Knowing that tomorrow evening Ryan, Sadie and I will be off to my mother-in-law’s for a long holiday weekend has me feeling way too excited today. Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday of the year (Christmas is number one) and my mother-in-law’s Thanksgiving Day brunch in Sarasota is always filled with the best food and a lot of family fun.
This will actually be the first year that I don’t see my parents on Thanksgiving. My family and Ryan’s family used to live about 45 minutes apart when my parents lived in St. Pete so everyone would get together and we’d see both families. Now that my parents are living in Jacksonville, our families are four hours apart and my parents won’t be making the drive to Sarasota.
It will be strange not to have them there, but my sister and her boyfriend will be there to represent my side of the family. Leslie lives in St. Pete and has to work on Friday, so a four-hour drive to my parents’ place in Jacksonville twice in one day on Thanksgiving would be a little much. Leslie and her boyfriend are planning on staying at my mother-in-law’s with me and Ryan for the long weekend like they did last year and I can’t wait! We’re doing the Turkey Trot again but haven’t given our costumes too much thought just yet. Last minute planning!
Breakfast
Breakfast this morning began with a blueberry LUNA bar.
My stomach felt a little off yesterday and I awoke without much of an appetite, but about an hour later, I made myself a batch of steel cut oats with milk, banana, egg whites, vanilla protein powder and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Question of the Morning
- If you’re coupled up, how do you decide where to go for the holidays? Do you bring both sides of the family together? Alternate holidays between the families? Do your own thing?
For our first two years of marriage, Ryan and I were lucky enough to be able to bring our families together, so this holiday season will be quite different for us!
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Fortunately, the boyfriend and I are about 45 minutes away from my family and an hour an 15 away from his, so we’re usually able to squish everything together. 🙂
My husband’s family & my family are on the same rotation….one year it’s T-day with my family & then Christmas with his family. The next year it’s the opposite (T-day with his fam, Christmas with mine). It works because our siblings & their spouses are all on the same track too. We got VERY lucky! I have 9 siblings, so we HAD to instigate this rule right away, or else we’d all be all over the place! Luckily we love each other lots, so it’s no problemo.
We alternated Thanksgiving since our families are hours apart. It’s not something I care for, but it works!
For the past 12 years that we’ve been married we would go to my parents in the morning/afternoon and then stop by his sister’s in the evening. This year though since we now have a baby everybody is coming to our house. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet – trying to think happy thoughts about it.
AH splitting the holidays! When my (now husband) and I had been dating about 2 years, we started to alternate holidays/families. His dad’s in Jacksonville, mom’s in Pensacola, and my fam is here in Tampa! It was hard at first not seeing my parents on a big holiday, but I guess that’s part of being a “grown up” (whatever that is!)
I’ve decided when we have kids (yeeeears from now) I’d like to just do our own thing and people can come visit/stay with US for the holidays =)
The holidays are so hard when your married and some parents are divorced! Our holidays are spent running to all our family’s house and sometimes its so stressfull. Luckily, we’ve kind of figured out a system that works! We celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom on Friday and we spend Christmas with my dad the week after. Its fun that way because it stretched the holidays out!
My Thanksgiving is easy. Every year since I was 8 years old I go to the Detroit Lions Football game with my family. My boyfriend understands and I just met up with him at his mom’s on Friday.
Just read last year’s post regarding your turkey trot–as a former Sarasotan, I can attest that hill runs on the Ringling bridge are no joke (especially 6am runs!)
As for Thanksgiving and family, I have honestly never been that fond of Thanksgiving. This year we are spending it at our house with friends instead of family. Living away from both families for the last eight years has been tough, and we have to pick and choose which family to fly and see for which holiday, and though I love both of our families, holiday travel is exhausting (and expensive)! Sometimes it is just nice to curl up at your house with your pets and watch Home Alone on repeat on Christmas morning.
we still refer to that bridge as “mount sarasota!” 😀
Luckily my fiance’s family lives in Boston and we live in Colorado so we do holidays with my family here and go there for a week in the summer time. It works well for us and gives us an excuse for an extra vacation!
My fiance and I got engaged in August, and this has been the one sort of tricky thing we’ve run into. I’m SUPER close with my family, but they live 5 hours away. He’s only sort of close with his (except his sister, who is our next-door neighbor!) and they live close by. Last year, before we were engaged, I dragged him with me for both holidays, but this year I decided that we should split it up. The problem is that my family has a huge family dinner and the ENTIRE family is invited. His family doesn’t do much of anything at all. So, while I did want to split up the holidays, I felt like I was going to miss the big family dinner. I solved it by offering to host Thanksgiving Dinner at our place! It will be my first Thanksgiving dinner that I cook. I think I’ll miss my family, but I’m also excited to start a new tradition with my own (new) family!
