First of all, let me wish all of you a Merry Christmas! Unless you’re reading this after the holidays. Then I hope you survived all the madness and had a great one! Either way, I know most of us are spending a lot of time with our loved ones right now. Maybe you’re looking for something fun to do. Maybe you’re going stir-crazy! I’m here to help you out with a few ideas for things you can do with your family and friends this week!
Personally, I am such a fan of a good old fashioned board game. Whether it’s a simple one like Sorry! or a more complicated (and argument-inducing) one like Monopoly, we love to play board games as a family around the holidays! Target has some great throwback versions on sale right now, but if you aren’t brave enough to go to the stores, I’m sure your own closet has a great collection!
You can also look online or to others for inspiration for fun activities and games. I personally was introduced to a fun, crazy group game just last week. It doesn’t even have a name (that we know of), but it basically involves putting on mittens and then trying to put to open a gift that’s been wrapped a bazillion times in complicated ways.
You start by picking a gift and wrapping it. I would recommend the item be something small that is at least a little pricey so it’s worth the effort in the end. Ours was a Maya Cinemas gift card. It started out in a big wrapped box and that was slowly revealed to also be containing smaller, nested boxes wrapped in things like saran wrap and duct tape.
The tricky part is that you have to start putting on the mittens as soon as the person next to you starts rolling a pair of dice. They continue rolling as you try to unwrap the gift. Once you hit two doubles, you have to move both the dice and the gift/mittens to your left and keep going. The person who finally gets the gift out gets to keep it. Feel free to add your own rules. It gets chaotic, it gets messy and it’s really, really fun!
Another great way to pass the time, especially if you want to be snuggly and warm indoors, is to cook breakfast or bake some goodies! Now I realize that you may still be stuffed full of pie and have a kitchen full of Christmas cookies. But seriously, is there ever enough? So here’s some of my favorite recipes. And because I am completely useless in the kitchen, I promise you that all of these are completely idiot-proof. My favorites include the French toast bake, the Butterfinger cake, no-bake peanut butter bars (they taste exactly like Reese’s!) and the cheddar bacon dip if you want to whip up something quick for a Christmas or New Year’s party.
If you’re really going stir-crazy and want to be outside, there’s plenty of things to do around the Valley. Holly covered a lot of them in her FresYes blog a few days ago. I’d like to add a couple of my own. One is Zoo Lights at Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Now, you might say, “Isn’t that over, Joanne?” It’s true that the zoo will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. BUT a lot of people don’t realize that it actually reopens nightly through December 30th. So if you want to keep the holiday spirit going just a little big longer, head down there! More information can be found on the zoo’s website.
Another family tradition we have is to go to a movie at what we call “The $3 Theater.” The old school UA movie theater near Shaw & Villa in Clovis plays films that have been in release for a few months. The price is actually $3.75 now. But still, the value is incredible and makes it more affordable to take the whole family to the movies. I often go to see something I didn’t feel like paying full price for, or to see something on the big screen one last time before it goes to DVD. Right now, I recommend “The Peanuts Movie” for your family. It just started playing there. (For the record, on Tuesdays, the Sierra Vista theater does all movies for $5 and Maya Cinemas does them for $5.50 as well.)
So those are a few of my ideas for how to bring a little extra fun into your life before everyone goes home and the kids have to go back to school! Wishing you a very happy holiday season from here at FresYes!
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