Delusional???
Family events are chaotic when it comes to my sister and brother-in-law’s attendance. All families from both sides live in the same state, in neighboring cities in fact, we’re not very far apart…Mark and Tiffany make it a point to be at both family’s homes for each holiday (and sometimes more than that because parents are divorced and siblings are involved). The way I see what they do is this: leave early from one house to show up late at the next (I’m sure that’s appreciated *said with sarcasm if you didn’t catch it*). I don’t think that’s cool, besides that, it’s just a major pain in the rear, it seriously causes my family heart burn. I have a theory, and I don’t see the problem with it, but she thinks I’m delusional because of what I think…
So, here we go:
It seems to me that this is the way holiday’s should work (with the exception of Mother’s and Father’s Day, which I haven’t quite worked out yet *shrugs*). Every other holiday get’s alternated between families every other year. Whichever family get’s Christmas and Easter in one year, get’s Thanksgiving the next and vice versa. With the exception that if the families actually get along and we have holiday’s together (my understanding is that the chances of that happening are very slim). Now, there are details that this theory doesn’t take into consideration, details such as what if we don’t live in the same state as the families or one of the families doesn’t live in the same state as us (because if that’s the case, traveling can become an issue, which can fabricate other issues in and of itself very quickly).
That’s the theory I gave to my sister, minus the issues that could be involved and she told me that I had a lot of guts thinking that my husband, whom I haven’t even met yet, is going to agree with that theory. At which point I told her that my husband would be like minded on this issue because anything else is completely and udderly insane. At which point I got told that I’m delusional.
I wouldn’t call me delusional, I would call me logical, rational, of a sane mind.
Nothing wrong with that, figuring out those family gatherings gets out of hand sometimes.
A lot of families that I know have schedules similar to what you have suggested. My cousin takes it to the extreme, however. My cousin lives in Arizona. Her husband’s family lives in Utah, her family lives in Ohio. Obviously, they can’t spend Christmas day at both houses - or even “half” of the day at each house. So they alternate from year to year. Well, sometimes, the family that lives in Ohio, comes to Utah to visit other family members. They don’t expect my cousin to spend the holiday with them as they respect her “rules” - but my cousin takes it to the extreme and refuses to visit the “ohio family who is in Utah” while she is visiting “the husband’s family” — and we’re not talking about ON the holiday either (both families would be less than 45-minute travel-time apart). We’re talking the ENTIRE visit.
I guess her dedication is admirable, but I’m j ust thinking “couldn’t you share the love? Just a little bit? Like 3-days after Christmas?”
Crazy.