Fun Friday - 4 Tips to make your holiday memorable

The Holiday season is in full swing. Commercials encourage last minute shoppers to hurry to stores for deals, Secret Santa’s are revealed, and the kids anticipate items from their wish lists. What really makes a Holiday memorable?

A good place to begin is by creating meaningful family experiences. One tradition in our family is to gather the kids together for a photo during our Christmas dinner. The best part for them is selecting a small gift from under the tree. Of course we want the holidays to mean more than just receiving gifts. Below are 4 ideas for making your holiday memorable.

Add a few of these ideas to your usual traditions during the holiday:

Capture your memories – record this year’s holiday highlights through scrapbooking, create a photo album, video recording or a journal.

Something old, something new – “look back into your past and find a tradition your family can carry on, such as lighting a candle in each window or decorating wreaths with old family ornaments.” Also identify a practice that brings joy to your family throughout the season and make this a new tradition.

Rich experiences – “the experiences you share with family and friends create memories for years to come.” These activities could include baking cookies together, caroling as a family or just watching holiday movies together. Make this experience something you can repeat each year.

Gifts and sharing – downplay the importance of gifts and place more emphasis on togetherness. “Let creating holiday memories your family will treasure be the greatest gift of all.

Create holiday memories while the kids are on school break. Museums, arcades and skating rinks are all open during their break. Playing cards and board games are still a favorite at my house.

A house filled with laughter and family is always a memorable experience for me. Although we laugh at each other we are also laughing with each other.

What makes a holiday memorable for you?

National Brownie Day

Applebee's Brownie

Do you need a reason to indulge in a decadent treat? It’s National Brownie Day – celebrated December 8^th. In honor of this special occasion you could host a party at home or bring delight to those at work place. Offer trivia on the history of brownies.

Did you know that there are three beliefs about how brownies came into existence?

-a cook forgot to add flour to the batter

-a chef accidentally added melted chocolate to biscuit dough

-a housewife didn’t have baking powder so she improvised with the recipe.

Now that you have a bit of history you are almost ready to celebrate. Get out your favorite brownie recipe or try one of the recipes below. 

Cheesecake Brownie recipe

Mint Brownie recipe

Grab a glass of milk or a scoop of ice cream to accompany your brownie and enjoy.

Muffins with Mom – 3 Reasons to create a vision board

Do you have a vision of where you want to be five years from now? One year from now? Perhaps you are seeking financial freedom, improved health or some other project you have always wanted to accomplish. What does your roadmap toward success look like? A vision board is one way plot your goals.

What is a vision board? It can take on whatever for you want. Grab a poster board, cut words pictures, quotes from magazines and use them to create a visual map of what you want to achieve.

My teen son said, “Ma, I need to apply to some more colleges. Time is starting to wind down.”

My response was simple, “Yep.” His senior year in high school is coming to a close. I have been emphasizing for quite a while to my son, the need to prepare for the next stage of his life. He had to come to the realization on his own. So here we are.

“Let’s work on a new vision board,” I said. My words fell on deaf ears for about a month. While my son has been applying to colleges, he didn’t really have a plan. His approach was random, he knows he wants to go away to school, but I felt he should be checking more details. Have a plan A and B. He began his vision board.

Why create a vision board? Here are three reasons (you may come up with even more):

1.      Provides direction for your life

2.      Makes you accountable to yourself

3.      Creates positive self-awareness

The key to effectively using your vision board is to place it in a spot where you will look at it every day. If your vision board is based on one year, after six months access where you are with the goals you’ve set. Do you need to do something differently to get to achieve the result(s) you want?

Have you ever created a vision board? Let your creative juices flow, have fun, and plot out your goals.