A Mi Manera

I've known my husband for 10 years and have been married to him for three. Yet after all this time, figuring out the holidays is always a struggle. We live in his home state, while my family is three hours away. Like many families we have to come up with a holiday split that makes everyone happy, which, as I'm sure you know, is much easier said than done. Hubby's schedule gives him every other holiday off, add two kids and traffic and traveling during the holiday rush is always a pain in the you-know-what. But with our grandparents getting older and sometimes ill, emotions are constantly dictating where we spend the holidays.

This year, my family will hopefully come up for Christmas since they weren't able to make it for Thanksgiving. No matter how old I get, I never get used to not being with my family for the holidays.  I miss our arroz y frijoles con maduritos for dinner and don't really like turkey—my Cuban parents are all about the ham. I always miss the arroz con leche and pastelitos con un cafecito after dinner. I guess I just miss our special way of celebrating the holidays...and then there's Christmas.

Any Christmas spent away from them has been painful. We're a Nochebuena family. We celebrate big on Christmas Eve! Christmas day for us has traditionally been about recovering from the night before. With my husband's family, it's the other way around and I always find myself struggling to muster the energy to get out of my new pajamas on Christmas morning.

This year, I'm trying to bring a little of my family's traditions to the table for our girls. I've got plans to make some rice and beans for Christmas dinner. I'm getting some classic music ready for them and I'm crossing my fingers that my parents will bring up boxes upon boxes of pastelitos. 

Do you find it difficult negotiating the holidays with your two families? How do you compromise? How do you celebrate?