Disney

Our Family Tradition Of Going Home For The Holidays

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I am happy to be sharing about our tradition of going home for the holidays in partnership with Disney/Pixar for the release of Finding Dory.

family pa photos

Finding Dory is being released just in time for the holidays. I hope Emmy isn’t reading this because we plan to buy it for her so she can watch it again! It is now available on Blu-ray™, Digital HD & Disney Movies Anywhere

As long as I can remember, the holidays were spent with family. Each Christmas morning my brothers and I would wake up early and run into my parent’s bedroom, and wake them up as soon as the sun started to rise. Sometimes it was even earlier than that, but as we got older we let them sleep in a little bit! After we got ready for the day, had breakfast, and opened presents, it was time to set off to my grandparents’ homes. We lived in Pennsylvania and both sets of my grandparents lived in opposite directions, so we had to leave bright and early to be able to spend as much time with each of them. It normally worked out that we had lunch with one of them and dinner with the other.

christmas-morning

This made for a pretty busy day (especially if it was snowing,) but it is one of my favorite memories from my childhood. I know it was special for my parents too… because they got to go home and bring their young family with them!

christmas

Now that I have a family of my own, Heather and I decided early on that we would continue the tradition. My parents and both of my brothers moved to California not too long after we were married. As soon as they were on this coast, we started having Christmas at our home and then going to Heather’s parent’s house for an early dinner, and then to my parent’s house for dessert. The kids love this just as much as we do!

A couple months ago, I took the girls to see Finding Dory, and as I watched it I could relate to the story and the feeling of going home and how important it is to have a place to go home to. For me home is where my family is. The places I have gone home to have changed over the years, but one thing that hasn’t is that home is where the people I love are.

FINDING DORY

Do you go home for the holidays too?

Pete Reese
the authorPete Reese
Pete is a Dad of 3, travel enthusiast, and online entrepreneur who brings the adventure to our lives! He constantly encourages us to take risks and be the best we can be! He loves sharing tips to help others earn an income online so that they too can travel and spend more time with their families.

49 Comments

  • Aww, that’s so sweet! I haven’t seen Finding Dory yet, but my kids have. We’re planning on watching it over the holidays with our extended family! I

  • We normally stay home for the holidays. This year we have decided to go and stay at Disney for a couple days.

  • Finding Dory is one of those movies that really drives home how important family is. We loved the movie exactly because of that reason.

  • We always spend the Holidays with family. My Parents go to Florida for the winter so I do not get to see them until I travel there in January.

  • Our family is all about being together for the holidays, as well. I can’t think of one Christmas or Thanksgiving where we haven’t all been together.

  • Those sound like wonderful Christmas memories! I love spending time with my cousins and my family each year at Christmas time. Now my family comes to visit us because we live in a warmer climate. I love spending my time with family.

  • Thankfully all of our immediate family lives here locally or is just a short 4-5 hour car ride away. I could not imagine spending the holidays without them!

  • You said it right: there’s no place like home – especially for the holidays. I still have yet to watch Finding Dory! Perhaps my husband got it for me for Christmas! hehe

  • It’s so important to be somewhere where you feel comfortable and relaxed during the holidays. I love your point of view in all of this!

  • So cute. I love family traditions. We take a photo every year of the kids hanging their stockings. I need to pull them out and compare one of these days. Finding Dory is a favorite for us!

  • I don’t go anywhere for the holidays, but I do love watching movies with my girls. We tend to stay up late on Christmas Eve to watch movies together. It’s so nice.

  • What a special time to look forward to with your family! We saw Finding Dory and it was so cute! Can’t wait to get the blu-ray!

  • Since I’ve started my own family, getting home to my parents or my boyfriends parents has gotten tougher and tougher. We do try to make it a point to at least see our families a week or two before/after the holiday, even if we can’t be with them on the actual holiday.

  • I never had the opportunity to travel for the holidays. Our family all live within 7 miles of us with the closest being across the street.

  • I am lucky that we leave near our family on both sides. I can’t imagine being apart for the holidays! Love your family traditions.

  • I’m always home for the holidays. I don’t really travel much, so I stay home often. We do a lot of family get togethers during the holidays, but luckily my family lives close by.

  • No one lives back home anymore, but I would definitely go home for the holidays if everyone was still there. Now we have everyone come to us.

  • We usually join my husband’s family. Mine are deceased. His family is really close knit, and they are quite welcoming to me. Christmas with his family is always good.

  • There’s nothing like going home for the Holidays! This makes me miss our family get togethers during Christmas! It’s nice that you decided to continue with the tradition. That’s an awesome thing to teach your kids.

  • I love family traditions and I stick to mine pretty tight. However this year we moved from California to Ohio, to be closer to family. This year will be full of changes. I can’t wait to see Finding Dory, I think we are planning to watch it as a family over Thanksgiving.

  • Fortunately, we live close enough to our parents that we can make it to every holiday. We always spend Christmas morning at home with our children then visit each side of the family the day of and the day following Thanksgiving/Christmas.

  • My family lives blocks away from us so every year we all gather at my house. Tons of great memories here. Love it!

  • We don’t necessarily go home for the holidays but we do spend Christmas day and a couple days after with family. I love this time of year!

  • I wish we could go home for the holidays. I am from a good 3 hour drive away from where I am living now and I really wish I had family back there to go back to and visit. I miss it a lot.

  • My family is spread out across the country and we aren’t able to see them all that much. We do have family nearby and we like to visit with everyone that we can on Christmas Eve.

  • We always spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my husband’s side of the family. Since my mom passed, my dad usually does a simple Christmas. We also open gifts with the kids on Christmas eve and get their surprise from Santa.

  • My family lives in another country, so we can’t visit them for all the holidays. We visit my inlaws and my husband’s grandparents during the holidays, though. We have some Skype time with my family.

  • Lucky for me, I live “near home” so I don’t have far to go. It hasn’t always been that way though so we had several years of traveling home for the holidays. That can be so stressful, but also so rewarding.

  • Your story sounds so much like mine. Waking early presents and then to grandma ‘s house. I too have carried on this tradition with my children. A very busy day indeed but also love that time when we are back home.

  • This is cute and your family is lovely! I really love the matching PJs. I’m trying to get that tradition started in my household 🙂

    Silvia

  • My kids are old, but not old enough for coming home for the holidays to be a tradition because they already come home a lot. It is a great tradition though and I do hope that when the time comes, I can make it one of our family traditions too.

  • This post made me a bit teary! We used to go visit my in laws for Thanksgiving and for Christmas week. Both have passed away a log time ago, but I miss them always the most around the holidays.

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