April can be nice as well. We usually do our annual girls trip from Houston to San Marcos and Wimberley for mega-shopping in April and have had pretty good weather.

As I mentioned on another thread, I did a "Jewbilee" for the second year in a row on Christmas day -- for us folks who otherwise have nothing else to do except movies and Chinese food. LOL

I shoulda put out more veggies for dipping. My dip didn't go over well though, I think it was too thick so something less viscous next year. There were too many desserts - which always happens when people bring something but won't tell me what they are bringing in advance. But that was ok because I made sure there was lots of non-sweet stuff on hand too.

I had some thousand layer crackers which Nathan had bought for me at Trader Joe's in New York before coming home - two boxes. Thought that would be a lot of crackers. Nope. Each cracker was individually wrapped... I had to call a friend to bring over whatever crackers she had in her pantry when she came to the party since of course the stores were all closed. Those crackers are really good but not good for parties.

All in all, it was a fun party. I'll probably do it again next year.

I am sorry to hear that your Christmas was unpleasant. I think you did a nice thing by spending time with your family, even if it was difficult. For me, sometimes the nicest thing about Christmas is getting my freedom/time/feelings of peace back at the end of it. And I think you should buy yourself something nice as a reward :-)

I think one thing I might do differently is make one healthy dish for Christmas-- like pasta salad with grilled chicken, or something. I needed something to break up all the cookies!

Jessica, I did buy myself something nice while I was in Fredericksburg - some Bundhosen (knee-length lederhosen). I'd been wanted them for decades, and I finally found a place where I could try them on. I got socks to go with them, and Kevin brought a Tyrolean hat that I can borrow to go with it. I'll post pictures much later :).

May, April is already too hot for me in Texas. It can easily get over 100 (I've exprienced it too many times) with high humidity. I could probably handle April, but then there are a lot of holidays then, like Easter, Fiesta in San Antonio, etc., and I really want to avoid traveling during a holiday (although South by Southwest does not deter me).

Lars

Maybe you should just do it in January or Feb. Not much going on during those months and not hot yet. Or well, probably not hot. LOL. The more people involved, the more difficult it is to find a time that's good for everyone.

I'm used to the summers here, 90s, so April in the mostly 80s is nice weather to me! But I can sure understand that it might be too hot for others.

Things went surprisingly well this year, with the only "glitch" being Elery's daughter Nikki who couldn't possibly "do" Christmas any day except the 17th, which was a Thursday night, because she couldn't get off work. She really, REALLY wanted to have a Christmas party because she missed last year and she missed her brothers. So, I took two vacation days from work, her brothers all made arrangements to get out of work early, the kids were kept up late although they had school the next day, etc. When we all got together she announced that she was off work until the day after Christmas, she had "traded shifts". So, the entire family made special arrangements for what appears to be no good reason. Oh well, such happens in families.

Other than that, things went amazingly well, last year was the first without Dad and it was a learning experience. I think we might just go to snacks and appetizers instead of a full meal for the Christmas Eve party, but that is the only change we're considering.

Annie

Lars, I agree with May about January or February. Actually, towards the end of February isn't bad at all in Texas, if moving the...event...is something you can do. Can you expect more participation in the cooking next time, like a potluck? The family could always rent a room at a great Tex-Mex place and let someone else do the cooking.

Nothing went wrong this year as we stayed in during a holiday snowstorm. Keeping off the roads was the smartest decision, and the lack of stress (to me) and foregoing a forced family get-together is always welcome. Neither do I cook any more for people who only expect the reason I am there is to take care of them, while they do absolutely nothing to participate. (I've had too much experience with this, can you tell?) Actually, we quit spending the Christmas/New Year's holiday with family, which was my best decision ever!

Claire, I do agree that not spending Christmas/New Year's is the best decision for us, but January is still cold in Texas and too close to Christmas, and February is iffy, although my parents' anniversary and my birthday are in late February, and we've gone for that before. I was born on their 3rd anniversary. March 2nd is Texas Independence Day, and Kevin's birthday is March 16, either of which we could also commemorate. March is the only month when I consider the weather to be better in Texas than it is in Los Angeles, and so that was part of the consideration. Since everyone else in the family lives in Texas, I thought there should be some consession to us, since we are the ones who have to fly. I missed my niece's wedding because she held it in early August (could have been lethal for me), but I went to my nephew's because it was in October, and that is a delightful month in Texas. Kevin and I would be thrilled if everyone came to our house for Christmas, but that just isn't going to happen.

I'm thinking of expanding the family reunion to include some close cousins, and so maybe we will rent a room, like we did for our parents' 50th wedding anniversay. For their 60th, we went to the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, which is very close to Temple. It's not as nice as Fredericksburg, but somewhat similar. My nephew was married in Salado.

Lars

The biggest mistake I made was to let stepson bring his girlfriend from Singapore to stay with us. She's very different and everything from my birthday to New Year was ruined. We have had so many problems in just a week and now the family is split up. I should have stood my ground and said "no". Trying to be nice doesn't always warrant nice rewards. Al

Annie, our family Christmas gatheriing is held toward the first or second week in December. We have one daughter who has always lived out of state since before she was married. I could understand why she whined about being the only one that couldn't be with us on Christmas after her children were born so I suggested we have an early Christmas and it has worked very well. We started off with a big meal each year but then I suggested we have heavy hors d'ouvres instead and we love it.

Since I am the "Matriarch" and also the oldest the family lets me suggest because they know I would anyhow. They don't always take my suggestions though.LOL

jude

Lars, SXSW is a blast. Plan your holiday for before or after so you can go and enjoy the music!

