First – I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas this past weekend!

My Christmas celebrations are still going on! Tonight Kyle and I are headed to his mom’s for (another) turkey dinner with his mom, her boyfriend, Kyle’s sister (I think), and his aunt and uncle. It’s always fun time with lots of laughter, so I’m looking forward to it! I’m also making a delicious spinach dip to devour share with everyone.

The thing is, while I love spending time with family during the holidays, by the end of it all, it’s too much and both Kyle and I are exhausted. Because both of our parents are split up, more often than not we end up having four Christmases, and sometimes they are just as traumatic as the movie.

Of course, we’re not exactly keen on flying to some tropical paradise every time Christmas rolls around, so we try and schedule everyone’s dinners on different nights so no one is left out. It’s hard. We said last year that it was going to be the last year of four Christmases, but this year, we have three of them. By tonight, I’m sure I’m going to slip into a coma.

This year, I swear, is the last year we’re going to everyone’s house for Christmas. This time next year, we’ll have a 6-month old (which is so surreal to say!) and I just don’t think I’ll feel up to packing up the kiddo and going out every night around Christmas. If people want to visit me and the baby, they can come to my house!

That being said – I still don’t know what we’ll do as far as creating our own traditions. We’ve yet to host a holiday dinner (I’ve never cooked anything bigger than a roast) and with  all the men in the family working shift work, it’s hard to coordinate everyone. (Kyle, my dad, my step-dad, and Kyle’s mom’s boyfriend all work at the same place but they’re all on different 4×4 shifts!) As of right now, Kyle works Christmas night, so it doesn’t look like Christmas dinner will be at our house next year anyway!

I think in a couple years we’ll start making our own traditions. The baby won’t be old enough to realize what’s going on next Christmas, and maybe in a couple years Kyle will be working on a different shift, or will have enough seniority to get Christmas Day off. We’ll see! I know it seems like such a long time into the future, but time only seems to go faster these days.

Questions:
Have you started any traditions with your significant other?
How do you find balance during the holidays?