This week last year Ben and I visited his family in Florida. We wanted to get in a good visit because we were going to see my family (in California) for Christmas.
That was one of the reasons we moved back to CA. When we were looking to leave MD we knew we wanted to be in either FL or CA and close to at least one of our families. Traveling for holidays is super expensive. Traveling to two different families is 2x as much!
So this year we are spending Christmas in Florida with Ben’s family. I have actually never spent Christmas with them. Last year was our first married Christmas and up until then we spent the 25th with our own fams and then I would go out to FL for the rest of the week.
Anyways, I am super excited to fly south for the winter. Visiting Ben’s fam is always like a vacation to a comfy place.
Breakfast = oatmeal 
Question: Do you do 2 Christmases?
los dos son muy simpaticos….me encanta mucho tu blog….que dios los bendiga….
My husband and I live at least an hour away from our families (in opposite directions). Before we were married we established that Thanksgiving would be spent with his family and Christmas with mine. Now that we have kids we spend Christmas morning at our house and then head to my parents house for the rest of the morning/afternoon.
Only one right now actual Christmas right now, but I AM going to visit my boyfriend’s family in Cincy right before Christmas so maybe that counts?
Yep. We do Christmas in San Diego a week before Christmas. It works out perfectly.
Have fun in Florida!
My husband’s and my parents are divorced. So there are usually four (if not more when you add friends to the mix) different functions!!
Cute picture! We have my bfs parents next Saturday, then my family Christmas Eve, my bfs mom’s side on Christmas Day, and my bfs dad’s side on the day after Christmas. can you say ridiculous? haha
Now that I live with my boyfriend Michael I do have 2 Christmases. My family’s Xmas and the holidays with his mom. It’s kinda nice having an “extended” family.
We rarely spend Christmas with our families. Thankfully my parents and my husband’s mom and sister all live in the same town in Florida. When we do visit, we’re able to see everyone at once. However, I’m married to an Army guy and for the last 14 years we’ve made it back to Florida only a few times. I know it seems kind of lame to not see our families at Christmas, but it’s just not a huge priority for us. I’m quite happy to spend it with just my husband and daughter at our home, wherever that may be at the time. I suppose it was harder when I was newly married to miss out on the family celebrations, but now I consider my husband and daughter as ‘my family’ so as long as they’re with me during the holidays, that’s all that matters.
hi! 🙂 for the last few years i have spent both thanksgiving and christmas with both of our families. they dont live too far away from each other but for whatever reason it has been separate. thanksgiving is always kinda fun, with an early “dinner” at his sisters house and a dinner “dinner” with my parents. talk about over over eating right? for christmas we will either do christmas eve with his fam and christmas day with mine…depends on what we feel like! its a crazy time but i really love it.
Got ya beat, we do 3 Christmases! My parents are divorced and then my boyfriend’s family. Each family gets upset and offended if we don’t spend part of Christmas with them, so it is a little tricky to manuver. 2 families live an hour apart and the other is 5 hours away, but last year I think we nailed it. We hit all 3 families from lunch on the 24th to dinner on the 25th, it was a workout let me tell ya!
Wow! It’s a crazy time of year without all those visits on top of it. But, glad you nailed it 🙂
I live at home, so I have never done two Christmases. Its so expensive to fly this time of year!
I don’t celebrate two Christmases officially, but I think I am planning on going to my boyfriend’s house Christmas night (he is about 1.5 hours away from me)…he came for Thanksgiving so I feel like I need to return the favor!
We do 2 Christmases also, good thing both families are only about 15 minutes apart. However, the part that sucks is since we’re in NY the parking during the holidays is literally horrendous! Last year we ended up spending $30 on parking for just a few hours because we couldn’t take the stop and go search for a parking spot! I love Christmas though so it’s all good 🙂
I don’t celebrate 2 Christmasses but I do celebrate Christmaskkuh because I am a cashew! (catholic and jewish) I love it!
Cashew! I love it!
