How/Where are you spending Christmas?

[KathyT]

We usually have a special meal Christmas eve day around 4 then go to the children's mass at 6. Home for some hot chocolate and the traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". We get up (far too early, lol) Christmas morning, open gifts and stockings, have breakfast, enjoy a leisurely morning, and head out to my parents (about 3 hrs away) for Christmas supper. We usually spend about 2-3 days there. My brother flies in from Chicago and Mum cooks an awesome meal :)

How about you?

[KarlaB]

We are having Christmas with dks on Saturday. Santa will bring their presents Sunday morning and we'll spend a reaxed day at home with them. We'll head to my dad's early Monday and spend the day with him. From there we meet my mom at church around 5 and then head to her house for prime rib :drool: and then presents. Christmas morning dks get stockings from Santa at my mom's - that way they still have a little Santa Christmas morning without us dragging everything there. :)

[AnnW]

We are leaving Friday afternoon to go to the inlaws. Will do Christmas on Saturday night and I will be cooking a beef tender. We will leave on Sunday.
Christmas eve, we go to the Children's service at 3, then have chili and tamales for dinner.
My folks are coming over for Santa. Usually everyone comes here, but my cousin bought a new house this year, and she is hosting the dinner. We have an open house Christmas night that we host with my parents.

[RCT]

we go into Syracuse for Christmas eve....have dinner with my Husbands entire family....well, 7 of his siblings and thier familys...gather at one of my SIL's we do this early so we can get home and help Santa;) ....we will be picking up my MIL then too....Christmas Day we will spend here in the comfort of our own home....I am making a small turkey and small ham....should be a relaxed day....

[MaryL]

We go to the children's mass on Christmas Eve....then head home for our junk food supper (frozen pizza, chips/dip, etc)! We open all of the gifts that were mailed to us...(aunts/uncles, etc)...as well as exchange gifts from each other. We clear out the tree area so that Santa can do his business. LOL Some years we travel on Christmas Day....but this year we're staying here. MIL is coming from Las Vegas...and BIL and his family are coming to our house for lunch.

[Diane]

Years ago when my MIL/FIL were still alive we'd celebrate our Christmas with them on Christmas eve. They usually didn't want us there too much before 2:00 so dh, the kids and I would open up all of our gifts Christmas Eve morning before going over there. That way the kids had at least "some" time to enjoy and play with all of the new toys they had gotten. Christmas day we have always spent over at my mom and dad's house along with all of my sister's, BIL's, neices and nephews. Now that most all of my neices and nephew's are all married and have children too... we've got quite a house full. The older they are, the harder it is to try to get our entire family together anymore. Having to share your kids with THEIR in-laws and schedules isn't always that easy. LOL This year we'll be spending Christmas Eve at home with our own kids and their bf's... but not until about 4:30. That gives each of them time to go to their bf's parents to celebrate... and hopefully nobody feels or gets left out. :) I'm always careful not to totally hog my kids and INSIST upon anything... because that's not being fair to their bf's... BUT, I don't want to be left out either. LOL My sister and her kids celebrate Christmas about a week before Christmas... otherwise they don't get the time to celebrae either so... some year we may have to resort to that but so far... were doing okay. I hate a lot of running around and hate feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and that's usually the way I end up feeling after Christmas. I almost need to take a week off AFTER Christmas just to recover. LOL Anyway... I hope everyone has an enjoyabole Christmas with all of their loved ones... tis the Season! :xmas:

Diane... :tree:

[kat]

I'm hosting dinner Christmas Eve for 22+ people. My former SIL is coming because my nephew wants her to. No problem. (She's leaving her boyfriend at home.) Then I find out db is bringing his girlfriend and her son. What should I do? SIL was part of the family for 20, I'm not going to "uninvite" her. Should I ask db not to bring the girlfriend or just seat them in different rooms and hope a fight doesn't break out. I hate divorce.

Ds may or may not bring his gf.

Christmas morning at home. Then over to inlaws for Dinner.

[RCT]

Originally posted by kat
I'm hosting dinner Christmas Eve for 22+ people. My former SIL is coming because my nephew wants her to. No problem. (She's leaving her boyfriend at home.) Then I find out db is bringing his girlfriend and her son. What should I do? SIL was part of the family for 20, I'm not going to "uninvite" her. Should I ask db not to bring the girlfriend or just seat them in different rooms and hope a fight doesn't break out. I hate divorce.

Ds may or may not bring his gf.

Christmas morning at home. Then over to inlaws for Dinner.

8o YIKES kat....what an icky situation....did you at least tell your ex SIL that her ex husband is bringing someone else...I think that a fair warning would be nice....yucky sitcky situation....

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by kat
I'm hosting dinner Christmas Eve for 22+ people. My former SIL is coming because my nephew wants her to. No problem. (She's leaving her boyfriend at home.) Then I find out db is bringing his girlfriend and her son. What should I do? SIL was part of the family for 20, I'm not going to "uninvite" her. Should I ask db not to bring the girlfriend or just seat them in different rooms and hope a fight doesn't break out. I hate divorce.

Ds may or may not bring his gf.

Christmas morning at home. Then over to inlaws for Dinner.

