How do you and your husband or significant other work the holidays? We live in Chicago, and both of our families are in the suburbs, so we're constantly schlepping around from party to party. One year, I had Easter dinner THREE TIMES. I kid you not. For the past five years, we've just had such a hard time saying NO - so now that we've been married for a few months, we've decided to start our own traditions and spend certain holidays with certain families to ensure that everyone gets quality time with us:)
I look forward to the day when we have a house and can take over the responsibility of hosting our family parties, but until then, I've realized that the hubs and I are slowly creating our own daily traditions, such as:
* Morning coffee dates to Starbucks before we leave for work (A wonderful, albeit expensive, start to the day!)
* Snuggling up in bed to "The Daily Show" and "Chelsea Lately"
* Going for walks around our neighborhood and taking photos
* Ordering in on Friday nights and watching movies
What are some traditions that YOU'VE created with your significant other?
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24 comments:
You're lucky your families are close enough that you can at least attend more than one if you so choose.
Dustin's family is in the area but when I see my family for holidays we have to travel anywhere from 3 to 5 hours.
The only huge holidays we celebrate are Thanksgiving and Christmas. We basically alternate - one year we do Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with his and the next year we switch.
When we move, we decided that money will be tight so we will probably start our own traditions for those holidays and spend them alone. Which is sad but exciting all rolled into one.
Some other traditions? We regularly have movie marathon days, we having card or board game nights and our big summer traditions include Twins games and the drive in.
I love having married traditions!
we got married just 7 weeks ago and are traveling for the next year...so we get to start our own traditions with just us. I just posted about our first holiday together (easter) and our first tradition.
Both our families are spread out and we don't really feel tied to any one place...once we get back to the states we'll have to figure out where we'll do holidays.
My parents live on the west coast and I'm on the east and the rest are in Iowa. My husbands Aunts live about 45 minutes away and so does my sister so we go to them if we aren't doing our own thing.
We have also only been married a few months; we do a movie night once per week where he cooks and then we cuddle on the couch. We also try to do the grocery shopping together. We also have plans to go to the beach again this year. We are working on our traditions.
Those are such sweet traditions you've started already! Easter is easier now. My boyfriend and I have families on either ends of the states so we tend to do most of the holidays here with his family and then I have a "do over" with my father back East. I'm thankful for my boyfriend's large family - I always had such a small one.
I'm trying to think of a few traditions but the new one that sticks out to me currently is our Thursday wine night. We love watching the NBC line up each Thursday so I will cook something tasty and we will purchase an affordable bottle of wine that we have never tried before and sip on it while laughing to our favorite shows. It's been a great tradition so far.
I'm not married and we don't have much family. When I was younger, I have such wonderful vivid memories of our Easter traditions. However, since my grandparents died, nothing has been the same. I would love to share some traditions with my kids, but right now it's such a full time job just to keep up after them and the house for the minimal company we have, I don't feel like I am able to give them the great traditions and memories that I ahd as a child.
Your Easter sounded perfect :)
http://theartsymom.tk
Well, as I'm single now...I don't have any "current" traditions however, I was married once...and one tradition that I loved to do with my ex was sharing his coffee...the man made THE best coffee and he'd always say..."do you want coffee" and I'd say no, then I'd drink HIS coffee.....and he'd always say, "why don't you let me make enough so you can have a cup too?" and I'd say back to him "cuz i like yours!"...he's roll his eyes like I was an insane person....but he would ALWAYS share with me.
The other tradition I liked, was NOT going out for our anniversary...we'd always stay in, one time he cooked me a meal he thought was fit for a king (it was pork chops)...which to me wasn't exaclty THE most amazing dinner, but he hand picked me flowers to put on the table while we ate..and that was pretty darn special....
and then, our traditional...trip to Canada....with our boat. He'd fish and I would too, but mostly i laid in the sun on the front bow....reading a book, soaking up sun....and he'd talk to me and keep telling me I should watch my pole...and I'd tell him...watch YOUR OWN POLE! and we'd laugh, cuz i said "pole"...
ah, yes, traditions.....
