Everyone has their own definition of what a successful holiday season is to them. I think this one for me certainly qualifies but it took planning immediately after the last one.
Last year we started telling everyone that the Christmas Family get together was going to be held at our house. We continued making these arrangements as we hit December this year and it worked out that, even for New Years Eve, relatives converged on my house and I didn't have to go anywhere.
I like going places, it just gets exponentially harder to manage young kids in an environment they're not used to and may not have any toys because no kids actually live there. Ever since shortly after I got married I've been trying to orchestrate the idea that "If you want to see me for Christmas, I'll be right here. Feel free to come on over."
Sure we played host to several social gatherings but for the most part we were able to set things up for the first party and then just leave the table & chair configuration, etc until the last event was done. This year, that's how I'm defining a successful holiday season. So I suppose next holiday season, I'll be more open to going to other people's homes to visit.
However, I've always tossed the idea around that one year I just want to do all the immediate family gift exchanges either before or after Christmas and just go out of town for the actual holiday. Not to visit someone or anything, just the opposite. Just spend some time with my wife & kids for Christmas without having to worry about going anywhere or seeing anyone else. Limited decorating, and the only thing we'd have scheduled is flight times.
Here's to 2009.
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