(Not) Home for the Holidays

I finally finished my Christmas shopping today.

It was a nightmare at the Eaton Centre, and everybody seemed extra grumpy. Especially when we got stuck on the subway for almost half an hour due to some unknown medical emergency. Happy holidays!

Anyway, as I was wrapping the last of my boyfriend’s gifts and put them under the tree, I realized that we’ll be away from home for more than three days around Christmas visiting family for at least four different gatherings.

It’s also the first year I’ll be spending Christmas Day without my dad and my brother. We were at my dad’s for Christmas Day last year, so we decided to spend it at the boyfriend’s mom’s house this year. That means we’ll be opening our gifts to each other at his mom’s as well.

It all makes me long for a simpler time when, although we still made the rounds to my mom’s family in Mississuaga and Brampton, we did it together as a family. We were one unit that moved around together.

Someone suggested that the boyfriend and I do Christmas Day separately, me at my dad’s and he at his mom’s. But he’s the closest thing I have to that family unit now, so I want us to stay together. It’s the thing that will keep me as close to normal as I can get during the holidays.

Not that I don’t love all my family. Not that I don’t look forward to seeing them. But it’s all very overwhelming.

What do you guys do to stay sane over the holidays?