes to visit it is for the day or she stays at my house on ocassion if I am going out of town and she wants to keep the kids at home but otherwise they go and visit her.  My mother-in-law has stayed at my home quite a bit since my divorce in 2003.  To be honest I consider her like another mother to me and she is very involved in my children’s lives.  She knows how to care for Gab if I need her help and has been active in her medical care her whole life.  When Gab had her leg surgery my mother in law actually came to stay with me for a couple of months.  Her help was priceless. My home is always open to her and she is welcome to stay with me any day she wants and she knows this.  Just as I know that not only are the kids welcome at her house at any given time but so am I.

Now I’m headed over to read Buck’s response and learn a little more about his family, you coming?

Have a topic or question you would like to hear our views on? Have you always wanted to hear both sides of a topic or answers to a question, unbiased? You can submit topics or questions via comments or even anonymously to djane (at) mommadjane (dot) com. We will pick questions at random and blog on one topic per week.