My son and I make a homemade Italian dinner for Thanksgiving. We had it by ourselves last year when ABF was off somewhere on a bender. So being by ourselves is nothing new. The new part is that we will not be worried about anyone else's whereabouts!
For Christmas this year, we are not going to my FOOs like we did last year. My mom smokes like two chimneys and I have asthma and son has allergies, so it's a no-go. We usually just stay at my brother's and go visit my mom from there, but my brother is staying at her house this year. We haven't been invited to RABF's family celebrations at all. That stung at first.
But, we'll do what we do, and I think we'll have fun doing what we want to do. We love watching the Home Alone movies and I love "A Christmas Story". I have a feeling this year will be back to the more spiritual celebrations than what I was having with an A in the house.