A Life In Review

This is our first real Christmas break since my oldest started full day school and I am so excited. The first thing on our list is going to be sleep in every single day. After that, I don’t know. Just kidding, I have ideas of things that I want to do and while I was coming up with a list for my family, I thought I’d write some ideas down and share them with your family too!

1. Pizza and a Movie Picnic: this is one of my very favorite things that we started doing last Christmas break. We line the couch with towels and we eat pizza as a family and watch a movie together and call it a picnic. We’ve done it all throughout the year and I look forward to it every time we do it.
2. Jump or Play Park: these are really popular right now and if you google it, I bet you can find one in driving distance. We have both near us and I love them. They are great for all ages and this is a great time to take advantage of them.
3. Trip to the Movies: I rarely take my kids to the movies because they’re so dang expensive, but it really is a fun experience and they are less expensive if you are able to go during the day.
4. Buy a Book Day: everyone gets to pick a book from the store and then go home and read ( you can set a time limit if you want), bonus if you have a used book store in town. If finances are tight, you can also visit the library together and do the same thing.
5. Donation Day: this time of year is a great reminder of how blessed a lot of us are. Take a couple hours as a family and pull together some blessing bags to hand out to a few people or families in need in your area. They can include used (YES used) and new items.
6. Yes Day: if you are feeling really bold you can give your kids a “yes day”. If you don’t know what that is, basically, within agreed upon parameters, the kids choose what you do and eat all day long and you have to say yes.
7. Karaoke/ Dance Party: My kids love to sing and dance, so this is right up our alley. You can make this as simple or complex as you want. But just make sure that you go all in with them. Make silly memories and sing silly songs, while you dance the night away. Get dressed up or stay in your pajamas, the point is, you’re doing it together.
8. Have a Holiday Day: okay, this seems silly to say, but sometimes we get so swept up in the season that we genuinely forget to just enjoy the holiday things. So on this day, you’ll throw on Christmas movies, light a Christmas candle. Bake cookies, decorate gingerbread houses. You’ll stay home and spend time just you guys. You won’t invite anyone over or go anywhere else. You just enjoy the season together, in a way most people don’t get to on the actual holiday.
9. Game Night: this is one of my favorite things to do with my husband and I am so excited that our daughter is finally at the age where she can start to join in on game night. Buy the snacks, gather round the table, throw some music on and put the phones away for a good ole fashioned game night.
10. Family Sleepover: there are a few ways to do this. Everyone can pile into the living room and have a big family sleepover. You can stay up late and eat snacks and watch movies. OR you can book a hotel, and take a day or two away. You don’t even have to leave the rooms. Find one with an indoor pool and just be together, somewhere else (bonus points if you live near a resort, those are epic).

Look, I know that the holiday season is incredibly busy already, and if you just want to sleep or lounge around the entire break, you can totally do that. I also know that some of you have to work the entire “break” and that is very unfortunate and I am SO sorry. For the rest of you, I hope you do some of these and genuinely take the time to be with your people in intentional ways because the days really are fleeting.