The holidays are upon us, as witnessed in the store this weekend. There was 50% off Halloween candy displays in front of employees filling racks with ornaments, Santa Claus decorations, and cards.
This time of year gets really busy for us. Unfortunately with us living so far away, and with schedules the only guaranteed family time is around the holidays. Last year, we kind of started a tradition that is holding true again this year. Will it be like this every year? Who knows, but the important part is that we are all together.
This will be the second year Matt has taken the entire week of Thanksgiving off. This allows us to divide our time between his family and mine.
Starting the Thursday or Friday before Thanksgiving - Brandon (Matt's brother), Michelle (Brandon's wife), Larry (Matt's dad), and Barb (Matt's mom) will be traveling to our house. For about 5 days they entire family piles into our house. We did this last year and it worked surprisingly well. It took some rearranging and weird shower times, but we managed it. While they are here we have the "Raper Family" Thanksgiving. It doesn't matter to any of us that it is almost a week early, it just matters that we are together and that there is good food.
Wednesday before Thanksgiving, after everyone leaves we head to Illinois for some family time there. Dinner with my grandma, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, etc. My dad has also taken to getting the tree while everyone is home, because it just isn't the same decorating it by himself apparently. We then head back home on Sunday, completely exhausted but amazed at a great week.
Juggling both families isn't really difficult, but it does make the Thanksgiving holiday a little nuts. We have tried to keep Christmas a little more low key, which has been successful for the most part.
There is two weeks until the craziness begins, and we are trying to do things a little differently this year. I'm attempting to make some foods ahead of time, and also get some prep work for the Thanksgiving dinner out of the way early. This will leave more family time, and hopefully help with dish pile ups. (We don't have a dishwasher in this old rental). In the process of prepping for Thanksgiving we are also starting to rearrange some furniture to get things ready for Christmas decorations, and the tree. I figured getting the house ready all at once, will allow Matt and I some relaxation time, instead of worrying about getting stuff ready for Christmas. However, this means that the house looks like a tornado hit it. It seems to always look worse before getting better. I hope this holds true.
I really can't believe it's that time of year again!
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