Seeking opinions & advice about Holidays

[Kari3110]

I am going to try to keep this organized for better understanding, so it may get long, sorry.

I come from a large (very large) extended family and my husband has a total of 6 people in his extended family (not inluding his parents and siblings). In an effort to keep our Holidays pleasant and build tradition, we have delegated 1 day per family and I have almost completely eliminated spending time with my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.

1 day in December we gather for about 4 hours with my Dad's side of the family. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are with my parents and siblings. Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve are with DH's family (including his extended family).

Since we started this 4 years ago, our siblings have all done the same, they really appreciate the relaxed feeling of not having to rush from house-to-house, meal-to-meal. All families know what and who to expect on each Holiday. With 4 siblings between DH and I and fa ew blended families between them, this adds up to A LOT of families.

1 person hates this arrangement...my Mother-in-Law. No matter how many times, or how many ways we explain the benefits (to us of course) of doing the Holidays this way, she still begs us to come to her house Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. My sister-in-law called me in a tizzy last night because MIL called her again asking about Christmas Day. My sister-in-law is the one who requested we never do Christmas Day because she wants their tradition to be at home the whole day with their kids. MIL acts as if we are out to make her holiday miserable...that is NOT what we are doing! We are trying to build happy memories. Chaos, rushing and annoyance do not make happy memories.

If my family enjoyed the company of DH's parents, we would invite them to our celebration...but friends, they are not.

Please tell me what your opinions are of my situation. I don't want my MIL to be so mad, but I also don't want to change the traditions of all the other families involved or give up time with my family.