By Shelley Heaphy
How many more sleeps until Santa comes? With Christmas in less than a week and school ending, those of us lucky enough to get to spend that time at home with our kids start to wonder, what are we going to do together?
In the first week of vacation, most of us are still running around trying to get ready for Christmas. If you’re not done (and many of us aren’t) put the kids to work. They can help with the baking, addressing Christmas cards or even with the wrapping. Get them involved in all the little things you do to prepare for Christmas. They’ll love being your special helpers.
Once Christmas is over, you get to enjoy some down time together as a family (if you’re lucky). This is a great time to cozy up and have a pajama day. Putting movies on TV and building forts to read stories in is a great way to make a day fly by. It’s also just what busy kids need to recharge their batteries.
Depending on the age of your children this may be a time when they want to change their room around, get rid of toys they no longer play with and make room for whatever they received from the big guy. Do a family purge if your home needs it. It’ll feel great donating all those things you no longer need to other families that may be looking for it. Think less is better.
If you’re looking to get out of town, you can hit a museum in the city. Make sure to check with our wonderful library. They have museum passes to loan out which gets up to four people into the museum for free.
Usually on Christmas break we enjoy lots of sliding, snowshoeing and fort-building. Get out there and enjoy the outdoors. Our town offers great activities as well. Check out the public skating schedule to get a little bit of skating in. There are also some activities happening at the Shawville-Clarendon library. Check out the coming events section in this week’s paper for more on that. And check our website calendar too.
Enjoy this time together celebrating Christmas and winding down from it! Rest up for the next part of the school year.
And don’t overlook the best toy for your child… you! No toy is better than time playing with mom and dad.
Until next time, play and read lots.
