Education Uncensored

When I was young, my father, one of three children and myself, one of 5 grandchildren had a very set routine for holidays.  We were to show up at my grandparents on holidays, we were to arrive at 10:30 and food was served at 11 AM.  If you are late, then you are late and they start without you.

Then, after my father died, Ididn’t always go, it was hard.  I still did my best to make it and pretend to enjoy myself but it was hard.  Once the grandchildren started reproducing, the number of young children got out of control and we had to move our celebration to the Church Fellowship Hall, which also meant we had to start moving times because some of my cousin’s had other family obligations and then there were those who nurses and the such had to work on holidays.  That tradition was slowly turned into no tradition at all.

Now, as we are older, our children are older and we we’ve been forced to add in visitation with family in other states.  We alternate now an then this year is bringing even a stranger situation because my grandmother is aging quickly, my mother and my aunt have cancer and my aunt has had a hip replacement. 

But, we are setting new traditions and hopefully, they involve my mother, my grandmother, my in-laws and lots of family for years and years to come!

So, our tradition now is that we arise early, plan to be at Grammy’s by 11 so we get up early, get everyone dressed up nice and make our Christmas Card Photos.  Then, we arrive at my Grammys at 10:30 and help get things ready.  We eat and then we return to my mom’s to eat at about 2:30 and soon after that, we load up and head to the in-laws in another state, 4 hours away for dinner at 8 PM.  Yea, can you say, stuffed to the gills. 

And, while we are at my in-laws, I throw in a shopping trip at Target because we don’t have one of those near us.

Tell me about your traditions, how you handle all the stops that need to be made to make everyone happy, even if that happy person is not you.  And, go read about other traditions from other people by checking out  TwitterMom’s discussion about Traditions too.