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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to come up with creative ways to

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Speaker 1: split the holidays. If you have a big family, Inevitably

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Speaker 1: some folks are going to need or want to spend

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Speaker 1: holidays with other sides of the family. But if you

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Speaker 1: plan well, you might be able to see everyone and

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Speaker 1: avoid bad feelings. Two, if you have a partner, it

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Speaker 1: is possible that you live near both sides of your family,

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Speaker 1: or maybe one family loves to celebrate Thanksgiving while another

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Speaker 1: leans more into Christmas or another religious holiday. If so,

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Speaker 1: that is great, but many families wind up in more

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Speaker 1: complicated situations. Two sets of grandparents are many hours away

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Speaker 1: from each other and both want their whole broods under

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Speaker 1: their roofs. Or maybe one particular family member can't or

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Speaker 1: won't travel or has to work on the holiday itself,

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Speaker 1: which means that people more often than not wind up

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Speaker 1: going to them. That means these travelers don't get to

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Speaker 1: spend holiday time at home, which many people like to

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Speaker 1: do too. You can alternate doing Christmas and Thanksgiving with

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Speaker 1: each side of the family. But what if another set

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Speaker 1: of siblings is on a different schedule, then you are

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Speaker 1: never seeing them. Ideally, everyone is accommodating, but that doesn't

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Speaker 1: always happen. It can lead to hard feelings. But I

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Speaker 1: recently heard an idea which I find in treguing and

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Speaker 1: is a good one for the matriarch or patriarch of

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Speaker 1: a far flung or big family to implement. That is,

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Speaker 1: you establish a holiday gathering time that is not Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: or Christmas. You all gather on your family's particular celebration day,

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Speaker 1: but that leaves the other days open for families who

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Speaker 1: wish or need to celebrate with their other side of

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Speaker 1: the family, or who'd like to stay home. Your family's

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Speaker 1: celebration day could still be around the holidays. For instance,

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Speaker 1: you could host your big holiday gathering on a mid

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Speaker 1: December weekend. You all gather on, say December. People might

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Speaker 1: need to take a day or two off work to travel,

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Speaker 1: but maybe not too many days. And in any case,

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Speaker 1: for folks who work in say law enforcement or at

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Speaker 1: a hospital, it might be easier to request the days

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Speaker 1: around or seventeen off than an actual holiday. You can

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Speaker 1: all celebrate and then people can spend Christmas or Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: at home or with other relatives if they wish, or

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Speaker 1: those who are available can gather again if they want to.

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Speaker 1: More family time, fewer bad feelings now. To be sure,

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Speaker 1: there are often a lot of office parties and kid

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Speaker 1: Christmas events and such on December weekends, So to make

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Speaker 1: this even easier on people, you might host your holiday

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Speaker 1: gathering the weekend after New Year's whatever that happens to be.

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Speaker 1: I will note that the twelve days of Christmas actually

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Speaker 1: happen after Christmas, extending to January six. Many places still

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Speaker 1: have their lights up, and it might be easier to

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Speaker 1: get tickets if you are the frugal sort. I'd note

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Speaker 1: that having a family holiday party around January six means

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Speaker 1: you've got a week of shopping time available during the

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Speaker 1: biggest sales of the year. How much of a win

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Speaker 1: is that, plus you stretch out the fun. January can

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Speaker 1: be bleary in many places, having a big celebration to

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Speaker 1: look forward to pushes any duldrums off a few weeks

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Speaker 1: closer to spring. So if you've got a big family

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Speaker 1: you'd like to see, and many of your family members

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Speaker 1: have other sides of the family that they need or

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Speaker 1: want to see, then consider instituting a non holiday holiday.

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Speaker 1: The holidays are more about spending time with loved ones

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Speaker 1: than the actual dates themselves. If you can arrange to

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Speaker 1: spend time with your whole family without causing tough choices,

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Speaker 1: that's really a huge present you are giving to everyone.

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Speaker 1: It is definitely better than another tie. In the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for this thing, and here's to

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Speaker 1: making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love

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Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,

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Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the

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Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i

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Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

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Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward

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Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

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