I remember those....
~hl~
www.hoscorners.blogspot.com
Good question!! When we first started dating, we had a Thursday tradition of watching The Office, ordering pizza and drinking wine. We've gotten away from that some - now we go out for a bucket of Corona's and tasty tacos and then come home to watch The Office.
On Saturdays (if he doesn't have to work), I get up with our dogs, walk and feed them, then we all crawl back into bed together.
We also have our sweet little morning farewell ritual. It's nothing out of the ordinary, but it always get my day off to a great start.
kiwi and i are lucky enough to have both our families here in town... my family has come to love his mom and dad so much we usually just invite them to our big, noisy gatherings. it's great!
kiwi and i like to tivo jeopardy and then play against each another for points. we're ridiculously competitive.
I am lucky enough that we don't speak to my husband's family anymore! We spend all of our holidays with my family, and it's absolutely perfect!
WAH. sadly i am sans a significant other at this point in my life. HOPEFULLY THAT ENDS SOON. relatively soon. hopefully.
until then, i sure love me some tv! chelsea lately kills me!
Hello! I saw your blog from the comment left at Cougar Tales re my Anxiety Blog (I'm the SIL :))
My husband and I have a silly X-mas tradition where we decorate the tree and then do our own tree lighting ceremony - its kinda cheesy.
Check out my newest post http://write-outloud.blogspot.com regarding when the DH and I first met. Hope you'll follow! Cheers!
When we first got married, it was two of everything... his parents/my parents. Then we got the big house where everyone could come together which was great, but now that we've moved so far from our families we are learning our own traditions as well.
We have coffee with the Today Show every morning,we sit in the sun every afternoon when he comes home for lunch, and we spend every Sunday wandering around town or taking a little roadtrip. Good times :) Have a great weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
You guy look lovely in the pictures.Love 'em!!
I SO love traditions. I think my fav of ours is our Christmas eve tradition. We get out all our tacky goodness Christmas movies and watch them while we wrap presents. Love it.
This year we're thinking we need tacky goodness knitted Christmas jumpers to wear while we watch.
You're so smart to start some holiday traditions of your own so early in your marriage. The one piece of advice that I used to give younger women getting married was not to get tied into his family/her family too quickly. I had spent so much of my life running from one to the other and pretty much missing out on the holiday. A dear friend of mine was devastated when her grandchildren got old enough that her daughters wanted to stay home on holidays so that the kids could have their own traditions.
I think it's a matter of blending - some old and handed down and some new for each generation. Good luck with it!
I love that you have a coffee date in the morning before work! We've often thought of trying to do breakfast at our favorite local spot one day a week before work, but we've yet to get up early enough to make it happen ;)
We don't really have any traditions yet...the man works odd hours - and I work normal hours...so it has been hard coming up with any form of tradition.
WM
no questions here, but i wanted to say i love this blog, it's fantastic. I'm not married now but i have been and it's so interesting to see different point of views. especially from good marriages :)
keep it up!
Thanks for stopping by! I'm your newest follower:)
My Hubby and I have a tradition of putting the kids to bed early (b/c they are fairly young) and having a late dinner date at home. Just us. Even rearrange the furniture Theater style and proclaim Movie Night! You do what you have to!
We used to do the schlepping from house to house every single holiday. It was not fun!
love the concept of this blog! my hubby and i have been married about 6 months and are starting to establish traditions for holidays, etc. we watch "chelsea lately" in bed too! now following! :)
starting your own traditions is key. Good for you for implementing that now. We made some changes when MiniMac was born and we have families on opposite coasts. I simply will not spend all holiday season traveling to and fro.
WOOHOOO!!! super fun :)
Agreed--I think starting a new tradition is a great...tradition! :)
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