I never heard “cashew” before 🙂
My husband and I do one Christmas each year, alternating between his parents and mine. Even though both of our families are in NC, they are over 6 hours away! It works out best if we just take turns. We’re at his parents’ on the coast this year. 🙂
I’m not married (..or seriously dating anyone. I’m a junior in college, if I brought a boy home my brothers would FLIP) but I celebrate Christmas three times!
Once the week before with my dad’s father and step mom, Christmas eve is spent with my mother’s side of the family, and then Christmas day its just me my brothers and parents! And my dad’s biological mom stops by. Its pretty sweet, Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. UGH if I could only fast forward through finals to the celebrating!
Enjoy your trip! Soak up the sun. I had a very similar bowl of oats for breakfast (:
That will be so so much fun….I love Florida. Just one Christmas for me and I am going to Cali?
this is my first year as a married lady so i don’t know how it will affect christmas. probably not much, because we’ve already had a bunch of christmases together. we always go to my mom & dad’s on xmas eve and then their house again xmas morning.. then in the afternoon and evening we visit marshall’s side of the fam.. his parents are divorced so there are 2 places to visit. it is usually so busy, i kinda wish we could just chill on christmas day!
P.S. that photo of you guys is super cute
When we lived in NY we did the two Christmases thing and it was CRAZY!!!!! We moved to Florida a few years ago and we would alternate flying back to NY and staying in Florida. The past two years though we have decided to stay home. We have some family that live a few hours away so we spend Christmas Eve with them and then have a nice quiet Christmas morning with us.
I live in South Florida and the weather has been really cold (and apparently we are getting another cold front Monday…bbbbrrrrr!). I hope the weather is nice and warm for you and Ben when you are down!!
Our Christmases are insane and I am looking forward to when they aren’t. Our families live close enough to see both of them but far enough away from each other to make it crazy. We spend the 23rd and the 24th at my family’s house. Wake up there and head to my hubby family’s house 2 hours away. From there we go to his grandparent’s house another 2 hours away. This year now that our daughter is getting older we may need to modify which is fine by me!!! Oh and I would LOVE to head south for the winter! Especially since it is 19 degrees today!
Brrrr! Try and keep warm 🙂
Our families are in the same state (NY), but live 7 hours away from each other. Since we live much closer to my family we do most holidays (Thanksgiving, Easter) with them and split Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.
My family does our big get-together Christmas Eve, and after that we either drive or fly upstate to my in-laws for Christmas Day and a few more relaxing vacation days 🙂 I really like the way we’ve worked out Christmas; we get to see almost everyone from both sides of the family over the holidays and don’t have to alternate what family we see each year.
I do 2 Christmases but I luck out because my boyfriend’s family celebrates Christmas the weekend before actual Christmas, so we go to his family the weekend before and then my family for the actual holiday. We are fortunate that both of our families are within driving distance, though in opposite directions!
The husband and I live in AZ, with no family around us whatsoever. His parents live in Bozeman, MT and my whole family plus his brother and sister-in-law and all our old friends live in Minnesota. Last year we took about 12 days and flew into Montana to see him parents, then from there we flew into MN to see the rest of his family and my whole family plus about 100 friends. It was crazy. We flew back in Arizona a few days before Christmas and spent is without family. This year we are not traveling anywhere to save some money (we got married this past year and have spent way to much money on about 15 trips back and forth from AZ to MN). I think next Christmas we will be back to two Christmases outside of AZ.
That was totally us last year – just married and constantly visiting family! So expensive 🙁
Just started reading your blog recently and I think this is my first comment!
We live in MD, my ILs are in upstate NY and my entire family is in MA. We used to alternate years, and some years we even tried to do both (our families live about a 3 hours drive apart from each other). Now that we have a 3 year old, we will stay home. We spent last year at home on Christmas – just the 3 of us!! And we will do it again this year. I always thought that would be lonely but it was actually very much less stressful and perfect! We spent a week at Thanksgiving with my family in MA this year and will visit my ILs in January to celebrate a late Christmas with them.
Happy Holidays!
Hi Lauri,
Welcome and Thanks for stopping in to say Hi 🙂