But 2 months into my maternity leave, I realize we do need that structure. With TJ home all the time, our days are largely the same, and we find them slipping away in a haze of feeding everyone, getting the girls to nap, and next thing you know, it's 6pm and time to start dinner and the bedtime routine. Not to mention it gets dark here around 3:30 so the days seem really short. T is in preschool four mornings a week, so we're constrained to three days for Big Fun Stuff.
So on Thanksgiving weekend, we sat down and made a list of the fun things we're going to do this holiday season. I'm pleased to report we've done 7 or 8 of them already (in RED below)!
The 2012 Creath Family Holiday Fun List:
- Make and eat pancakes at home
- Go to the Rumble Slide park
- Go downtown to look at the decorations
- See the holiday Kindermusik show at Benaroya Hall
- Visit Leavenworth
- Take a weekend trip to San Juan Islands or Vancouver (maybe in January)
- Make and eat apple pie oatmeal
- Be jolly
- See snow
- Make, decorate and eat Christmas cookies
- Make, decorate and NOT eat Christmas ornaments
- Make a Santa Claus ornament
- Do Christmas snowman craft (Target kit)
- Invite people over for an Open House
- Dance
- Take puppies to the dog park
- Ride the B bus (Trillian's idea. This is just a shuttle between transit centers. She's 3.)
- Drink milk (Trillian says this is what BabyM wants to do)
- Listen to Christmas music
- Put up our Christmas tree
- Eat ham and pie for Christmas dinner (do you sense a theme?)
- Book Advent countdown
- Send out real holiday cards
- Make real Belgian waffles at home
What about you? Do you make a list?
OMG. "Drink milk." Awesome.
ReplyDeleteHubs and i went to London/Germany by ourselves last year around Thanksgiving and got a Ritter Sport advent calendar to bring home. The thing, void of mini Ritter Sports now, is too terrific to throw out so i kept it. This year, thanks to the extra week between Thanksgiving and December, i managed to put something fun in each slot - it's similar to your list (in theory, anyway) which i will liberally borrow from this year. I have it in a Word doc if you'd like me to send it to you for future reference - yesterday's was "Wrestling Night" (husband's idea, natch) and was a big hit. Tonight's is "Peppermint Ice Cream Night", also husband's idea.
(I've been meaning to email you some holiday book recs for your Book Advent anyway.)
I replied via email but not sure if it worked...
DeleteI'd love to see your list, and hear your book recos! We'll get a few new ones each year.
Love the idea of a grownup vacation. Not sure that's going to happen any time soon :(
Looks like a lot of fun for you all this December. :)
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! Hope you are able to accomplish all those fun things!
ReplyDeleteI don't create a special christmas to-do list, but I do try to get into the mood with holiday specials, music and hot chocolate, and some decorating/lights!
ReplyDeleteWe are also huge fans of hot chocolate!
DeleteOh how fun is this!!! I am going to add this to our family traditions!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun list! Great ideas! As a stay-at-home mom for ten years, I completely relate to how the days can get away from you!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. The list itself is DD worthy. I have a rough idea in my head, but sitting down to talk about it is a great family activity too.
ReplyDeleteThat was really the fun part - some of the things T came up with were surprising and I never would have thought of them myself.
DeleteI think the other thing to think about when considering that we do this is that we are SUPER tight on time. Jon and I both work until 5, the boys are in sports and they have homework, and we have lots of stuff to do on weekends. Without a list, it is way too easy for us to just plod along without getting the extra fun of the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI mean seriously, we had to block out our calendars in SEPTEMBER to be able to find a date to close on a beach house and be away for an entire weekend. And being away for 3 days after houseguests meant being up until midnight 3 days this past week to get stuff done for the holidays and the closing.
Totally worth it though.
Yes, it is nuts how busy things can get. We're a little less constrained now without jobs ;) but getting together with other people - OMG. And there's still T's school schedule to contend with.
DeleteWhat a great list. And frankly if you don't get all that done during the "holiday" season, some of those can be ported over to "after the holiday" season check list. = )
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely - that was the plan for Vancouver or San Juan Islands. We just ran out of weekends in December for that trip ;)
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