Gathering Time
- Toast a Different Member of the Family each night this week
- Use your best China, light candles, make it a feast
- Have breakfast for dinner or make breakfast your family meal
- Invite friends to dinner. Facetime with grandparents or friends who are alone. Toast them!
- Do not talk about the Virus. Have a topic. Tell family stories.
- Have your phones at the table AFTER DINNER: Start with a scavenger hunt. Who can find a family picture with everyone in it. Find a picture of grandma. A picture of our last vacation. A Christmas morning picture. A picture of Dad. A picture of Mom. A picture of others in the family. A picture of the family pet. A baby picture . Then end with…… Everyone show a picture that you think represents your family Core values and why.
- Let the young people in your house cook you dinner. As a date. And serve you!
- Have Thanksgiving together! Turkey and everything!
- Have a night of just appetizers and have a party! Play games and let the party food be dinner!
- Pack a picnic basket and go sit in the back-yard on a blanket during lunch.
- Invite another family over by Zoom or Facetime.
- During family walks or bike rides, be more intentional and ask all your family members to take a picture or pick an item that represents a special way that they can see the work of God in the world around us. Bring a basket or container if you don’t do cellphones in your family! Collect items and pictures on a special place. This random collection of items will remind you all, in the days and weeks to come, God is with us.
- Take it Outside! Pack a picnic and get out of the house! Even if it is in your back-yard. Roast hot-dogs and make smores. Cook over the campfire and tell family stories.
- Pick a Comedy show and watch it as a family! Just something light, that makes you laugh all together, one episode at a time. Designate a time, snacks to eat and watch all together. Some personal recommendations: Gravity Falls or DuckTales on Disney+, The Big Show Show or One Day at a Time on Netflix, The Goldbergs or Fresh of the Boat on Hulu.
Play Together
Playing is so important and we don’t take time to do it enough! It is just good to play and laugh. We love to play because it invites you to participate in life. Playing requires you to be creative, think a little differently and laugh with your whole body. Find time to play this week:
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. When the card matches the mantra — boom! — everyone slaps their hand on the deck, with the last one to slap picking up the cards. Whoever rids themselves of cards first wins! $10 on Amazon
Tenzi. It is fun because it’s fast. To play TENZI you must roll your 10 dice as fast as you can which makes the game instantly competitive and fun for the whole family. $25 on Amazon.
Set. Race to find as many SETs as you can—the player with the most SETs at the end of the game wins!
March Madness Playlist: start by gathering a bunch of family members and friends. Have everyone choose and bracket two songs, broadcast the brackets to your email list and have people vote. Repeat and repeat until you have an ultimate winner. Together, you’ll create an awesome pandemic playlist you will all remember forever. Play the songs at your house during the day together.
Charades: Go Old school with paper and pens and write down your favorite song, tv show, book or movie.
Fictionary: Pull out a dictionary and choose a word randomly. Everyone writes a “FAKE” definition and one person writes the real answer. The person to the left of the one that picked the word tries to guess which one is the real definition.
SHOUT IT! for competitive and fast-thinking families! You can download it for $5 here and print at home. 4 different levels that can be played on different days or using Zoom with others!
Board Game Night: Pull out your old Board Games! Sequence, Taboo or Settlers of Catan… it’s addictive! Ask your children to teach you their favorite card game: Spoons!
Mario Kart Tour (Online): It’s time to show the moves parents learned in the 90’s! You can play the game on your phone for free (just need to have or create a Nintendo account) and you can play with up to 7 more people!