Just One Mom Trying: family night

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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Christmas Traditions Box: Build a TP Snowman Game + Candy Cane Drop Game

I love getting together with friends at Christmastime. This past weekend we visited a family friend. She hosted a delicious dinner followed by games for the kids. One of the games they played was Build a TP Snowman Game. Next year we will add this game to our Christmas box.

Here's how you play:

Build a TP Snowman Game

Materials: one roll of toilet paper per team, paper carrots, paper eyes (just cut out of paper- one set per team)

This is a relay game. Divide your players into two teams. One person from each team is chosen to be "the snowman." Players "build" a snowman by wrapping a teammate in toilet paper. They have to use the entire roll of toilet paper before taping on the carrot nose and eyes. The first team to complete their snowman wins! You can add a hat, buttons, etc.

The kids had a great time. Even the losing team was cracking jokes.

"Here. I'm covering your face so you can't see how badly we're losing." HAHA!

Last week we did include a game for our kids to open in our Christmas Traditions gift box. We included the instructions and materials for the game. It's an easy game to play so everyone can participate, the setup is a cinch, and the materials are cheap. It's my kind of family game.

How to play:

Candy Cane Drop Game:

Tie some ribbon or twine between the backs of two chairs about 3-4 feet apart. Players can either kneel or stand on the chairs as they drop a candy cane (real or fake) and try to get it to stay on the ribbon. The first player to get a candy cane to stay on the ribbon wins. Or you can take turns and whomever gets the most candy canes to stay on the ribbon wins.

Dollar Tree has fake candy cane ornaments that work great for this game. So many candy canes bounced off the ribbon and onto the floor so fake candy canes were ideal. If you use real candy canes, I would suggest playing the game on carpet to minimize broken candy canes.

Our family loved this game. Even grandma joined in on the fun to see if she could beat us out.

Christmas Traditions Box: Indoor Snowball Fight

Emily 8:58 PM 0 Comments

When we lived in California we dreamed of a typical white Christmas. But the only white Christmas we got was sand. I didn't complain and we still got some type of "snow" when we made our own snowballs for an indoor snowball fight. They were a "hit" if you know what I mean.

I posted the instructions on how to make these snowballs years ago. I am posting them again for you now.

You will need the following three things to make these:

1) Scissors

2) White or cream-colored nylons- I buy the cheap $1 pair at Walmart. (In the photo are knee-highs that I already had on hand. A full pair works better and you'll get a lot more out of them.) One knee-high can produce up to 5 snowballs. One leg of a full pair of nylons can produce about 10.)

3) Poly-fil to stuff the nylon.

What you're going to do:

1) Grab a handful of the Poly-fil and stuff your stocking (just enough for one snowball). Then make a knot.

2) Make ANOTHER knot after the one you JUST made, leaving a little space between the two knots.

3) Cut between the two knots.

4) Repeat steps 1-3. Below is something you can do but you MUST remember to do step 2 or else you will waste a whole snowball.

Here's what you'll have:

We made hundreds of these last year for a Christmas party we had.

HOW TO PLAY:

If you are going to have a snowball fight, divide the group of people into two teams and divide the snowballs equally between the two teams.

Create boundaries. You can either put some masking tape down on the carpet to divide the room in half, or play on an indoor basketball court, or anywhere that has a boundary line. The teams must stay on their side of the line and cannot cross it.

Set a timer. Let them fight for 5 minutes or however long you'd like the fight to go on. You can have "rounds" of fights if you'd like.

At your signal, the teams will begin to throw snowballs at the other team. When time is up, each team will count the remaining snowballs on their own territory. The team with the LEAST amount of snowballs on their side is deemed the WINNER! (I like this part because they have to clean up the snowballs to see who the winner is.)

This is a great game for preschool, play dates, Christmas parties, birthday parties, office parties, or at home with your own family.

# Christmas # crafts

Christmas Traditions Box: Gingerbread House + Recipe

Emily 7:36 PM 1 Comments

Each year we assemble a gingerbread house. We started with buying the gingerbread house kits at the store. A couple of years ago we wanted a house that reflected our family history. We came across a cute Swedish style gingerbread house template on the Martha Stewart website. So we made the gingerbread from scratch.

Last year's house.

This year's house. (100% decorated by the kids)

Click HERE for an awesome recipe for gingerbread houses and a royal icing for assembling your house.

Now, if you decide to do this, I have an important suggestion. Once you have baked your gingerbread and have cut out your pieces, let your pieces dry out for a week or more. You want those pieces nice and hard to keep them from breaking during assembly.

Icing suggestions:

* To fill your piping bag: place your piping bag or your gallon freezer bag in a tall glass or cup. Open the bag and fold the open edges over the rim of the glass. Spoon your icing into the open bag without the mess.

* When the icing is not being used, place the piping bag in a tall glass with a wet paper towel at the bottom. It will keep your icing tip from hardening.

