Home for the Holidays

It’s holiday time again. Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, with Christmas in another month. Traditionally, or, perhaps I should say, in the past, these two holidays were spent with our immediate families.
But times have changed. Families lose some members and add new ones. They move away from the family home. And those two dynamics make it harder and more complicated to spend these holidays with our families.
In my own family, both of my daughters live far away: one in Chicago, the other in Miami Beach. “Over the hill and to the woods…” they do not come to Grandma’s house. And so, Grandma goes to one of them. And Grandma’s husband remains at home with his family.
At Christmas, one daughter and her family will join her husband’s family for a skiing vacation. The other will remain at her home, again, near her husband’s family. Grandma will spend Christmas with her husband and his family. This is beginning to sound like a puzzle or a riddle.
How do you cope with family holidays? Do you spend them at the family homestead? Do you even have a family homestead? One of our couple friends, who have lived in this vicinity all their lives (over 70 years!) just took the plunge and moved out west to be with one of their sons and his growing family. My hat is off to them, and others, who adapt to the new realities of family life and holidays. I’m working on it myself.