No issues this year. All meals and parties went smoothly. We're still waiting to see if MIL will drive up (45min) on NY day to watch the little one while we take the boys to Boston for the outdoor hockey game. She likes to keep us guessing and add drama to every situation. Little Lulu is going to sleep over a friend's house NYE and they've offered to keep her for the day if MIL backs out, so we're good either way. I've been much better this year about making back up plans so her nuttiness doesn't get in the way.

AM

Lars, I think you and I are living proof that growing up in a place does not mean you ever get used to the weather there. I can think of nothing that would get me to set foot in my home state between the months of May and September. If I had to go to Texas, I think I'd pick the same months you did...or maybe February.

No issues here this year. Of course we didn't know if DH would be home or not, but we simply decided to play things by ear and not get obligated to anyone except each other. That worked out very well. His schedule is out of our hands, so there's no point is stressing over it or subjecting anyone else to it.

What went wrong?? A blizzard went wrong....and a day of flooding rain followed by freezing temperatures...
And the family that was supposed to arrive Wednesday in time for dinner, came Tuesday just after lunch so they wouldn't get stuck in the storm....and then Christmas day dawned cold and snowy with ice on the roads followed by 6 inches of snow....so "Christmas" was put off until the next day...and because of the weather a family of 4 friends didn't make the trip....so I had a turkey meant to feed 17 to feed 13.....
But outside of that, all went well.....when we eventually got to celebrate!
Linda C

Having lived in Bryan, TX for 2 very painful years, I understand trying to limit trips to March and October! If I even whisper that I feel it's too muggy here on a summer day, DH threatens to ship me back to Texas!

Nothing went wrong here over Christmas. It was fine, although kind of sad in a way. My parents were here for a week, and I cooked non-stop from the 22nd until the 28th. In the past, mom would share some of the cooking or at the very least help out, but she didn't this year. Dad did help wash and peel the veggies for Christmas dinner, and that did help. The Christmas dinner itself was terrific, and we had enough leftovers for the next night. The following night, I made an awesome split-pea soup that everyone loved.

However, I have decided I'm not doing a big Christmas dinner again. Even with prepping much of it the day before, I spent the bulk of two days in the kitchen rather than spending time with my family. I think we'll go back to doing cheese fondue on Christmas next year!

Well, the only thing that went wrong for us, which wasn't really any problem, was that for some reason I thought DH's family get-together, which I was doing the bulk of the cooking for, though it was being held at SIL's house which is more convenient for everyone, was to be at lunch time on the 24th. So I knocked myself out the day before doing most of the cooking and prep, including roasting the turkey and slicing it up so it just needed reheating, so we could pack it all into coolers and drive down to overnight at SIL's before having a fairly cruisy morning getting lunch ready.
As it turned out, on arrival we found out it was to be dinner the next day instead of lunch ("It's ALWAYS dinner!"- don't know why I have memories of lunch )), but no hassle, meant for an even cruisier day :-) I even got to go shopping and got some awesome cheeses which I will celebrate New Year with!
I elected to cook this year as SIL indicated last year she was kind of over it, as she had taken up the slack from MIL as MIL is nearly 80 now and while a competent cook, doesn't really enjoy it. I also wanted to shake it up a little, as the SIL who has been vailantly cooking all these years has felt she had to conform to DH's family norm, which isn't her family's style, and I think she misses it. So I felt confident enough to unilaterally declare we would have an amalgamation of styles, and it would be a buffet to avoid the aspect that has driven me crazy for over 25 years, of us all sitting dutifully while FIL carves miniscule slivers off the turkey and places a few on each plate to pass, meanwhile everything's getting cold... Also one could have as much or as little of anything as one liked, instead of feeling like a gannet for asking for another sliver of turkey :-)
So, we had turkey with gravy, cranberries and bread sauce, really crispy roast potatoes (I was pleased with them), brussels sprouts (at other SIL's insistence, which rather surprised me as she's a picky eater), carrots, my SIL baked a ham, we had cold jumbo shrimp with homemade shrimp sauce, coleslaw, kipfler potato salad, olives and sundried tomatoes and some scrummy pickled pineapple that glenda_al posted the recipe for over at the KT. DH loves that pineapple! Dessert was my MIL's trifle, which I love, and my BIL's Czech fiancee brought the rest, she made the most awesome individual flans, poppy seed strudel which I also love and isn't very common here (we don't really have the ethnic mix that goes for poppy seed sweet things here and I miss that as I grew up with them so it's great having V in the family!) and apple strudel. We could barely waddle away from the table :-D
Christmas dinner was just DH and I as DD went to Noosa to be with her best friend and best friend's partner, where they were joined yesterday by DD's boyfriend who had to work for Christmas. It was our first Christmas without her but we accepted long ago that as an adult she would have other Christmas obligations and we weren't going to guilt her into always coming here. My mother did that and I hated it as with DH's job it was often astoundingly inconvenient bordering on potentially lethal as we juggled driving two hours each way combined with physical exhaustion due to DH having to be at work at 3am...
I roasted another turkey (which we have just finished :-) ) with all the trimmings and we ate ourselves to a standstill and then fell alsleep on the couch :-D
BTW the temperature here the day before yesterday was 47C / 116.6F :-)

Never....again.....not gonna do it. Not ever gonna cook for my ungrateful family again. Spent two days in the kitchen only for them to sit down, hork it all down, and stand up and leave with the dishes still on the table. No 'thank you, that was lovely', no 'I'll help with the dishes' (we don't have a dishwasher), and I'm now done with them.

Lars - I live in NW FL - it's pretty much the edge of hell as far as heat goes for 11 mos. out of the year, so I can relate to your only wanting to travel in March or Oct.