Candy suggestions:

* Shop your local grocery store, Sprouts, or Winco to find candy in the bulk barrels. You can control how much candy you will need/use for your gingerbread house. There is often a greater selection for candy that you can't find prepackaged.

Dating at Home: Get creative! Pick out a template online or create your own house. Build your dream house with your spouse. Don't forget the Christmas music. :)

# candy # Christmas

Monday, December 11, 2017

Christmas Traditions Box: Sugar Cookies

Emily 9:02 PM 0 Comments

What's Christmas without cookies and treats? We do a lot of holiday baking. My kids love to decorate sugar cookies. It is a two-day process for us. I make the dough on one day and let it chill overnight. The next day we actually bake and decorate the cookies.

I love this recipe for sugar cookies because they are soft and remind me of the Lofthouse sugar cookies. My kids will eat any frosting but I prefer to use butter over shortening. This recipe originally called for shortening in the frosting but I changed it to butter for personal preference.

This year my daughter is on a gluten-free diet. We made 2 batches- one with gluten-free flour and another with regular all-purpose flour. Both batches turned out great. Our candy selection was scarce (and gluten-free) but we still had fun. Can't go wrong with cookies, right?

Click HERE to download and print our Christmas Sugar Cookie and Frosting recipes.

What cookies do you bake at Christmastime?

# Christmas # cookies

Christmas Tradition Box: Chocolate Advent Calendars and Polar Express Night

Emily 8:20 PM 0 Comments

I love Christmastime! I love the activities and traditions we do as a family. And the time we spend together to play is my favorite. In the next few blog posts, I will share some of our activities and traditions we do this time of year.

This year I started to present our activities in a gift box. Each day or two in December my kids get to open the box and see what activity we will do that day. It has been fun for them to open their surprise and anticipate some family time.

On December 1st we filled "the box" twice. In the morning the kids opened the box to find chocolate advent calendars to countdown the days until Christmas.

We refilled the box in the afternoon for the kids to open after school to reveal our evening family activity- Polar Express Movie Night.

In the box we included:

Polar Express DVD
Recipe for Creamy Hot Chocolate (found at the end of this post)
Marshmallows, candy canes for hot chocolate mix-ins
Popcorn
Bells (Dollar Tree had some really cute bells this year in silver and gold.)

I didn't print any cute tickets but there are plenty on the internet you can download.

Each year our family opens up Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. However, my sister changed this tradition and has her kids open up their pajamas on December 1st so her kids can wear them all through December. I think that we may have to switch up our tradition as well. Next year pajamas may be included in our box.

We loved watching the Polar Express together and loved our hot chocolate. Mmm. Here's a recipe we found and changed up a bit to our liking.

Click HERE to download and print the recipe.

Merry Christmas!

# Christmas # family

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Family Night: Home Art Gallery

Emily 6:45 AM 0 Comments

For family night we painted with watercolors and created our own little gallery in our hallways.

My husband is a real artist and knows what he's doing. My daughter has inherited a lot of his skills. I have no idea what I'm doing but we had fun doing something different and together.

After hanging up all of our masterpieces my 3-year old daughter said, "Now our house looks cool!"

"TV"

"Between Heaven and Earth"

"Jungle"

If you want to try something different with your family, or even for a date night, grab some cheap watercolor paints and paint away! Hang up your pictures and make your house look "cool." Give your paintings a title or dedicate them to someone.

# dating at home # family night

Monday, January 2, 2012

Thank You Notes: Tips for Meaningful Thanks

Emily 8:44 AM 0 Comments

Writing thank you notes are important when someone has done something nice for you. With Christmas just ending, it is time to bust out the thank you's.

Some pointers for writing thank you notes:

Write a thank you note with nice, clean paper and a pen. Use your own handwriting. Send it in the mail, stamp and all.
Send it in a timely fashion. Do not procrastinate! It's best to send your note within a week of the event- but better late than never.
Be specific in your expression of thanks. (See below)
NEVER mention anything that was wrong with the gift, and/or never write anything that would hurt someone's feelings.

Being specific:

If you received a gift, mention the gift and say something nice about it. If you received money or a gift card, tell how you spent it or what you plan to do with it.

Good words to help express your thanks (taken from How to Say It from the Heart by Jack Griffin)

acknowledge

appreciate

commitment

contribution

grateful

gratitude

generous

generosity

heartfelt

invaluable

opportunity

pleasure

priceless

profound

sacrifice

sincere

thoughtful

tremendous

thanks

Words NOT to use (also taken from How to Say It from the Heart by Jack Griffin)

eternally indebted

greatest in the world

have to

how can I ever repay you?

made the effort

must

old college try

shocked

sorry I had to ask

surprised

thanks a bunch

thanks a million

tried your best

Imagine getting a thank you note that reads:

Dear Suzie,

Thanks for the gift you sent. I was surprised when I saw it was from you. I was also shocked to find out that it was broken when it arrived but we put some glue on it and it looks just like new. How can I ever repay you? Thanks a million.

