Wintertime is long up here. It starts in mid-November and lasts through March, and tends to make everyone hole up in their houses. Come springtime people emerge with new babies, when we didn’t even know they were pregnant! You leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark and are very Vitamin D deficient.
Last winter…the snow isn’t this bad…yet.
Basketball and gymnastics will still keep us busy, but it is good to have some “just for fun” things to do.
This year we decided to take it upon ourselves to do…something. In that vein, we have devised a list of things to do over the course of the winter:
Take the kids to see the orchestra
Brian bought a Groupon earlier this summer for the chamber orchestra, so we have 2 opportunities to take the kids. The first one we have scheduled is this weekend to go see Beethoven’s Piano Concerto.
Go look at Christmas lights
Not just look at Christmas lights, but the Christmas lights downtown. We have never taken the kids to the Holidazzle parade and we need to do that before they are old and jaded teenagers. They even have hot seats for $9 each, which is totally worth it from my point of view. Unfortunately, I waited too long to buy them and they are all sold out. Dangit.
Volunteer together
We need to sign up for packing food at Feed the Starving Children, again. We also did the Operation Christmas Child boxes.
Make a Gingerbread house
Don’t need to buy one even…still have one I bought last year. Hey…it’s not like it gets eaten!
Drink Hot Cocoa
This is pretty much a given. Have you heard that you can make hot chocolate with just Nutella and milk? We are all over that one!
Make Cookies for Santa
This is Brian’s job. He is the designated Christmas cookie maker.
Make Reindeer Food
Haven’t done this before…anyone have a good recipe?
Make Christmas ornaments
I want to do this with the kids this year. Aunt Susie gave me the recipe last year and we didn’t get around to making them. The kids even have a book where the character mistakenly makes salt cookies instead of sugar cookies. I remember reading it when I was a kid (same book), and wanting to make them.
Go Ice Skating
The kids and I had so much fun doing that last winter at a birthday party. Need to do this again!
So, that is the to-do stuff list for this winter. Trying to get out and do things as a family, instead of just sitting on the couch hibernating will be fun!
Great idea. I need to make a bucket list for us too. I saw the nutella hot chocolate on pinterest. I made it for the kids a couple of weeks ago. It was so easy and yummy. I think will be my go to recipe from now on.
looks like a pretty good list:o) Happy Thanksgiving Stacy,, hope it is a great one for your family.
I love this. I wish I had a family that I could do these things with. I guess I had my share of this kind of thing when I was a single mother in the UK. We had a brilliant group of friends and did all these kinds of things together. I don’t quite know how I ended up in my current family…..*sigh*
I think this is a perfect list, Stacy. And it doesn’t matter that the weather is snowy and cold – we have the same problem here in Southern California! The rain starts and it dips below 62 degrees and everyone flees to their house! I am sticking some of your to dos in our advent calendar this year…esp. the hot cocoa and going Christmas light looking!