Blended Families

Looking through my Erin Condren day planner the past few days, i've realized just how much traveling I will be doing over the next month and a half. I absolutely love the holidays and I love spending time with our families, so it's traveling well worth it to me. 

But I got to thinking about how each year as our siblings get older, and we expand in to families of our own, just how difficult it will be to continue spending so much time with everyone around the holidays. With two new additions to the Casey side of our family this year, we've already experienced some difficulty planning when and where we will celebrate Christmas together. With the twins being on monitors still and under "house arrest", they really can't make the trip from Florence all the way to my dad and step-mom's house in North Carolina. And it is extremely hard for my Grandma to travel in the car, especially lately with all of her hip problems. Then, there is my step-brother from California and his wife who have different sides of their families to visit in the short amount of time they will be on the east coast. (I could go on to explain just how difficult it is to accommodate everyone's schedules, but you get the drift.)

Having dealt with the fact that my parents are divorced and have both remarried to people who were married before (and had children) complicates things around the holidays. It's never been a problem to me, ever, because I LOVE having two sets of families. Both my mom and dad are as happy as they could be with my step-parents and these new additions have only made me feel even more loved.

Shane also comes from a family with divorced parents, which adds on to the number of places we will go for the holidays. Instead of going from one family to visit to two, we're going from two families to spend time with to four. Now i'm all about some Thanksgiving meals, but I just don't know if my stomach can handle FOUR thanksgiving meals. (Shane, on the other hand, said Challenge Accepted)

With all this being said, I thoroughly enjoy the holidays and the number of family members I get to see every year. My only wish is that we get to continue to spend time with our families, even after it keeps expanding. 

I want my children to one day feel the abundance of love from all sides of our families just as I have felt all  these years.