Holiday Traditions

So our families are planning the holiday celebrations, and Isaiah and I are trying to figure out  what traditions we want to have, and how to mesh our families and all that fun stuff with being a new family. Things like Christmas is a huge thing for my family, and I love Christmas, and Isaiah's families big deal is Thanksgiving. How do we celebrate things and mesh our separate family traditions into a new Tamblingson family tradition set. 

We know that some members of our family will not agree with everything we do, or feel hurt that we are not including certain traditions, and dealing with that has been hard for me. I want to make everyone happy, but I am starting to realize (after a year plus of marriage) that you can't make everyone happy in both families, and you have to make a new family together.

I think its taken getting to this point for me to realize that its not just two families meshing together, its a new family being created. How do you balance two families coming together, and yet still make your own family? Does it get easier once you have kids? 

Ugh, I don't like all these questions. I am so thankful that we have family that wants to celebrate with us, and that have given us some great traditions. I love our families, and wouldn't want to change them. They have passed on some great traditions and holidays to us, and now we have to figure out how to bring everything together.

So right now we are trying to figure out what is us? Last year we tried to make things our own, but we were also just married and it was a crazy time so we didn't really create traditions as much. But this year I am hoping we can really create traditions for us as a family. 

I would love to hear from you all. How did you mesh your families into a new family? What traditions are important to you (this is for the non-married folks too)? What suggestions do you have?