First grandchild and navigating Christmas...

[Kazzo]

he's a chef.

That would be enough to say lucky for me I always said I wanted to marry a chef when I was growing up and silly me fell for a guy who has trouble masterung the toaster. But I do love him

[beansbeans!]

That would be enough to say lucky for me I always said I wanted to marry a chef when I was growing up and silly me fell for a guy who has trouble masterung the toaster. But I do love him

I must its good (at times). Over the years he seems to think I have forgotten how to master the toaster! Im not allowed in the kitchen at all when he's home! I often wonder what he thinks happens at home for lunch and dinner five nights of the week. I mean the girls are growing, they are happy and healthy, and I havent burnt the kitchen down yet! Although I did cut my figer open on the sour cream tub the other night.

[shan23]

DP only gets christmas day off (he's a chef also lol, and this is the first place he has worked that closes on christmas day! he's boss says thats family time, awesome guy!), so we are spending our first christmas as a family at home & making everyone come to us lol. Our parents are only an hour away though, and its easier for them to come to us than us drag DS around to two places in one day. (he is the only grandchild on both sides). So my mum for lunch, IL's & DP's grandparents for dinner. Boxing day my side of the family has a big get together so DS & I will be going to that as well.
Its going to be a bit costly & have us running around cooking for two big meals, but I am actually excited for it. We get great food (thanks DP!), great company & DS gets to stay at home where he is familiar & have his naps in his own bed.

Oh yeah, forgot about my dad & his partner. They suck and are spending christmas with her oldest DD as she said she wants christmas at their house ... in QLD. And as my dad puts them before his other 3 children (my siblings & I), and now his grandson , we get pushed to the side. I am mighty p'o to say the least that he will miss DS's first christmas. Told him that too, and that he had better be around for his 1st birthday. But I digress lol. We will have a rocking christmas day and he will miss out on our awesome fun!

[Cranky Kitten]

Heh, mine can cook alright, just has trouble distinguishing appropriate quantities - he trained under a navy chef and grew accustomed to cooking for 20-30 per meal, not 2. Good thing we have a decent sized freezer...

[Cally]

My family all live 2.5 hours drive away and DH and I made it very clear before we were married that we would not travel on Christmas day. We alternate between my family and when it is IL's turn, my sister's are all at their inlaws so we end up with my whole family together every couple of years.

When it is an IL Christmas, we wake up in our house, go to church (although hoping to find a Christmas Eve service this year), come back for pressies, then head off to the IL's for lunch (they're only 20 minutes away). Come back late afternoon and then I worry about what to have for dinner because Christmas lunch at MIL is not a big feast so we always need dinner. Then we head up to my family a few days later and tend to have a big dinner there on New Years Day.

When it is my families turn, we are up there a couple of days before Christmas and the process is very similar, except no travelling because we are staying with M&D.

DD's first Christmas was with the IL's which my mum was a bit upset about, but frankly a 3 month old is pretty boring at Christmas time, it was much better the next year when there was also a 9 month old in the family.

[zilly]

We do DH family on Christmas day and My family on Boxing day. Works great ATM. We always did boxing day for my family because when my brother and myself were young everyone thought it would be nice to get to enjoy the presents we just opened instead of sitting in a car and going here there and everywhere. Then my Aunty had kids and the same was done for them.

This is what we currently do. Which works well as my Brother can spend time with his kids on the christmas day, while we get the benefits of DH's family and Santa. Then boxing day we have Christmas at my parents. My parents couldn't care less when Christmas was celebrated, as long as all the family come home at some point at the same time. With DH's family the traditions are a lot more ingrained. Not sure what we will do when this baby (still gotta be born yet :-p) gets big enough to understand... probably the same as now

[gypsy79]

Having spent a few years when I was a young child living 4 hours away from family, I thought I'd start from that perspective. We used to drive to Melb and stay with my Dad's parents on Christmas Eve (his family has always done a big Christmas Eve thing, so this was a chance to play with cousins, etc). Mum & Dad would bring most presents with them. I remember one year we got a swing set and we were just told there was something waiting at home that was too big for Santa to bring to Nanna & Grandad's. I odn;t remember asking any more questions. Christmas Day was always spent with Mum's family.

