Our First Holiday (Alone)

With marriage (quickly) approaching, Mr. Turkey and I have discussed how being Mr. and Mrs. will impact our holiday plans.

Mr. Turkey with my family at Thanksgiving (this was my family's Christmas card)

In the 3+ years since we started dating, we've done some holidays together, but also spent many apart. Most notably, Christmas. With my family in upstate NY and Mr. T's two sets of families here in PA, there are no shortage of events...and parties. There are also MANY years of traditions.

Brother Turkey and I rock our matching Christmas morning PJs

The men in Mr. Turkey's family toasting on Christmas Eve

For Easter this year, due to timing of various wedding events, Mr. Turkey and I decided to spend our first holiday together...alone. It was quite different than Easters of yore.

Miss Turkey & Brother Turkey all dressed up for Easter - 1980something

Celebrating Easter & the Turkey engagement with family - 2012

We started by attending Easter mass at St. Patrick's,

Next time we're here....we'll be getting married!!

then took a quick walk across Rittenhouse Square

Hope these flowers are still in bloom when we are taking family pictures in the Square!

before arriving at R2L for an absolutely delicious brunch!

Celebrating our final holiday before marriage with (huge) Bloody Marys

It was a little odd to spend a holiday without our families...two is a whole lot smaller than our holiday normal celebrations. We talked about how future holidays might be different and the best way to manage expectations and feelings on both sides.

There has been some discussion about setting an "official" holiday schedule - you know, like year 1 = Thanksgiving with Miss Turkey's family and Christmas with Mr. Turkey's family; year 2 = opposite. However, we worried that it wouldn't allow for any flexibility and could cause bigger issues than it was worth. So, the decision was to take each year / holiday as it comes.

Will it be perfect? Probably not. Will it be tough at times? Most likely. Do Mr. Turkey and I plan to keep an open discussion as we go along? Absolutely.

How have you handled splitting holidays? Any advice from those who've done it so far?