They were our family away from Alabama. We spent all our holidays together and celebrations of our kids.

I grew up celebrating the holidays with cousins, aunts and uncles. And I wanted that for my kids even though we don't have family in South Florida.

The high holidays were always prepared for far in advance by my family.

I'm retired, so working on holidays really doesn't bother me. My family and I celebrated Christmas early this year, on Friday. It might be difficult for some people, but my family is accommodating, so it works for us.

A lot of people try to stick it out through the holidays. They don?t want to disrupt the family at that time. It?s not unusual that come January you start to see a lot of filings.

Many families are a part of family readiness groups that support each other during the holidays.