Holidays & Family: How to Handle It All

Here we are in mid-December and it’s impossible not to notice the winter holiday season. I only have 1 daughter coming home for 4 days. Others are more fortunate to have a lot of holiday company. Or are they?

I remember one set of grandparents proudly telling us about how all their kids and grandkids came home and stayed with them for Christmas, so they had over 20 people somehow crammed into a very modest home. These grandparents loved it! Later 1 of the grandkids was talking about the upcoming holidays and remarked, “We always have this big ordeal at Christmas.” She wasn’t excited about the usual family gathering but felt obligated to go because that’s just what that family did. What stood out for me was her use of the word ordeal for what her grandparents described as a wonderful family time.

We always spent part of Christmas day with my parents, but they lived only a few miles from us. My in-laws lived several states away and chose to spend their holidays with other family members, so we never had to solve the problem of needing some time to regroup and just be alone with or as ourselves. We never needed the tips in this article, but maybe you do. Let us know how they work for you.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/living/3-ways-to-emotionally-survive-the-holidays/index.html?c=&page=0