I can understand your feelings because I am going through a similiar situation. However, mine is much less because we all live in driving distance of each other, so even though I have to leave my dogs at home, it will only be for a few hours vs several days.
My family is very small: me, my father who is 84 and has deminia, and my 2 adult children. My son is in the Army and is being sent to Iraq on Jan 4th, so we do not even know if he is coming home for Christmas. That leaves me, my 84 year old and very cranky father and my daughter. My daughter's finance, who I absolutely adore, comes from a very big family. He is the baby of 6 children and all his siblings have spouses and children, so when the immediate family gets together it is quite a group.
I always have a party for family and friends on Christmas Eve. My future son-in-laws family does not do anything for Christmas Eve--so no problem my daughter and her finance are coming to my house. Christmas morning they (daughter and finance) will be making the round of visits to family/firend's homes to exchange gifts--my house included.
Now the problem is Christmas dinner. My daughter's future mother-in-law always cooks Christmas dinner for her family. My father, myself, and my son (if he is home) are all invited for Christmas dinner. Which is fine with me and very appreciated, however my father and my son (if he comes home) do not want to go there. Also my dogs are not invited even though one of my daughter's future sister-in-law (Jen) will have her dog with her. I can understand why Jen's dog has preference since he has been coming to family affairs for years, while my babies are new comers. But what I do not understand is all the dogs (mine and Jens) get along great and Jen even babysits my dogs when I go away!!! I have accepted that maybe they (future MIL & FIL) do not want extra animals with all the adults and kids there.
But my problem is where do I go to make everyone happy? I have decided to cook at home and have my father and hopefully my son for Christmas dinner, with my precious furbabies. Then I will leave the babies home with my father and son and go to my future son-in-laws' Moms for dessert and coffee.
The holidays do get tough once the kids grow up and merge with the in law families--that is for sure.
Good luck and happy, happy holidays!!! |