Yay, I remember!
How to knit! Ha!
After two+ months off, I finally picked knitting back up! And I remembered everything, yay! And knitting is just as relaxing as it was before. Ahhhhhhh.
I’m knitting something for a family member I’ll see when we do my family’s Christmas celebration in mid-January. Technically… this means I DID make a homemade gift for Christmas 2015… even though I am making it in 2016! Right? Right?!?! Ha.
A few people asked me why we aren’t seeing my family until January to celebrate Christmas. Well, geography. And sanity. Most of my family lives in Iowa. Steven’s lives in Missouri. While we could do one big week-long celebration to see everyone (and we have, from time to time), we prefer to spread it out. It’s less stressful that way (hence, the sanity mention above), we don’t have to take huge chunks of time off work (keep in mind Steven runs a retail business that is HELLA busy in December), we get to see family in January and… we get to buy (make?) presents for people after the holiday!
So we* rotate each year. Surely… other people must do this as well? I think of it as fair, to switch who we spend Christmas with each year, but the way some people react… well, they thought the fact that I wasn’t seeing my family meant something was wrong. Nope! That’s just how Steven and I do it!
*Just Steven and I rotate – our families still get together for the holidays even though we aren’t there, ha ha.
Themocracy
My family celebrates Christmas at all different times of year. My brother is usually working and I’m usually here, and we rarely all even get together to celebrate. We used to do it each year in October while my brother was visiting the midwest for a conference, and now we just kind of fit it in whenever we can. Personally, I like to spread it out too! And I especially like the idea of having something to look forward to after Christmas, since that time of year can be a bummer for a lot of people.
That’s cool that you guys do what works for you and that everyone is flexible about it 🙂 That’s just what happens when people spread out!
I like extending the festivities in to January 🙂 Because, yeah, having that crazy fun last week of the year can make the start of the new year kind of drab.
I love that pink and grey color combo! And we switch who we see for Christmas every year. Our families like so far apart it’s just not going to work out for us to be able to see everyone. So we do one family for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas, and then switch the next year.
Thanks! I hope it turns out! 🙂
That’s a smart way to trade off every year! 🙂 Does your family forget if it’s their year or not, like some of ours do? LOL
We rotate too. I do feel bad for my parents when we don’t do Christmas with them though because then they are on their own. My brother doesn’t travel for Christmas so we always meet up with him afterward, usually in January. Although last year we didn’t get together for Christmas until Easter- oops.
LOL! Easter IS a bit far out!!! 😛
Love that neckwarmer for Data! Oh, wait – he didn’t get to keep it? Too bad, it looks like he liked it…or did he want to kill you? So hard to tell with cats!!!
Ha ha ha! He didn’t mind! He doesn’t mind things on his neck. I should make him a little something, ha!
Those are Data’s colors 🙂
Totally cool you have your own plan going! You can spread out the cheer longer 🙂
I think they are! 🙂 Everything looks so nice on gray though. Ha!
Exactly! That is how I think about it!
It’s great that your families are flexible like that. Mine is..not so much. It’s like the one thing they want to be traditional about!
Oh man! How would you prefer to handle it?
Well, it’s easier now that Jason’s mom and step-dad live in Indiana, but it would be nice if we could do it like yours and spread it out a bit instead of trying to cram it all into the few days around Christmas. Plus, trying to fit in a visit to my dad in Florida, too, is always stressful. Thankfully he hasn’t thrown a fit about me going in January or February instead.
That proximity does help a bit! But that is still a whirlwind trip… and that sort of thing leaves me exhausted and in need of down time.
I am happy your dad is understanding about coming later, at least!
I consider Matt and myself pretty lucky that all our families are located within about 50 miles of each other. So we usually get to see everyone over the holidays but it sometimes seems like we spent approximately 20 minutes at each location haha. So I totally understand wanting to spread it out! Everyone always wants to spend so much time together over the holidays (which I understand) but I also try to remind them that I make time for them other times throughout the year too!
