Since starting our family, we have never lived in the same state as our extended family, including grandparents. This makes the holidays a bit challenging. Besides not having family nearby, my husband’s sports writing job often means that he works on the days surrounding Christmas/New Year’s based on the college and professional sports teams’ holiday game schedules.
When the kids were young, we would alternate between traveling to visit my husband’s family or my family. However, as anyone who has traveled long-distance with children can attest, it’s a lot of work. Some years we loaded up the minivan with strollers, a pack-n-play and a portable swing; barely fitting in the kids’ car/booster seats. One year we even flew to spend Christmas with family — spoiler alert: it’s definitely not for the faint of heart!
Traveling during the holidays began to take the joy out of the season. Then one year, we had an epiphany! We decided to stop. Instead, we’d plan trips to visit extended family during other times of the year (e.g. spring break) and save the holidays for our own little family. This change allowed us to spend the days however we chose and create memorable holiday traditions with our own small family.
One of my favorite memories is from Christmas 2011. We lived in Indianapolis, IN at the time. My husband had to cover the team’s first game on Dec. 26. We chose to spend Dec. 24 to 26 at a local hotel with an indoor water park. The combination of Christmas decorations throughout the hotel and the chance to play in the water made for a memorable experience for our kids. I was pregnant with our third child at the time. Not having to cook or clean during those days was heavenly.
Since moving to Oklahoma in 2014, we have slowly created new traditions, adding on little things through the years. Our holiday now includes driving around the OKC metro on Christmas Eve to look at decorated homes. We sing along to our son’s annual Christmas music playlist while sipping on cups of hot cocoa.
Christmas Day is a slow, lazy day with no set schedule. When everyone is awake and has had a full breakfast, we open gifts. We cook a meal together, with each of us contributing. We graze on the food throughout the day, being mindful not to overdo it. This brings us to the final portion of our Christmas, which was inspired by my favorite holiday movie: A Christmas Story.
For those who are unfamiliar with the movie, the Parker family’s Christmas dinner is ruined by a pack of neighborhood dogs who make their way into their home and devour their turkey. To salvage the day, the Parkers decide to go to one of the only restaurants open on Christmas Day: a Chinese restaurant. Our family now goes to our favorite local Chinese restaurant for our Christmas dinner. We usually spend almost two hours eating, talking, laughing and playing games.
I love our family’s non-traditional Christmas. Now that our son is in college, our oldest daughter is getting closer to graduating from high school and our youngest is in middle school, I know that Christmas will start to look a little bit different in the coming years. However, I hope that the holiday memories that we have created as a family will linger in their hearts and minds. I hope that when they have their own families they will have just as much fun creating their own memorable holiday traditions.
