I moved to Michigan in the fall of 2000 to start my college education at Michigan State. Since then, I have always gone back to my parent's home in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's always seemed like the best idea. Well, as most of you reading this know, I asked a wonderful woman to marry me last New Year's Eve. Even last year when we'd been dating for 8 or 9 months at the time, it was hard to leave Michelle for the holidays. As much as I wanted to see my family, there's something about being with that special someone for the holidays. This year, especially with her brother being in Korea for the holidays (see his blog here) , she thought it was very important to be with her family for Thanksgiving, as it was was the first major family gathering that Eric wouldn't be home for. This made perfect sense to me, so we stayed here for Thanksgiving.
There are definitely some differences between being in Wisconsin and being in Michigan for Thanksgiving. First of all, the local NBC station broadcasts the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade. It's probably the first time in my entire life that I haven't seen the Today Show personalities broadcasting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York (it was on, tape delayed at 4 AM Friday morning, and yes, I taped it with plans to watch it sometime this week). Second, I spent the afternoon watching the Lions-Packers game with Lions fans. This included an especially vocal and interested soon-to-be mother-in-law. I did my best to stay calm during the game and not be overly excited as the Packers managed a fairly easy victory over the lowly Lions. It was difficult though, as I'm used to watching it with my Dad who would always have cheered for the Packers with me. Third, as strange as it is, I missed the morning cinnamon rolls that my mom makes for the holidays. She doesn't make them often, and I'm sure they're terrible for you (lots of sugar), but I've always had them in the morning and Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess sometimes it's just the little things that you miss.
But, all of that being said, I really do love my fiance's family. They know how to have a good time and have invited me into their family very early on in my relationship with Michelle. It's also always fun when her sister comes home from Connecticut for a few days. Kelly doesn't get home that often, so any time she's here it's nice. As usual, everyone ate too much, some of us drank too much, and all in all we had a great weekend.
I do miss my parents though. I guess that's part of growing up. With being about 400 miles apart and having Michelle in my life, there are compromises that need to be made. Hopefully there will come a time where I have a family of my own and I probably won't be traveling at all on the actual holidays. I grew up spending Christmas at home and getting the play with all my new toys all day and I hope I can provide the same opportunities for my kids in the future. Michelle is going to make the same sacrifice for Christmas that I made for Thanksgiving, so I do understand it goes both ways. Luckily at Christmas time, while we'll be in Wisconsin for the actual holiday, we both have a couple weeks off work, so we'll be able to spend time with both families during the holiday season this year.
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Good luck with the whole my parents/in-laws thing. It is so tough to figure out, but maybe it'll be easier on you guys having them so far apart. It's not like you can divide a day or cut time at one short to see the other; that can get really awkward.
ReplyDeleteWe're shaking things up a little around Christmas, too, and while I'm not thrilled about it I know it means a lot to Bryson. So we're gonna shake things up this year, and we'll all be happy because at least we're together. :o)
You know, I'm not sure which is better Nicole. On one hand, you have everyone so close, you can see everyone for every holiday if you choose. That being said, it probably means less time at either place than you would like, as you try to visit everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe hard part with the distance is that you can't see everyone for every holiday. I didn't see my parents for Thanksgiving and that was kind of sad. Michelle won't see her parents for Christmas eve or Christmas day. I'm sure that will make her sad too. On the bright side though, both our parents are so warm and welcoming. They do everything they can to make their future son/daughter-in-law feel like part of the family. So, we've got that going for us, which is something :-)