Inhale and exhale.

I am finally taking a long overdue deep breath. 

The holidays for my family is such a culmination of traditions from all over the globe, and while it is insanely busy, I would not trade it for the world.

My husband and I were once referred to as ‘unicorns’ at the US Embassy in Toronto, and while I sit back and think about it, I could not think of a better way to describe our family. My husband and I are both dual citizens of Canada and the US within our own right; his mother being a US citizen and my mother being a US citizen.

Our children are now dual thanks to my husband’s service in the Marine Corps. We live in a border town, he works in the States and I work in Canada, and we are literally the most freakin’ grateful individuals – reaping the benefits of both amazing nations.

But that’s not even the half of it – my husband comes from a mixed heritage being mostly French Canadian/Métis and Pennsylvania Dutch.  He grew up attending Roman Catholic school and going to mass in the Lutheran Church – phewwww.

My family is Serbian Orthodox which in its own right is steeped in lots of old world traditions.  So, with that said, the holidays begin for us with American Thanksgiving and stretch all the way to Orthodox New Year (January 14th).

We rotate Thanksgiving annually between my husband’s family in Michigan and my family in Pittsburgh. This year we packed up the crew; along with my mom and set off for Pittsburgh where we spent time with my grandparents. My grandfather is an Orthodox priest – we spend a lot of time keeping things pretty conservative when he is around.

Thanksgiving dinner this year fell during Advent so on top of having a traditional turkey dinner, we also had a full seafood menu lovingly prepared by my aunt. 

We spent a lot of time lounging, eating and watching Disney+. My uncle could have been a standup comedian in a prior life so we also spend a lot of time laughing to the point of almost peeing our pants.

Because Thanksgiving fell so late this year, I literally had the house set up for Christmas a few days before our 5-hour drive to Pittsburgh. When we got home Christmas festivities were literally in full swing.

A few of our weekends were spent in Michigan shopping and visiting my husband’s maternal side. His maternal grandmother, currently, has 15 great grandkids under 10 which is absolute chaos when we get together, but honestly, some of the best memories of our children’s lives. His grandmother is literally one of the most thoughtful gift givers – pouring her heart into handmade quilts for the grandkids and gifting us Kennedy half dollars collected by my husband’s late grandfather.

By December 25th we attended 5 family Christmas’ and by January 5th 3 Friendmas’. Two birthday parties (my dad’s big 60th), one date night, a wrapping present party with my husband’s step-grandparents, a night at Greenfield Village with friends and my mom, my daughters first singing recital and my middle baby’s first piano recital. A Christmas Concert/Turkey Luncheon at the kid’s school, the town parade with friends and my mother-in-law, St. Nicholas Day and finally Orthodox Christmas where my daughters débuted in the Nativity play as a lamb and singing in the children’s choir. And a “PARTRIDGE IN A FRIGGEN’ PEAR TREE.”

We baked, we gingerbreaded, we arts and crafted, we shopped, movie marathoned, gameboarded, laughed, drank and cuddled in matching pyjamas and we went to bed exhausted – ‘while visions of sugar plums danced in our heads’. But, when the kids tell me that their family is the best, I am renewed with new energy every time. It is so fun to be able to introduce our children to family traditions, some of which have been passed down for literally hundreds of years, while we create new ones. I am blessed to have married my unicorn of a husband and to share all these unique experiences and traditions with our kids.