2020 Holiday/ Winter Fun List

I finally sat down and brainstormed my holiday season/ winter fun list!

Here’s what I came up with:

🎄 Drive around town to look at local Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music. Either bring hot chocolate from home or pick some up from a drive thru.

🎄Bake cookies together. This one’s a no brainer, but worth listing. I might start this weekend. The #1 requested cookie at our house is hands down the Mexican Wedding Cookies- those little powdered sugar balls with nuts in them. They also like making the cut out sugar cookies and decorating them.

🎄Watch White Christmas! Mentioned before I’ve never seen that one and REALLY want to! Others we always usually watch: Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, The Santa Clause.

🎄Wrap presents with the kids (for each other/ Ivan/ grandparents). This can be painful as I kind of can’t stand watching them sloppily wrap presents, but I think it’s good for them to actually wrap what they are giving! Plus, they like doing it.

🎄Read a holiday book together! I just ordered this one called Winterfrost which looks fun.

I also might order this one: A Boy Called Christmas. It looks light and fun and like a quick easy read that we’d all enjoy.

🎄Go to some drive through holiday light displays. We already did the Madison one, and tonight we are going to one about an hour away that also has a life sized Nativity scene and some other outdoor attractions!

🎄If (when) it eventually snows again: Go for a walk in the snow! Preferably at night, while the neighborhood Christmas lights are all up. ALSO- I want to go sledding with them this year. Like, actually get on the sleds and ride down the hill with them. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, and who knows how much longer they’ll even want me to.

🎄This one is just for me: I’d like to carve out an hour or so to sit by the Christmas tree, with Christmas music on (NO TV/ video games in the background!) and sip some hot chocolate and read a good book by the fireplace. By myself. I’m not sure where exactly I will send my family (maybe just the basement?) so I can have this alone time, but I’ll report back. 🙂

🎄NEW YEARS:

I’d like to come up with some kind of “Year in Review” activity to do with the boys. Maybe some kind of special journal entry we do together…not sure exactly. I’m thinking maybe we could scroll through photos from each month this year and come up with a “Highlights” list or something from each month to record good things, funny things, weird things, etc. that happened this year together. Or at the very least, reflect on them out loud.

I’d also like to encourage them to give some thought to 2021 and consider setting some kind of little “goal” or “resolution”. I won’t hold my breath that they’ll want to set up 2021 dayplanners with me. That would probably be crossing the line. Hahahaha!

Finally, I’d like to carve out a little time (maybe the same time I have this magical fireplace reading time?) to read through my 2020 gratitude entries. My stack is almost complete!!

I’d better get hopping- Christmas is 2 weeks from tomorrow already!!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the kids being highly independent and doing an awesome job with their currently virtual learning.