50 miles isn’t so bad (and it’s Iowa traffic, not the traffic you’d get with 50 miles out here)! But yeah, that rushing around kind of defeats part of the purpose of the holidays, right? Ha ha, that reminds me of an episode of Portlandia where they are invited to a ton of Fourth of July parties and try to just make an appearance at each one. Just keep reminding them that you visit a lot 🙂
I would imagine knitting is like riding a bike – you develop muscle memory and you never forget how to do it. =)
I hear you on how spending time with the family can be tough when folks are scattered around. Adam’s got family in Pittsburgh and DC and my family is local, but each set of family wants to spend EVERY holiday with us and obviously that’s not possible. We try really hard to keep things “fair” but certain family members are more tolerant of the allocation than others, so to speak. =D
It seems like it! Phew. Only… I didn’t read the pattern right on the hat and it’s too short. Buah ha ha! I am working on a second one now.
Ha ha, you dealing with someone vocal regarding the holidays? I know it stinks when you are used to having all your kids together for holidays, but it really is fair to rotate!
We rotate, too! Thanksgiving with one family, Christmas with the other, seeing the other family for Christmas a little while later. My hubby and I still need to plan time to head to Iowa to see my family and do a small Christmas there. And I’m glad to hear that knitting is like riding a bicycle. I haven’t knit in years, but it’s something I might like to get back to doing in the future. Hope you had a great Monday, Kim! 🙂
Cool! Where does your husband’s family live? I hope you get to do your Iowa trip soon, and that you have good weather for your travels!
Happy Tuesday!
They’re all in the Chicago suburbs, near us, so it’s much easier to see them. I’m hoping for good weather, too! That’s really the trick in the winter, isn’t it? 🙂
Oh good!!!
Yes, it totally is! I hope the weekend we picked is decent for traveling! (from here and from the KCMO area – my snister and her husband are driving up that weekend too, even though they were there for Christmas <3 )
Aw, that’s awesome! It will be so awesome to see everyone. Hope you have good travel weather, too! 🙂
Yay for knitting! I like the colors you picked.
We spent Christmas in Lapland this year (report with pictures on my blog!) so we didn’t see any family, but the past three years we’ve stayed in Belgium. With kids in university now, we can’t do the big trip to the US because they have exams in January and need to study over the holidays.
Ooo! I can’t wait to see the pics on your blog! The ones on FB were gorgeous!
Oh darn. Do you think you will visit the states in the summer then?
My husband’s family is weird about traveling, so we see them very rarely. It’s tough for us to take time off work, too, so we normally do holidays at home and if people can make it, COOL. Love your knitting skills!
That’s too bad! I hope you get to see them at some point. I have a few people in my family who feel more comfortable staying home, too 🙂
…Is there a tree still up when you do the mid-January celebration?
That makes a lot of sense to me; sometimes, I wish my family had more flexibility in their celebrations. For one, good ticket prices are a lot easier when you have some flexibility in your dates.
Why is FM so much busier during the holiday season do you think? Are people getting ready for vegetarian New Year’s resolutions? Or cooking big meals for guests? Or buying each other lots of jerky as gifts?
Last time, my grandma did leave her tree up!
Oh yeah! That is a good point regarding the tix! Although, for whatever reason, Thanksgiving prices seem to be way worse than xmas. Have you noticed that?
I think they are buying each other gifts. That is my guess. I didn’t ask Steven. But probably how most stores see a peak then?
We’ve started to rotate, but it’s been a painful path to get here. This was only Chris & my second married Xmas together, and my mom has been used to having everyone come to her every year for Thanksgiving and Xmas, no matter what… so last year when we did Tgiving at her place and said we’d stay in VA for Xmas… man oh man that did not go over well. This year was “her” year for Xmas though so crisis averted.. and Chris’s parents were away on a cruise for Tgiving so she got us for both holidays. I am scared to see how next year goes 😉
Sigh. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you had some miracle like that each year that let everyone get their way? LOL. I hope it works out. Eventually you guys may want to stay home with your kid, too! 🙂
I pick up knitting when I have a project (basically whenever my mom and I go to a yarn store, or she gets me yarn as a gift), then put it back down. It’s kinda cool how you can pick it right back up!
Data is now both warm and annoyed…. he he