How Are You Managing the Holidays This Year?

We can totally handle three meals at three houses in one day, right?

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My husband, son, and I just moved across the country—from Oregon to Tennessee, our home region. For the first time since 2011 we’ll be way, way closer to family throughout the holiday season. I know a lot of people think “the holidays” and assume we’re talking about everything that happens between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, but I have to confess: I’m one of those obnoxious people that likes celebrating so much that I unofficially include every holiday starting with Halloween and ending with Valentine’s Day. I mean, it’s basically all one big bash celebrating candy, right? (I kid.)

Since we’re a lot closer to family, a lot of how we celebrate will be different. I mean, we’ll still watch Rocky on Thanksgiving (because I grew up doing that) and eat a lot of pie, but we’ll be doing that while surrounded by people we’re actually related to. This will be a big shift for us, especially since we spent last Thanksgiving morning at the Alzheimer’s home where my husband worked and then had a small meal at home that evening. We’re hosting Hanukkah celebrations at our home this year, and then we’ll be sending ourselves back down south to bounce to and from three homes to celebrate Christmas with most of the crew. We’ve already watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I have hung spider webs around the bushes in front of our house and we’ve been making ghosts from white coffee filters all day, and I’m sure at least one viewing of Hocus Pocus will go down before October is wrapped.

I’m sure there are a lot of considerations we’ll have to undertake quite soon—for example, our kid is going to celebrate Hanukkah at our house and Christmas at the homes of three sets of grandparents for the first time ever… which is probably going to mean he’ll hit maximum gift overload and we need to go ahead and start sorting out older stuff to donate, right? We also have to figure out what food to make and where to bring it, since each set of family we’ll be visiting have different traditions for each holiday (because of course they do). On top of that, we have work to consider, since my husband only has so many off days and I’ll be shooting weddings through December 21. Oh, life.

What do your holiday plans look like this year? Will it be your first married holidays together? Are you Celebrating any differently than you have in the past? Stressed? Excited?

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