The first major decision of married life, the reaction, and the aftermath

So.

Considering the time of the year, what sort of major decision could there be, breathing down my neck since I got engaged?

Where to spend the Christmas holidays.

:'-( waaaaaaah haaaaaaaaaaaaaa

You see, M-I-L is 8 hours in one direction (and doesn't travel much - we've seen her three times in the past 2 years) while my family is 4.5 hours in the other direction, and they travel a lot - see my dad once a week, and mom probably once every 3 months.

After lots of talking (and knowing the answer practically before we started), we've decided to spend 5 days around Christmas Day with M-I-L, and 5 days around New Years with my family.

Fair? Yes.

The hardest thing I'll ever have done up until this point in my life? Definitely.

You see, Christmas and its assorted festivities are very important in my family... I even used to joke with my dad that someday I'd meet a man who was just as close with his parents that my dad might have to give me up for the Christmas holiday.

The only easy part was that Dad agreed it would be better to go West for Christmas, since M-I-L lives alone, and this will likely be her last Christmas in the house before moving to an apartment. So, no fights from either family on the choice we made.


I can't think about it without crying.

I've never been away from home at Christmas. And hubby knows that all that truly matters is that I'm with him, and he's with me.

But... in the immortal words of my mother, quoted 48 hours ago:

This sucks.