# Visiting Family During the Holiday Season



## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

I live 2000 miles from my children & grandchildren and would visit during the holiday season - Thanksgiving & Christmas. A couple years ago I decided not to visit during that time anymore. It seemed like everyone had so much going on and the grand kids were all wound up. I never felt I had a chance to really sit down and just "be" with my family, although I was included in all they did. So..

I now go visit during the grand kids spring break. (Can't afford two trips) My son takes the week off from work and we just do little things together. It's so nice to be able to sit & play a game, go hiking, or read to the kids without that frenetic feeling of having to be someplace at a certain time or having to do this or that. 

How have you all resolved visiting during the holiday season? Especially if you live far away?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We have never had to travel to see family. I have never seen many of my cousins. Aunt once a year or so when she and her family came to see grandma, never been to her house and she only lives 200 miles away. Our world is very small. We only took 1 vacation a year, sometimes only the 50 miles to the beach. We are here now, making up for lost time, lucky to be able to....James


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

the weather is always so bad and everyone seems to get sick at the holidays, so long range traveling has given me the creeps. one of my versions of hell would be to be stuck in an airport terminal with all flight cancelled and us "camping" on cold concrete floor. Yuck!! 

I am all for seeing family during the great weather of spring or early fall. most of the school breaks do not line up with that. spring break here is normally cold and rainy and people are trying to get to the slopes or the beach making travel crazy with the late spring snows. 

OK. City now does year round school and I think their breaks are better for families to travel during off peak and better weather. Maybe we will get that around Tulsa too. I would love for my boys to be with their cousins more but someone has to take off school and in middle school and one in High School next year that won't be possible. It is sad that families are so far a[art and it is so expensive and hard to schedule trips.


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## Wolfy-hound (May 5, 2013)

That's actually very smart of you. Not only do you avoid the crazyness at the house of the holidays and have to try to wedge in some visiting time with everything else going on, but you also avoid the high priced holiday travel and probably also some lousy weather.

I haven't ever had to travel more than a car drive to visit family. If I had to fly, I think most of my family would never see me, since we're often at odds and an afternoon of visiting is really plenty for half the year or so.


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

We live thousands of miles away from family in a very remote area. Flying home for Christmas is huge hassle and very expensive and the weather is always very bad. We much prefer to visit during the summer when no one is stressed or over excited and the weather is great so we can actually do things.

Our Christmases are spent with local friends and we Skype and telephone to family.


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## ejagno (Jan 2, 2008)

When my children were little we always had to travel if we wanted to be with my in-laws for Christmas. It wasn't because they didn't live locally but because they still went to see their families each year out of town. It finally got to the point that my children dreaded having to wake up Christmas morning, hurry and open gifts and then leave them to go visit extended family they barely knew. I finally put a stop to it and we began staying home for Christmas. We would celebrate with our in-laws a week or two early and exchange gifts.

Now my sons are all grown, married and have children of their own. Two of the three recently moved out of town. Because of my experiences of having to uproot my kids on Christmas morning I don't wish that on them so we go to their homes and celebrate with them. Of course they only live an hour away and I get to see them every week so it's quite a bit different from your situation. 

I like your idea of spending quality time with your family at a time when things can be so much more relaxed.


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## Scott SW Ohio (Sep 20, 2003)

My family lives in Jackson, Michigan, a little over two hundred miles north of us. We drive up and spend the weekend before Christmas at my brother's house there, then we head back home and have Christmas here in Lebanon for just the three of us (daughter Annie, wife Lee Ann and I). This has worked out to be the best of both worlds for us.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

DH and I have been fortunate...his mom lived next door to us until she passed two yrs ago and my parents and daughter/Sil live about 15 minutes away and so does DH's kids. So we never have to travel far..

But since I grew up in the military and always lived away from my parents families I knew what it was like to go visit over the holidays, even on summer vacation. Seems like we had to come home to get some rest..lol


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