You all sound like you have got it worked out as far as family. Nice to look forward to a more relaxing holiday than it might have been otherwise. I love my family but I prefer to see them one sib at a time with their immediate family, than to get together as a group. There is too much tension in the group. For us I think it comes from the ages we were through my mother's illness and death, and the way that my father coped with it. We all did our best but the family took a lot of damage and the shadows of it still linger. We did so well through our father's death that I had hoped the healing from that would last longer. Some of it does, though.
Point being, my dh, son and I don't go to the big holiday gatherings as we want to enjoy our family, not be stressed out by them. All my bros go to their wives families on the actual holidays, too. It would be my sis and her family that would join with mine, and we are separated by too many miles to handle the drive with the rest of the country.
Maybe I will send her a web cam to mount on her computer so at Christmas we can at least visit webface-to-webface. I went to a party that had them set up so the relatives who couldn't make it could still be with us all - we are in Virginia they were in Maine. Has anyone tried that?
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