Family/Inlaws question...

We were watching something lately and it made me wonder if that's the way most people do it.........cause ya, we don't! LOL

For those of you who have or had inlaws: Do you do things together as one BIG family? I mean like all the inlaws (his parents & her parents) all together for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or just any kind of get together?

Events for the kids? Birthdays, graduations, sports, etc........sure. But really, anything else? No.

We go to his family's house at a certain time for a holiday, my family's house at a different set time for that holiday, and I can't imagine EVERYONE celabrating at the same house/time!

How do you guys work family/inlaw times and events? Together or separate?

My ex & I did a lot of things together as a big family (usually our parents, grandparents and siblings). Like camping trips and vacations. Our parents became great friends.

My mom and dad's families don't intermingle too much except for the birthday, graduation parties & our fourth of July party.

No. My parents and my in laws get along fine, but it's not something that I think would ever occur to anyone to do.

Right now my in-laws are living in a different state so of course that complicates things, but even if they were still here, I don't think it would happen.

That's neat K9....the vacations and stuff. My family and his are quite different (taste and interest wise) so I couldn't see that happening with us.

Exactly. Our families get along just fine, they've never had a disagreement that I'm aware of.......but IMO, that's BECAUSE we don't socialize enough together for them to HAVE a disagreement! LOL

Because of logistics, no. My family is in upstate NY, and my husband's family is/was in NJ (well, until his parents moved to Florida in 1985 & all but one of his siblings followed them). And I still had younger siblings living home when we moved down here. Funny thing is- my mother used that as the excuse to not come down for Christmas, but every year we got a call expecting us to haul our preschooler up there for Christmas Day (OK, end of mother rant! LOL). Plus, the house lived in at camp wouldn't have held both our families. We did, tho, have "blow out" style cookouts for our oldest son's birthdays for awhile (once he started school, we did kids parties). There was only one year both of our families came, tho- my parents stopped coming because the 4H horse show fell the same weekend. What family my husband had left in NJ always came, tho.

Ah Mick.....don't get me (and a lot of us) started on Mother rants! You don't have a corner on the market :rofl1:

For the record, my mom is almost an hour away. No kids at home and none for quite some time. She would tell us we had to come THERE for Christmas because it was 'easier' than her dragging all the gifts over here. Uh..........ok? We had to drag 5 kids (ages 11-1) AND all the gifts over there! I finally told her no more. It was easier for her to come here or we could just do a Christmas conference call! ROFL! That did the trick! hehehe

We don't intermingle much. But my in-laws live in Hawaii so when they are out here it's not for very long. They alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas out here so sometimes we do Christmas Eve with everyone. But that's mostly because my family has a long standing tradition for Xmas Eve and I absolutely hate to miss it. I try to compromise by inviting Matt's family and doing it at our house but it's hard.

Our families don't really mesh anyway - they get along great (which is awesome) but my family is outdoorsy and very mountain redneck, and Matt's is....not even a little bit. Lol.

My parents and in-laws get together and have parties without us.

Spending time with my parents AND inlaws?! You are hilarious! :rofl1:

We all gather for a huge family ordeal..a couple days before Christmas so everyone can enjoy the children. The real holiday we stay home with our immediate family. This way great grandmother can see all her children and grans and greats in one place.

My family doesn't, mainly because we don't really have any. Both sets of grandparents aren't alive, my mother has no siblings and the relatives on my dads side hate us.

I love the idea of it though, I always wanted a big family to do things with, argue with and have big get togethers with.

But that's ok, that's why I added Jes to the family.

When I was married and younger, my mother in law lived in Czech Republic, but came for visits a few times. So, when she did, we'd have a party.

When the kids were little, we had bigger family gatherings on holidays. But as they grew up, families expanded etc...it got to be too much, I guess for anyone to have the whole crowd in one house. So, it's pretty much gotten so just our immediate family gets together...my kids and their dad and me. We'll go over to the island to see my Mom, but it's not on Xmas or Thanksgiving anymore. She usually spends those times at my sister's, who lives on the island too. And we don't get invited generally. lol.

Oh my god. I can't imagine.

Well mostly apart because one set of parents lives in Florida and the other set in canada. It is rare any of them are with us for the holidays. One year we did plan a big trip to NC and rented a house for christmas with my mom and step dad, my inlaws, hubby, myself, hannah... And his sister and her family lived in the town where we rented the house so we all spent christmas together. It was great.

In december my dad, siblings and their families, inlaws and our little family are all going to disney together. I am kind of dreading it but only because I know my dad and sister are going to be a pain in the arse.

So when we can do things all together at once we do because we really don't have the opportunity to do one day with them and one day with the other.

My mom and step dad are coming to our house for christmas though and that makes me so insanely happy and we will go over to hubbys aunt an unclea house christmas afternoon all together

I wish we could. That's how my family always was growing up. All the grandparents, aunts and uncles on both sides, all together. That's how Zach's family all is too.

Alas, my parents (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc) are all in California, and his are all on the east coast. We're the travelers who have to alternate holidays. It sucks having to choose, I wish we could just get everyone together.

Edit: The few holidays my parents have flown out to visit us, we all trek up as a group to spend the holiday with Zach's parents/grandparents, so then yes, we are all together and it's awesome

I don't really have family. Got rid of all of them this past January. Done and done.

Jin's family is kept at arms length. You can love them, you can wish them the best, but at the end of the day, they always WANT something. Money, usually, although they have no qualms getting in his head about us not visiting, too.

So, that's a pretty much "no" to everything. Just me and Jin.