@“tired already” …you and I sound like we are in the same exact situation. This is our 2nd year like this. I totally get the feeling of wanting it to just be over so the stress of trying to make merry for the family is over. I do count my blessings, but when I think of what was and now what is…well, it is a little depressing. We never had a big family, made smaller by childless aunts and no first cousins, but I would host anywhere between 10 to 18 on any given year. People would arrive about 11:30, bloody Mary’s flowing, music on, food abundant. We’d talk, laugh, play games, have dinner …sometimes dance and open gifts in the evening as we’ve anticipated it all day.
What a difference it has become. Deaths yes, but more estrangement and fighting between the middle aged siblings.
Everyone keeps saying they don’t care what we do, so I’m making my elaborate meal I always do, then we are going to a movie. I’m tired of listening to them balk at church, so that doesn’t make it fun for me forcing them.
Too bad we aren’t neighbors…we could get together!
So sorry conmama. Sounds more like it is issues of estrangement and fighting among siblings that is making things sad, then the fact that things change. Hope there is some reconciliation in the future. And hopefully you will eventually have kid’s spouses and grandkids, and perhaps in-laws to make new traditions with.
Just the four of us. We always go out to dinner on Christmas Eve then take a holiday light drive with Christmas radio music. This year we will dine at The Melting Pot. Christmas Day used to be an all day affair with grandparents but they have passed on so we carry on as a foursome. It is stockings mid morning followed by breakfast then opening gifts. We usually play board games and watch DVD or two then sit down to a festive dinner. I will roast a turkey this year as we traveled over Thanksgiving. My boys-19 and 22 get cabin fever at this point so it is ok by me if they meet up with friends after dinner. Merry Christmas!
It is just my daughter and I. That is how it usually is on holidays. I don’t really have any official plans. She’s actually opened all her presents as she saw the deliveries that came to our home. I will try to make a special brunch for both of us and watch holiday movies during the day. In the evening we may go out for dinner and go to the park nearby where they have a Walk of Lights. (park all decorated with Christmas lights) Praying for a peaceful day.
When my kids were young and we lived 1,000 miles from family, we would buy a couple hundred pounds of corn and feed the geese at a local wildlife refuge near Green Bay. That was a lot of fun. Then we’d head to a movie and come home to our traditional pot roast in the crockpot.
This year my husband is traveling to visit our younger daughter but of course I have to work. Tomorrow I’ll be doing a bunch of home communions during the day, and then conducting two worship services at night. Christmas Day I’ll visit a few of our church members who are in nursing homes since I’d just be home alone, and then working 3-11 with a hospice client for my moonlighting job - I like her a lot though, so it will be an okay day.
Maybe next year I can visit family, since Christmas is on Sunday, that will give me time to travel before the next Sunday. I didn’t want my poor husband driving to my daughter’s with me on Friday and have to turn around the next day to come home this year. This way he can leave tomorrow morning and come back Sunday night.
Just our immediate family here, plus one son’s girlfriend these days. We will go out to a nice restaurant on Christmas Eve, and if ther weather is nice we may walk around the monuments in DC at night, which I’ve never done. The (adult) kids have to go to bed early so Santa can come.
Most weekend days, my younger son sleeps until well after noon. But he and my step-daughter will be up by 7 on Christmas, and come wake us up to open presents. I do have to make my coffee first. We all open at once, but slowly. The last couple of years my older son got up much later than the others, and opened his presents all through the day. (I do not want to start Christmas with an argument about getting up, but it is frustrating). This year we will be having a nice dinner. Then on the 26th we have friends over, order good pizza, and play Cards Against Humanity. It’s become a tradition, but my good friend will be retiring and moving away next year, so this may be our last time.
We had a family dinner tonight, and could live off the leftovers for 2 days. Hopefully the kids will eat some leftovers before we go out tomorrow evening. Otherwise much food may go to waste.
It has been a lot of years since we spent a Christmas in the US. Our daughter has never experienced the larger celebrations of the earlier years of my husband’s and my marriage, at least the few years when we lived closer to family. It is just too expensive, exhausting, and risky weather wise (though not so this year) to travel half way around the world for a short visit and Christmas. Our Christmas eves and Christmases have varied a lot over our years overseas as our “families of choice” are constantly changing due to this rather nomadic lifestyle.
For a number of years my husband and daughter have been part of music groups that have played at church on Christmas eve and this year is no different. The music director was thrilled that my daughter was coming home and could play again this year. After church we’ll come home for Swedish meatballs, salad, and ice cream for desert. We’ll watch a movie and open one present. Christmas morning will be breakfast with glorious freshly roased coffee, opening presents, then my daughter and I will make a simple Christmas dinner. We have a friend who is alone here and he will join us. We may play a game or watch another Christmas movie after dinner. It is all rather quiet and restful. But I get it, I grew up with a large family and extended family, and miss the more chaotic Christmases of old.
However, you spend your holiday, Merry Christmas everyone!
For years, DH was part of a men and boys traditional choir, so we did Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant, with my mother and brother, between services. Then he and I would head back, so he could sing at another service that ended about 11:30pm. But we’ve celebrated in lots of ways over the years and are adaptable.
Tonight, D1 and her bf came because she wanted to wrap gifts and decorate the tree (she’s also the stocking elf.) D2 is on her way home now. Tomorrow afternoon, I’m volunteering at a hospice (I’m not the kind of person you’d ever guess would find this so fulfilling. But it’s nice for the families that visit to have someone there besides staff.) After, we’re going to dinner out at a Chinese place, with both girls and their SO’s. I wish I could describe the restaurant decor. Not a red lantern in sight. I’ll call it haute contemporary meets disco. :-bd
The important thing is recognizing the ties we have with others, even if you can’t be with them. Best wishes to all.
We moved 1500 miles away from family when my daughter was just two. It became too difficult for us to travel there and then it became impossible for them to travel to us. So for many years it was just the three of us and then, after my son was born, just the four of us. Now my daughter has a husband and my son has a girlfriend so there are six of us. We will defer to the girlfriend’s little sister, who is just 8, so my son and his girlfriend will go there early on Christmas and then the six of us will do presents and brunch at our house. Then Star Wars at 4 o’clock. Then maybe we’ll watch the fifth game of the World Series again. Oh wait, we did that last Saturday.