Make The Holidays Whatever YOU Want Them To Be
We are approaching the holiday season, a time of year that revolves around family for most people. Well, last year, we made it less about big family and more about sanity. Last year was the year from hell. We’d lost a baby who was due on Thanksgiving, and the week before Thanksgiving, I’d had a lumpectomy to remove breast cancer. It was an awful time where I could unpredictably burst into tears at any moment. I didn’t want to be around anyone other than my closest loves: my husband and our two boys. Still, I wanted to be festive and celebrate. I just wanted it low key and cozy. Here’s how we celebrated.
Dress For Comfort
Wanna wear a blanket all day? Stay in a bath robe? Anything goes. No stress over picking out outfits that will look cute in pictures or packing a change of clothes to play football in after mealtime. Wear whatever you want.
Enjoy The Morning
Since you don’t have to be anywhere for a particular time, take it easy. Sip your coffee slowly with a book in hand. Let the kids have early screen time. Do whatever. Move when you’re ready. One thing we did that we’ve never been able to do before because we were always on the go, was watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. My friend made a parade scavenger hunt for her kids, and she sent it to me. We cuddled on the couch and leisurely watched the entire parade.
Only Favorite Foods Allowed
We are not big turkey people. There is no point in making a show of cooking a mediocre turkey for 4 people who might only have an obligatory bite. Instead, I went to Sam’s and spent $20 on a spiral ham and $5 on a fabulously juicy rotisserie chicken that I knew we’d all actually appreciate. And we still had leftovers for ham sandwiches and chicken and sausage gumbo. Rather than putting our effort into a turkey, now we had energy and oven space to give all our effort to everyone’s favorites: the sides.
Involve Everyone
We worked together to select our favorite sides, plan recipes, and shop. Since we only had 4 people, there was plenty of space in my kitchen for all of us to work together. We blasted our favorite music and prepared our meal. And, since no one else was depending on us for food, it didn’t really matter if things were ready on time.
A Seamless Transition To Christmas
Picking up was easy since it was just us. There was no rush to clean anything to get it out of the way, but at the same time, when we were ready, the process was quick. Then, we were able to easily shift from Thanksgiving dinner to decorating for Christmas. By the end of the night, our tree was up and Home Alone was on TV. We ended our day when we felt like it, making sure we were energized for Black Friday shopping.
We love our families and enjoy time spent with them. We felt guilty for basically saying, “We’re doing our own thing, and no, you’re not invited to join us, and no, we won’t be stopping by y’all for a minute either.” We did get some initial pushback, but we continued to emphasize that this was the respite we needed and that it had everything to do with our own needs and nothing to do with anyone else. I have no regrets. If you find that you don’t have the bandwidth to do the big family thing this year, that is 100% okay.