Since my husband and I are high school sweethearts, both of our families live in the same town. Even though we haven’t lived in that state for 15 years, we have always made it back for Thanksgiving…until this year! My husband’s job is keeping us from traveling this year, so it will just be our little family of four. I have never cooked a turkey, which is crazy, I know! I am sad to not be seeing family, but a little excited to tackle this thing on my own. I feel like it is a challenge. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving! 🙂
I made myself a similar steel cut oats bowl a couple of days ago–delicious!
My boyfriend of 2 1/2 years and I live in KC, which is exactly 4 hours from my family in NE and 4 hours from his family in IA. Last year with Nebraska joining the Big 10, the Nebraska/Iowa “Heros” football game always lands on the Friday after Thanksgiving. With both our families being huge football fans this makes things a lot easier on trying to decide where to go. Our families will join together for dinner on Thursday night and then head to the football game on Friday. We’re so lucky for this to have worked out and for our families to get along so well. I think the hardest thing about being in a relationship over the holidays is sacrificing old traditions for new ones. Although I do miss being home, it’s so nice to create new memories and traditions!
My husband and I have handled the holidays differently each of the four years we have been married. My parents have come to D.C. for one Thanksgiving and one Christmas. We went to his parents for a Thanksgiving and to my parents for a Christmas. The other holidays we have done on our own. This year we are traveling to his hometown for Thanksgiving and mine for Christmas. I prefer to travel for just one holidays seeing as a trip to either requires both plane and car trips.
I wish that we could bring both families together — maybe eventually we’ll be able to do that! We’re going to go to my husband’s family’s for lunch, and mine for dinner. It’s going to be a long day, but our parents only live 5 minutes apart, so I feel like it makes sense to see everybody!
can’t wait to see this year’s turkey trot costumes! 🙂
Oh the holidays and figuring out where to spend them… My husband and I live close to my dad, but we literally have family all over the U.S. and the world. So, that makes it very complicated to spend holidays with family other than my dad. It’s so expensive to travel during the holiday season that we frequently opt to visit and spend time with family during the off-season instead. Sometimes we even spend holidays with just friends or we opt to take a vacation ourselves if we find a good deal. It really depends. Traditions are great, but it’s also kind of fun to switch it up every year :).
My sister and I are going to be running the Sarasota Turkey Trot too!! We’re still working on our turkey costumes as well 🙂 Good luck!
yay!! good luck to you both!
Not married either, but been together for about 4 years now so deciding where to go basically seems like we are married! We spend Thanksgiving with his parents and his family in PA and then we spend Christmas with my family generally. However, this year is a bit different as my sister just had a baby and she lives in West Palm, Florida so it’s just me going down for 10 days to Florida to be with my family this year. Unfortunately, working for the Red Sox does not allow for as much vacation time as working for a non-profit! I am very sad that I have to spend 10 days away, and this will be a first! But I get to see a brand new baby! 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving Julie!
I always feel bad, but my husband and I always spend the holidays with my family. My husband is one of four, but his family is all over the place, so his parents usually leave to spend it with the grandkids. I’m the lonely only, so it was natural to just go with my parents. 🙂 Luckily, our families get along well, so sometimes it’s just one big party!!
we do thanksgiving lunch with my in-laws and their extended family, and then dinner with my family! it’s A LOT of eating to do on thanksgiving!
Reading all the comments have made me feel better about our arrangement! Dating for 7 years and we still spend Thanksgiving and Christmas apart. Boyfriend drives up the day after Christmas and spends a few days with us after. His family is local so we spend minor holidays with them. My family is 6 hours away so we spend 2-3 weekends during the year with them and the time after Christmas. It works for us even though I do get sad we’re not together for 2 important dinners.
You raise some good points about navigating the holidays once you’re married. I know that can be such a source of tension for couples who don’t figure it out early on. For my husband and I, we decided to spend all the holidays with his side of the family as my parents are divorced and family is all spread out. My family was never big into the holidays or anything, so that makes it really easy. Our first Christmas, we decided to spend with just the two of us because we didn’t actually have vacation time to take a trip. I think you also just have to go with the flow. Each year will bring changes to family, so you just have to plan accordingly.
