My boys are officially on Christmas break now, so we’re launching our two weeks of togetherness. We’re staying close to home this year, just enjoying the holiday with our immediate family.
What do you do during the holiday break? Do you travel? Vacation? Stay home? In general, what will your plans be over the next few weeks?
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I’m curious to hear everyone’s holiday plans!
We stay close to home for Christmas. We spend the Saturday before Christmas with my parents, my sister and her family who are 10 minutes away. Then we spend Christmas Eve with my husbands extended family which is usually within a 30 minute drive from us. Then Christmas day we spend with my mother-in-law and my husband siblings and their families which rotates between our house and my mother-in-laws. Right around new years we typically travel to Palm Springs, CA for a mixture of business and pleasure.
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We normally travel to see family.
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We always stay home and everyone comes to us. That was just our decision once we had our first child 12 years ago. We're in California now so our family has to travel quite a ways, but they're quite willing to do it for the weather (and us). 🙂 My parents and sister are coming this year. I will miss having my husband's parents with us as they were only an hour away when we lived in MN. Our kids love to wake up at their own home on Christmas morning.
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Luckily most of our family is in the area so we stay home and celebrate multiple times with them! Being home for Christmas with our little girls is the best!
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We travel but only locally. Open gifts at home, brunch with in-laws (and more gifts), afternoon with my parents. As much as I love family, we are tired at the end of the day and glad to stay home, relax and play on the 26th.
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We normally stay at home. We have a special needs child who requires 24 hour nursing, so leaving home is just too much work. We prefer to stay home and play lots of games and do puzzles!
Deb
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We stay hom on Christmas Eve and then travel to my parents on Christmas day usually. They live 2 hours away….so we usually travel.
We get to enjoy Christmas at home, just the four of us. Most of our family live out of state so we spend time visiting on the phone or on the computer via webcam. We plan to get together with my husband's brother and his family (they are the closest family members yet live 2 hours away) during the weekend following Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all!
Julie
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It's always different for us… Last year we had my whole family here for 4 days over Christmas. That was 19 people here and a whole lot of fun (and exhaustion after they all left!). This year we'll be home Christmas morning and for brunch, and then we take a ferry and drive about an hour to some cabins that we've rented with my husband's family for a few days of fun and rest (hopefully).
Our families both live in the same small town about 5 hours away, so we travel to see them. Our siblings come home also, so for some this is the only time we see them all year. It is an adventure to travel with our two very young children, but it is worth it to see our family (though we lose a lot of sleep, LOL). But it is important to me to have our own traditions as an immediate family too,so we will celebrate together (probably when we get home and it is less hectic). We are still trying to figure out our traditions, but I trust they will continue to develop over time :).
Rachel
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This is our families 2nd Christmas in Williamsburg Virginia, sent here last year from California to serve the Lord. So we are developing new traditions, being that all of our families are back in Cali and so we now Spend Christmas Eve baking and decorating Christmas cookies and then Christmas day we spend the morning with our kids opening gifts and just lovin eachother and then we will open up our home to others in our church who don't have any family here to join us for a Christmas Dinner! We did this for Easter and it was a huge blessing and God reminds us how great Family of Christ is! 2 Tradtions we will carry on here in Virginia is one from my childhood of having to have a glass of Orange Juice before opening any presents and having a Happy Birthday Jesus cake after dinner!
Heidi Barrera
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Well, for the first time in our married life (which has only been 3 1/2 years) we have Christmas morning to ourselves! We are staying home with just my husband, I, and our two little girls. After lunch we'll leave to travel up north to chicagoland for the weekend with family. But, we are very excited to just be our nuclear family on Jesus' special day. 🙂
Veronica H.
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Our plans depend on what the rest of the family is doing. Some years we are at home with all of our family here and sometimes we have to travel to be with them. This year, we are headed to Texas to be with my sister and her family while my parents are with my other sister. It's rare for all of us to be together anymore. We all live too far apart.
Becki L.
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We never travel for Christmas, which I LOVE! My in-laws live four minutes away, and my parents are about seven minutes, so everyone is nearby. My kids and husband are also home from their activities for TWO WEEKS and I'm so excited to just stay home watching movies, playing in snow, playing games, eating, visiting. Ahh. So relaxing and fun!!
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