In one week...

...I will be sitting in my pajamas, groggily watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade and probably knocking back some spiked cider.

MmMmMmMmmmm.

How does being CF affect your holidays, either for the good or the bad?

Good:
- No kids, so no grandparents that pull from either side in order to see the grandkids on the holidays.

- Can focus on lots of time in the kitchen to whip up dishes.

- Feel completely justified in spoiling the cats with presents and giving them their own stockings.

- No one waking us up super early to see what Santa brought.

Bad:
- The inevitable "when are you having kids?" comes up in conversation.

- If the bulk of the people at the celebration have kids, then you're kind of left out of any conversation since it tends to be centered around their kids/school districts/sports teams.

Re: In one week...

i dunno, i sort of feel like the lack of children is making me enjoy the holidays less these days.
my nieces and nephew are 9, almost 15, and 16 now and there are NO children on dh's side. we both have very small families/no extended families. i feel like when there were small kids around, there was some spice and excitement to it all. now it's gotten boring. plus there has been a lot of family drama going on with my side of the family now, so there's nothing to take the attention off of it, i feel like.

Re: In one week...

Not having kids doesn't really impact my holidays too much. I enjoy that I live according to MY schedule. We fortunately don't have people asking us when we are having kids.

I guess I have more $$ to spend on DH and family too

Re: In one week...

This is our last CF holiday season

I actually do enjoy getting together with the family. Thanksgiving is my favorite -- it's all the fun & togetherness of Christmas, without the financial burden of gifts.

We normally spend the holidays with my family, and it's my parents, sometimes the siblings who can make it, and a couple of kids. We don't do things with the extended family, and it stays pretty sane.

Even keeping it to basic family, our Christmas lift is pretty huge. Being CF these past few years, we're able to sort of spoil everyone a little bit.

Not to mention that the night before each holiday, we have always had the ability to go out and do a little partying!


Guess that is going to be a distant memory. lol

Re: In one week...

The upside:

1. DH is high up on the vacation pick list and has Thanksgiving and CHristmas weeks off this year
2. I can spend what I want on my Goddaughter

The downside:

1. we really wanted children, we didn't get to have one so Christmas kind of sucks in that respect.

Re: In one week...

GOOD:
I will be happily getting my drink on for the holidays with the fam

Re: In one week...

Posted by MrsPJB2007

This is our last CF holiday season

Re: In one week...

Hmmm well, I am enjoying the time that DH & I have to do different holiday things and see different holiday sights. However, I am really looking forward to adding kiddies to the mix within the next few years. If DH & I were a few years older, we would probably already be TTC. But we are only 24, and feel that we are not ready for that commitment yet.

Re: In one week...

Good:

-Not having to get up early.

-Not having kids to get dressed and ready and out the door to a relative's house.

-Less money spent on holiday outfits, holiday pictures, all that stuff.

-Since we live OOS, if we want to see our famlies, we have to get on a plane for 5 hours. It's enough of a hassle and expensive with just the two of us, so it'd be that much worse bringing children along.

Bad:

-I feel like a lot of family traditions are being lost since there's no next generation to pass them on to.

-I like buying gifts for kids, watching just how excited they get over the little things - I imagine that must be a fun part of being a parent.

-It would be nice to have a hand with some of the decorating and cooking if older kids were around, but that might be optimism speaking - I don't know how helpful they would really be!

-Since we don't have kids, when we come to NY for the holidays, everyone expects DH and I to spend all our time off traveling all over to see them - both because "It must be so easy for you to just be able to pick up and go whenever you want," and because, "Well we have kids so it'd be so much harder for us to pack them up and come to you." And driving all over the tristate area to various people's houses for a week straight isn't how we want to spend our holidays, so we inevitably end up hurting someone's feelings that we "came all the way to NY and didn't come to see them."

Re: In one week...

I like that we can just do whatever we want for Thanksgiving & Christmas. Even if it's just sleeping late, watching the parade, and having a simple dinner. Or going on vacation or for a drive or doing a run that morning or going to the gym or shopping or whatever. I don't feel like I'm depriving my kids of any special memories if I'm not in the mood for this huge celebration. Less pressure & we can keep it as low-key as we want.

Re: In one week...

well for us having no kids around the holidays means you have no say in the holidays

Re: In one week...

Posted by IrishLass

The upside:

1. DH is high up on the vacation pick list and has Thanksgiving and CHristmas weeks off this year
2. I can spend what I want on my Goddaughter

The downside:

1. we really wanted children, we didn't get to have one so Christmas kind of sucks in that respect.