Today is the first post on our new mini series on what we enjoy doing with family. First up: the holidays! We try to spend most major holidays with some part of our extended family. We tend to stay home for New Year’s Eve/Day, but when we see people it is Andrew’s parents to celebrate his mom’s birthday. For Easter, we are working towards being the family that hosts for both sides. We were successful a few years ago, but then the pandemic hit and everybody stayed home for Easter the last few years. It was awesome when we could have people over though— celebrating with Andrew’s parents, my parents, and my grandma! Memorial Day is usually the first lake weekend for us, but it is a quieter one. We help my parents get the cabin ready for the year and help with planting flowers.

Independence Day is a HUGE lake week/weekend. Most of the extended family on my side comes up, so we are a full house with cousins, nieces, our nephew, aunts and uncles, my sister and her family, my parents, and my grandma are all up. My dad and I put on a big fireworks show (when it is safe and not a huge draught) and we have a lot of fun. A house on the lake puts on a concert for boaters to come to as well. We also spend Labor Day weekend at the lake (and usually going to the State Fair). It is another great summer weekend at the lake with my side of the family.

We spend Thanksgiving with Andrew’s family. His parents make a delicious dinner and we stay with them for the long weekend. Andrew’s brother and his wife also come over for dinner on turkey day. Neither of us are big into in person shopping on black Friday, but we might buy a bit online that day.

Christmas is the big one that is a bit trickier. We love to celebrate with everybody, but that just isn’t possible all in one day. We usually celebrate Christmas with Andrew’s family before Christmas itself. This year, we celebrated over this past weekend which was a lot of fun. Andrew’s parents or his brother make brunch or dinner and we open presents and hang out all day. Andrew’s brother and his wife hosted this year, and they made the most delicious brunch! Christmas with my parents is usually on Christmas Day, but my sister and her husband switch years of joining us on Christmas or celebrating with the extended family in January. Usually, Christmas is at my parents, where we have crepes for breakfast and open presents in the morning before my aunt and uncle and cousins and their kids come over for the afternoon and evening and Christmas dinner. This year, we will be celebrating Christmas Day in our house before flying out to the east coast to celebrate with my parents and sister and her family.

We have enjoyed adding our nieces and nephew into our various celebrations for the holidays and cannot wait to bring our own bundle of joy to these days.

~Natalie