Now, we still do Dad's family on Christmas Eve and then we all stay at Mum & Dad's and do presents there in the morning. This may start getting harder as there are now 4 children + 3 partners + 4 grandchildren and there is bound to be more grandchildren soon. But, we all love Christmas and have always made a big deal about it and noboday wants to stop. The rest of Christmas Day we either have lunch at my parents and see the in laws for dinner of lunch with the in laws and go home for dinner.

So for me it's always been about extended family as much as the 'core' family and we (at this stage) are keeping up that tradition.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Given that Niece was born Christmas day (DH's side) and DH's parents won't celebrate Christmas any day other than Christmas day, this has been our routine for the last few years.

Christmas Eve - Church
Christmas Day - morning to ourselves, MiL's for lunch, then gifts, then SiL's for Niece's birthday, drive 400km-ish to my parents' home
1am Boxing day - arrive my parents, Mum gets Liebling hyped up.
3am Boxing day - finally get to bed.
Boxing day proper - Sis and BiL come round, presents (which Liebs refuses to open as he hates the whole "open presents then get taken away from toys" charade), big lunch

This year we're moving and I've put my foot down. Liebs can't cope with this type of Christmas, hasn't done for a little while now.

Christmas Eve - Church and pudding preparation
Christmas Day - Gifts, ILs round, lunch, gifts, Niece's birthday party... HOME AGAIN! (Liebs should go to sleep in the car on the way home.)
Boxing Day - My parents, Sis and BiL arrive. Gifts. Lunch. Playing. Relaxing.
Next few days - Enjoying time with my family staying, DH not getting antsy that we're sat around doing nothing while we have jobs at home that need doing.

Next year it can be manic again - SiL's Christmas day, then the drive to my parents' for Boxing day. But this year, no. And every second year, no.

Of course, if there's something like a family event just before Christmas, we do pre-Christmas with my parents, Christmas with them, New Year with ILs who don't turn up nor celebrate New Year - so that's fun. Seriously, they won't come to a Christmas meal any day but Christmas Day, which makes it hard.

[BeautifulMadness]

My IL's live interstate, and i think itd be nice for my kids to spend an xmas with them.

They are family aswell....so maybe next year we might do it....ill have a 6 yr old a 3 and half yr old and 1 yr old...that'll be fun flying lol


and hopfully one day i can have xmas @ my own house lol

[AngelPants]

We do one year with my extended family interstate, one at home (which means ILs and my mum if she's in town).

My dad lives interstate so either he or we travel for New year or just after, every year cos we don't see them too much through the rest of the year.


Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[berrme]

I guess I am lucky that we don't have conflict on either side and both lots of grandparents get along. Both my parents and ILs are in Cairns so every year we trek up there with all the presents and trek home again after xmas. We make a lot more money than either family so it has just made sense to go to them rather than make them all come down and pay for accommodation and flights. The last couple of years we have done a xmas eve present opening and dinner with my parents and xmas lunch and presents with the ILs on xmas day. All the presents at once was just too much for the kids.
I am pretty over it though and want to do our own thing. I had said that xmas was to be in Brisbane this year, but we haven't managed to find our bigger house yet and it just isn't managable. So we are off again, this time with 3 kids. But this time we are renting a beautiful big house with a pool at palm cove and we are putting on xmas lunch for both families there. Hopefully all the relos will actually listen and not get lots of difficult to transport presents.

Next year it will be in Brisbane in my own home!!!

Anyway, I guess my opinion is that xmas is about family. The kids LOVE having their grandparents around at this point in time, so I figure I can get over my desire to just be at home and have that bit of time to ourselves. We will get xmases like that, just not yet, and it isn't the end of the world. Sometimes we just have to compromise.