My kids and the holidays

every year the holidays come up i dread it terribly. MY X feels her family stuff is more important and i just want to see my kids for a little while on Christmas.  So it usually ends up an argument, where i eventually get my way and get them for a couple hours at least. I hate arguing about it because it puts them in the middle of our shit. And under normal circumstances my x and i get along very well.  Normally talk everyday about the kids, we are better friends now then we ever were together. Which is important to me because 1. we have kids together and 2. we live 3 blocks from each other in a very small town.

So this year i am trying to do my stuff early with going to my moms house and my dad's house in the days prior to Christmas to try and relive some stress on them, so maybe they can enjoy christmas instead of running around. My X will probably take them to upwards of 6 or 7 different houses on christmas. Thats nuts. Luckily last year Christmas fell on my weekend to have them so it wasnt a big argument about it, they were with me in the morning and with her all afternoon untill about 9 pm then came back home. Which i thought was a good idea, And i was apparently wrong in her eyes,

So hopefully this year things will be a little bit easier and less arguing, If i dont see them untill the 26th i can live with that, Anymore the holidays are for them and i would rather them smile and have fun with families from both sides over a couple days then try to pack it in 1 day and argue and bicker with my x for weeks on end cause we were 5 mins late meeting her or whatever.

Thanksgiving i just gave up on,not worth the arguments,  if i see them great if not i get them back on Friday anyway so it's no biggie.