Plan Some Family Fun

The rapidly approaching Holiday season gets me thinking about a number of things, like avoiding malls and any store altogether and doing all of my shopping online! No really, it gets me thinking about all of the time that families spend together during this time of year.  Family members flying or driving all the way across the country so they can spend time together.  It sounds great in the planning stages but then people that have the same old relationships get stuck in a house together for too long and the temperature starts to rise.  Does this happen to you?  Does your family need to break out of a rut of spoiling Holiday times together?  How about some fun? What does your family do for fun? What I mean is this: What does your family plan to do for fun?  Plan fun?  Doesn’t sound like fun you say?
Here’s what Bob and Annie Schuckert, quoted in Our Families magazine say: “We had a tradition of the entire family playing croquet when the children were little. Soon the children were grown, had families of their own and were scattered all over. Everyone would come home at Christmas and other times and we played croquet. We now turn on the lights on the backyard and the entire family plays croquet from about 10:00pm until about 2:00am. It started years ago when one of the kids did not arrive until about 8:30pm. Then around 10 someone suggested we play a night game. We all played and had so much fun that we have been doing it ever since”.
My wife, her brother, her father and I started something a few years ago after one of us got the first video camera for Christmas.  We started staying up way too late and making funny films. From making fun of the shopping channels to “chin people” (only my family will laugh at just the memory of that one), there is very little planning that goes into it.  My kids have become involved and we have made it into something that is expected at Christmas time and other family gatherings.  Sometimes everyone stays up a bit too late for me and usually I am the cameraman. Also, it is only funny to us, but isn’t that the point?  Do something fun for your family.  Make it a tradition.  Starting this year.  Even if your oldest child is embarrassed to mention this fun family tradition at school!  See what it does to those old family patterns!