ah the holidays... we just returned home from thanksgiving last night. our typical 5 hour drive to atlanta took 7 and a half thanks to traffic and shitty weather. our 7 month old had some major meltdowns which then caused our 90 lb lab to lick his butt in the backseat out of nervousness thus smelling up our car and making the drive that much more enjoyable. but back to the holidays... my husband and i met in highschool and (gag) have been together ever since. :)~ both of our families are in atlanta which has always made the holidays difficult because come october, the awkward, "which house are we staying at for which holiday" conversation has to take place. now that we have a baby, it's unbelievably hard. this being our first holiday experience with jackson gives us a lovely learning curve, and we are now figuring out where our new boundaries with families and in-laws will stand for next year. :) and as for next year... you want us, you come to us!

I should probably feel more guilty about this but I WISH I lived out of town so I didn't have to visit everyone on all sides of both of our families for the holidays (the only ones who don't live here drove in). When we lived out of town we had the best, most stress free, most experimental menus ever. And now especially while we're dealing with the sample medications, I'm even more nervous. I don't want him (my sad other) to be uncomfortable but I don't want him to be alone either, and I certainly can't not go myself else they'll think something's wrong with me. Ugh. I hate the holidays.

I lived in the lower 48 for a long time and only had to deal with minimal family issues regarding traveling because flying us and the kids to AK is unGodly expensive and would have been cheaper to fly to Rome! Now that I'm back in AK, where numbers and poverty abound (as referenced in the blog), everybody wants to come to my house because...."You have a bigger house, your house is cleaner, you're a better cook," and my favorite is: "You LIKE to cook and clean!" Uh-huh. Right. Three years ago I boycotted big family Thanksgiving. It was exactly one hour after everybody left my house, taking all of the food "I" purchased home with them in doggie-bags, leaving no leftovers for us along with ALL the clean-up. Ungrateful pieces of... I digress. SO, it was that very day that I decided NO MORE! I have 4 damn kids and 1 damn husband and that's quite enough thank you! We instituted a new rule: Nobody in our house is allowed to be dressed in anything but pajamas all day on Thanksgiving and we are only cooking what WE like for OUR family! I unapologetically told everybody that if they want to come over, fine, but if they're not in pajamas bringing their own damn dinner, they won't be let in! Guess what?!? They're okay with it, I'm okay with it... and while they'd still rather be at my house watching me cook and clean while they nap on MY couch, instead they are enjoying their own families in their own little houses, as it should be. Me? A Rebel? Nah.... hehehe!

*lol* You gals are so comical! I’ve been lucky, when we lived out of state it was always 6-10 hr drive away. I avoided planes at much as I could when the girls were little. Now the flip side to that was we were expected to be at everyone’s table my parents, his mom and then his dad. OMG! Now we live 2 hrs from his mom and my parents moved to us. I’m older and wiser and have Thanksgiving at my house. I do a mass email to everyone, here’s the menu and time. Come don’t’ come, whatever. I don’t have to go freaking anywhere and the girls like being able to escape to their own rooms for a moment of silence. Before becoming a mom I never noticed how stressful holidays can be for kids. Everyone is in their face. For me to avoid holiday stress I schedule. I have a holiday schedule that I made up a few years ago it starts November 1 and goes through January 2. It’s just my basic layout of what I want to get done. I adjust as need since every year is different. This year will be more hectic with my husband coming home December 10th ish. I also give the girls special jobs, like the year I let our youngest (she was 5) use my digital camera to take the holiday photos. Who isn’t going to pose for the cute 5 yr old and she thought she was big stuff. She had fun I got my family pictures. I can honestly say I love the holidays!

I hate to admit that every time someone questions how to deal with family issues, I suggest alcohol. But that's just how I roll, and it works for me! I will be spending this Thanksgiving with my in-laws and my EXTREMELY Southern proper mother-in-law. When my MIL removes the Butterball turkey from the brown paper bag she baked it in and exclaims, "Scandalous, isn't my turkey just as good and juicy as the free range turkey you stuffed with herbs and basted meticulously for hours to create that perfect golden brown skin last year?", I will easily be able to smile sweetly because I have been spiking my egg nog with a southern heaping of rum all day! And when my husband leaves me the ENTIRE next day to play golf with his dad, I'll suggest we both get a little crazy and drink some beers. Out of her Waterford, of course...

ogod thank you for this, I thought I was the only one struggling like this. We chose not to fly home for holidays this year with our son who is just turning 6 months, both to save money and to shield him from what my husband calls the "unwashed masses". Yeah, how about we spend $2000 we don't have to get our kid sick? Sounds good! Anyway, we're really catching hell for it, especially from my mom who otherwise has major mental issues, and I knew she'd be hurt but boy oh boy, she gets guilt tripper of the year.