How long have they been divorced? Could you tell your former sil it's okay if she wants to bring her bf? What a sticky situation. :\

Like Renee said, I would also give her a warning that he is bringing his new gf....

Good luck!!

[darlene]

We will have Christmas eve here with us, my mom, hopefully my one brother/sil and their two kids.
They will come over Christmas morning for pancakes/strawberries/whipped cream and opening presents.
We will go to mil for supper later in the day.

:yippee: no travelling for us!

:)

[Linda/NE]

On Christmas eve, I'm not sure what Mass we'll go to but we'll let the kids open presents from us and dh's folks. Christmas morning they'll open stuff from Santa. Then we'll head over to a nearby town to dh's grandma's house. (This is the grandma on the other side--not the one that died) She recently moved to an assisted living facility, but they are bringing her back to her country home so we can celebrate together for the day.

The Sunday after Christmas we are getting together at my folk's place --next door. All but my brother from CO will be there. Jingle will come to visit the kids dropping small gifts down the chimney. My brothers, sisters and the spouses draw names so we'll exchange those.

Some of you talked about how hard it is to coordinate schedules. We're seeing that a lot now. One of my little sisters will bring her boyfriend--think he will soon be her fiance. :)

[Mickey]

We usually spend Christmas in Pittsburgh with my family, but this year we'll be home. I'm having a big Christmas Party on Saturday, so that will be fun! We'll go to Mass Christmas Eve, have dinner at home and Christmas morning will be like Kathy's.

[Leigh]

Sonce this is the first year that we have been home married for Christmas it was kind of tricky, and I thought that I had it worked out, but now I am so confused.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the in laws, so we were going to eat Chrismas dinner with my parents. Well that was great.

Now inlaws want us to open presents on Cristmas Eve instead of Christmas, and my parents want us there on Christmas Eve because all of my dad's family is going to their house for a get together.

I guess it wasn't Christmas Day that I needed to worry about. It was Christmas Eve. LOL!!

I still don't know what to do. Any advice is appreciated.:\

[Diane]

We ALWAYS spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws... ALWAYS Christmas with my parents but one year my FIL made a big deal out of the fact that we NEVER spent Christmas day with them... Well, Christmas Eve was when all of their side of the family gathered. I told him that if he wanted us to be there Christmas Eve, we weren't going to be there Christmas day... he had to SHARE. (something that was not in his vocabulary... LOL) He couldn't expect me not to spend any time with my side of the family. I wasn't about ready to give up my celebration with my side no matter what... that's the one and only time in the year that ALL of my family gets together. Well... he told dh he wanted us BOTH day's and so we ignored him and did what we normally did. He got over it. LOL

Leigh, is there some way you can convince them to open gifts up on Christmas DAY? Either that or just let them know what time you're going to need to be at your parents house and let them work out a good time around that. You had plans... it's up to them to come up with a time that fits in to YOUR schedule. Good luck... I hope everything works out well and you can have a good time. :tree:

Diane... :xmas:

[AnnW]

Leigh, could you invite everyone to your home?

[Leigh]

Thank you Diane and Ann. I think what we are going to do is go to the in-laws and open presents. Then we are going to my parents, but we won't eat because they will have already ate, so we will just drop in to tell everyone hi!

I thought about inviting them all over here, but I am not sure how the families would blend.

The only other alternative is like Diane said, they will have to wait until Christmas Day. That was the original plan anyway.

[KarlaB]

Leigh - I hope you guys get it all figured out without hurting anyones feelings. It was difficult when dh and I were first married to figure it all out, too. Both of our parents are divorced, so we had 4 sets of people who all wanted us. :tearhair: Well, actually just 3. Dh's dad was always really good about telling us that the day we got together didn't matter, as long as we did get a Christmas together where we could all just relax and enjoy our time together...it didn't have to be on the 24th or 25th. Bless his heart - he saved us a lot of stress! Anyway, good luck! It's sometimes hard to please everyone!

[Leigh]

Originally posted by KarlaB
Leigh - I hope you guys get it all figured out without hurting anyones feelings. It was difficult when dh and I were first married to figure it all out, too. Both of our parents are divorced, so we had 4 sets of people who all wanted us. :tearhair: Well, actually just 3. Dh's dad was always really good about telling us that the day we got together didn't matter, as long as we did get a Christmas together where we could all just relax and enjoy our time together...it didn't have to be on the 24th or 25th. Bless his heart - he saved us a lot of stress! Anyway, good luck! It's sometimes hard to please everyone!

Thanks Karla. Now MIL has changed her mind and wants to do it Christmas Day. I think it will all work out.

Thanks again everyone for listening.

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by Leigh


Thanks Karla. Now MIL has changed her mind and wants to do it Christmas Day. I think it will all work out.

Thanks again everyone for listening.

So glad it all came together!!! :) Have a great Christmas!!! :xmas:

[Diane]

Originally posted by KarlaB


So glad it all came together!!! :) Have a great Christmas!!! :xmas:

I'm glad she changed her mind and that everything turned out okay. Hope you have fun!!!

Diane... :xmas:

[Leigh]

Thanks again ya'll. I know that seems like such a little thing, but with this being our first Christmas back, I really wanted it to be special, and I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I am so relieved that it all worked out. Thanks again for all of your support.