Imagine getting a thank you note that reads:

Dear Suzie,

Thank you for the handmade Christmas gift. You know how much I love ornaments, especially ones from my dear friends. What a thoughtful gift! I love how it sparkles on my tree and I think of you every time I see it.

Which one would you like to receive?

Time to get those notes in the mail asap.

# birthdays # Christmas

New Year's Resolutions Tips & Worksheet

Emily 7:34 AM 0 Comments

Tonight my husband and my kids and I are sitting down together and creating our New Year's Resolutions! This way we can help each other and support each other in our goals.

Here are some tips for creating your own resolutions:

Think about the areas of your life that could use the most improvement or are the most important to you.

Here are some suggestions:

Self

Physical (Health)

Emotional

Spiritual

Personality

Social

Marriage

Family

Children

Home

Work

Friends

THEN...

Think about what you want to improve in each area.
Set REASONABLE/REALISTIC goals. Keep it simple and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Don't have too many goals either.
Make your goals specific. Example: “Read 2 books to my kids everyday before bedtime” rather than “be a better mother.”
Set goals that are measurable. See the example above. I can track my progress with a specific goal rather than an idea. Review your progress regularly.
Write down your goal.
Make a list of short term steps that will help you reach your goal if your goal is big.
Make a visual reminder of your goal. You may need to schedule it into your calendar or post it on your bathroom mirror or on your refrigerator so you see it everyday.

I created a simple worksheet to help get you started with your goals. The worksheet is blank so you can create your own categories and your own goals. Here's a sample.

Click HERE to print.

Good luck with your goals!!

# family night # printables

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Symbols of Christmas Bag

Emily 10:05 AM 1 Comments

Do your kids need a little reminder of the true meaning of Christmas? I sewed and embroidered this bag with one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes. Inside the bag I included some symbols of Christmas. I'm excited to keep this bag of symbols and bring it out every year to remind us of Christ.

Here are some of the items I included in the bag.

Christmas tree: points to heaven and reminds us that God is eternal

Candy cane: shaped like a shepherd's staff, Jesus is the true shepherd that brings us into the fold. He cares for us and guides us. The red represents his great sacrifice and white represents purity. We are cleansed through his blood. Its shape is also a J for Jesus.

Star: wise men followed the new star

Presents: God's greatest gift to us is eternal life through his son Jesus Christ

Candle: Jesus is the light of the world

Angel: told the shepherds of the birth of Jesus

You might want to make your own bag or box with the little symbols too.

# Christmas # crafts

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

DIY: Scratch-Off Christmas Activities Advent Calendar

Emily 9:42 AM 1 Comments

I LOVE Christmas and I LOVE advent calendars! This year I decided to do something different for my 3-year old daughter. I made a scratch-off activities advent calendar with scratch-off stickers. I made it super simple, since it's going to be used by my 3-year old, and made it for only 12 days. Since I have circular scratch-off stickers, I am going with a Christmas tree theme to blend in like ornaments. You can order scratch-off stickers from multiple sites on the internet.

Create your calendar: I folded a large piece of construction paper in half and drew half a Christmas tree. (You could do whatever kind of picture you'd like. You could cut the stickers into any shape you'd like too.)

I opened my paper and then I actually ironed it out a bit because I don't like the fold down the middle. If I were a better artist I wouldn't have a fold at all. ;)

I used a stencil to plot out my activities that will be covered by the scratch-off stickers and wrote out the actual activities with a pen.

Cover the activities with scratch-off stickers. You could number the stickers if you have specific activities that you'd like to be revealed on certain days.

Decorate! I wanted to make this calendar super cute with decorative scrapbook paper and all sorts of cute embellishments but it's going to be used by my 3-year old.

We ended up with this simple tree using ornament stickers instead.

I can't wait to see what will be revealed!

Here are some activity ideas for kids:

Build a snowman
Watch a Christmas movie
Decorate gingerbread houses
Bake and decorate sugar cookies
Visit a neighbor or friend
Write a letter to Santa
Go sledding
Visit Santa at the mall or other location
Make an ornament or pick out a special ornament that represents a special occasion from this year
Sit by the fire and play a game
Have an indoor snowball fight
Do something nice for someone else
Reenact the nativity
Go to a Christmas tree lot and find the "perfect" tree
Read the Christmas story from Luke 2
Donate an old toy or book
Check out some Christmas books at the library
Make paper snowflakes
Send a special Christmas card to someone that might need some extra holiday cheer
Take a Christmas Train ride
Read your favorite Christmas book
Go see Christmas lights

You could also make a special advent calendar for your spouse to spice things up for the holidays. Along with other activities that you've already thought about, here are some extras: