Keeping The Peace During Family Holidays

Take 5 individual personalities and put them in close quarters for a week during the holidays.  Is that a recipe for disaster?  Ha!  I hope not, as that’s what I’m about to do when I go on a cruise with my sister and her family.  Truth be told, we’ve vacationed together before.  But the kids were young then.  Now we have two college students among us.  Will that complicate things, with two more opinions to consider for every “what should we do/where should we eat “ discussion?

I’m not really worried.  We’re pretty good about expressing our interests and opinions but also compromising.

I did just tell my sister and her husband that I would like for us to not spend every minute together as a unit of 5.  I’d love some one on one time with each of my family members separately or in pairings.  I hope to have some fun with my niece and nephew without their Mom and Dad around.  And I’d love some time to have “girl talk” with my only sister.  By sharing different experiences and conversations, we’ll have more to talk about when we all get together at dinner time as a party of five.  I think mixing it up a bit is a good way to keep the vacation interesting and fun…and avoids everyone getting on each other’s nerves.

Do you have any tips for holiday trips with the family, whether you’re going away or staying at a relative’s house?