One of the biggest adjustments for me in going from single to married was the change in Holiday Traditions. From when I was 5 until I was married at 23, every year except one followed the same pattern: Christmas Eve at my paternal grand parents place with the extended paternal family, and then Christmas morning at home with my step-father and mother (and later my sister) followed by spending the afternoon with either my mother's extended family or my step-father's extended family and the evening with the opposite (alternating every year). It was a busy 24 hours, but we got to see most everyone in our families and it was always a good time, with Boxing Day as a quiet recovery day.
Marriage changed all that. To start with, it added my wife's immediate and extended family into the mix. Secondly, she wasn't fond of the current hectic schedule (which I never thought of as hectic myself) because she was used to one family affair on Christmas day. To make matters even more complicated, just before we got married my wife's parents moved to Calgary for the next few years!
The first couple of years were difficult to adjust to for both of us. First year I put Kim through my usual pattern which she did not like, and then next year I flew out to Calgary with her for Christmas. I suffered from family withdrawal.
Kim's parents moved back to Ontario after a couple years and we tried alternating Christmas visits for a couple years, going to see my parents and whatever family they were with one year, and staying at Kim's parents place the next year. Fortunately, for the past few years Kim's extended family started having their get-together early in December removing that scheduling conflict. And I now visit my paternal family after the holidays in order to remove that issue. Finally, I visit with my step-father's extended family on my step-father's birthday on Dec 28th because they usually come to visit him and have a small party.
That just leaves Kim's parents and my parents and maternal family to visit in the 24th-25th window. For the past couple years Kim and I have hosted Christmas Eve and morning at our place since we now own a decent sized home for such and affair. It worked in 2003 with Kim's family, not so much recently with my parents. We'll try again next year as Kim and I slowly create our own traditions.
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