Every major holiday, married BYU students must make the decision of which in-laws they will spend the holiday with. This Thanksgiving is no exception.

School, work, travel time and finances all become involved in deciding where to spend the holidays.

"The holidays become especially hectic when you're married," said Mike Ord, a senior finance major from Rancho Sante Fe, Calif. "My family lives in California and my wife's family live in Arizona, so we have to switch off every year."

This Thanksgiving will be the second Thanksgiving Ord and his wife, Liz Ord, have spent married.

Liz Ord, a senior public relations major from Phoenix, Az., said the couple usually switches off every year, spending Thanksgiving in California and Christmas in Arizona or vice versa. Last year, however, was an exception for the Ords.

"My family spent last Thanksgiving in Coronado, California at the beach," Liz said. "Mike's family lives about 40 minutes from Coronado so we went back and forth between the two houses and families."

The situation seemed to be ideal for the couple, but in the end the travel time proved to be a problem.

"We ended up driving back and forth between the beach house and the Ord's nonstop," she said. "It felt like we actually spent Thanksgiving in the car."

Andi and Mark Rawlins have a different challenge this Thanksgiving.

Mark Rawlins recently graduated from BYU in marketing and is living in New York City for a job while Andi Rawlins, a senior horticulture business major from Gustine, Calif., is finishing school at BYU. She will join her husband in New York in December when she graduates.

Because of this complication, Mark is flying to Provo before Thanksgiving. The couple will spend Thanksgiving in Idaho with Mark's family. Mark and Andi will then travel back to Springville where they will pack up their apartment in preparation to Andi's move to New York.

"We wanted to spend Thanksgiving with Mark's family since we'll be spending Christmas with my family," Andi said.

Balancing the time spent with families and in-laws over the holidays becomes increasingly difficult the further apart the families live, said Ashley Harris, a senior community health major from San Clemente, Calif.

Harris and her husband Todd Harris, a senior electrical engineering major from Orange, Calif., married this past summer. This holiday season will be the first where the two will have to balance time between families.

Todd Harris' parents recently moved from California to New York so Todd and Ashley have decided to spend Thanksgiving in St. George with Ashley's family and travel to New York to be with the Harris' for Christmas.

"It'll be nice to spend Thanksgiving with my family in St. George and Christmas with his family in New York," Harris said. "I'll miss being with my family for Christmas, but I guess marriage is all about compromises."



Copyright Brigham Young University 22 Nov 2002