Ugh, deciding what we are going to do is so stressful. My boyfriend and I have been together for 2.5 years, and although we don’t live together at the moment, we still like to see each other on the holiday. But he is from 1.5 hrs away from my family, and I probably will have to work on both Thanksgiving and Christmas for a just a few hours. So this Thanksgiving, he is eating at home and coming to mine for dessert.
A few days before Christmas, we are having our own morning opening presents at his apartment. Then on the holiday, I plan on spending time with my family until 6 or so and then heading to his house.
It all works out, but I always feel like I’m upsetting someone haha.
I know the feeling! I always feel like I’m upsetting someone too. It’s so hard to balance!
That’s great you were able to get everyone together the first few years! My sister and brother-in-law are always all over the place trying to see everyone. With my boyfriend and I, his family is about 5 hours north of mine, so it’s going to be a bit tricky in the future. Guess you just have to make whatever work!
While its not ideal, we usually split up for the holidays. We live on the West Coast and both of our families are on the East Coast, about 2 hours away from each other. So Thanksgiving, we do our own thing and stay in CA and for Christmas, we split the day with his family and mine, and then Christmas day, we spend it with our respective family. I’m guessing this will change once we have children. Oh gosh, then it will be even more complicated! Guess it’ll be time to start our own family traditions then 🙂
My boyfriend’s parents live back in Chicago. Thankfully, mine live here so we are doing Thanksgiving with them. His parents flew down just to cook him Thanksgiving dinner, so sweet.
I haven’t spent Thanksgiving with my family in like 5 years. For awhile, we did Thanksgiving with Chris’ family and Christmas with mine. Now that we live on the other side of the country, we are doing our own in Georgia. It is hard not seeing my family on holidays but I have to remember sometimes that I have my own family now. One day we will be back in Arizona!
I live halfway across the country from my family, but luckily my boyfriend’s family lives just two hours from us. I feel so grateful I get to spend Thanksgiving with them! Then I’ll be heading home to spend Christmas with my own family. I can’t wait to see them! Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving — that’s so great your sister will be there!
Holidays for us is always hard, but thankfully we have very understanding families. My husband and I both have jobs where we have to occasionally work on the holidays, this year we both have to work on Thanksgiving, and my parents are divorced. Our families are really good about celebrating on different days if needed just as long as the family gets together for a day. This year my mom did a Sunday brunch with all of us and we are celebrating with his family on Friday and we will go see my grandparents from my dad’s side on Saturday!
love the tangerine orange compression socks!
Normally we just go to a friends but this year Jim is with his family 5 hours away but the poodle and I are at home
It’s hard enough to manage my own family without also including my boyfriend’s! My mom lives about a three hour drive away and my dad is a full day of air travel from where I am, so I already have to alternate holidays with them. The boyfriend’s parents do live locally, but I’m not willing to stay here when I’ve got my family so close-by as well (close is a relative term in Canada. You can drive there in under a day? That’s close!). I think when/if we’re married, I’ll think about combining or alternating, but I know he’s just as set in his ways about spending the holidays with his own family.
Oh I am so relieved to read this & see that so many other couples are in the same boat! My bf & I have been together for 4 & a half years & we haven’t celebrated a holiday together yet. I live 2 hrs away from my parents & he lives an hr away from his, so we both end up going to our own family’s houses (which, are 2.5 hours away from each other). We’ve talked about somehow doing both families in one day, but decided it isn’t worth the 2.5 hours in the car, when that could be quality time spent with our families (& we do enough driving as it is on the weekends–we live an hr & a half away from each other as it is, so we’re ALWAYS driving on the weekends!) We figure we can get away w/ this for at least another year or two until we’re engaged 🙂 Christmas is the only one we really try to replicate–he usually comes into town for New Year’s & we usually exchange gifts then. Last year we did “Christmas morning” w/ his family the week before, this year we’re going to do the same thing & exchange gifts the Saturday before & then invite both of our parents in for lunch & more gift exchanging. The tricky thing will be though figuring out what to do in the future: He has a big, close, Italian family & my family is rather small–I would feel awful if he were to miss his family’s holidays b/c we don’t do too much, but I would also feel guilty skipping out on my family’s holidays & going to his instead. We shall see!
We live in Los Angeles, my family lives in Seattle, and my husband’s family lives in Hilton Head, SC…so holidays are a challenge! Luckily our families are pretty flexible and we often celebrate holidays a few weeks before or after the real ones, so we can maximize time with everyone. It’s definitely tricky – especially after having a baby – so I highly recommend remaining close to at least one side of the family!