Last week, I invited my fellow content creators to spend this week creating some themed content and today is the fourth day of 5 Days of December – holiday writing prompts to inspire you to create! Today is Day 4 where we’re talking about Winter Break Fun. What are you doing to enjoy time off this time of year?
Every year, I have BIG plans for our winter break. They’re usually non-specific plans but I’m certain we’re going to get up and out as a family every day and partake in local activities and become tourists in our own town. And there’s still time for that. But that’s not quite how things have turned out so far.
Prepare to be underwhelmed.
I think it’s because we’re just so exhausted and happy to not have the obligations of work and school but we haven’t done much of anything. I also think that exerting so much effort to decorate and back and shop and wrap keeps you from enjoying the holiday season. So I’m convinced that the week after Christmas is designed for women everywhere to sit back and finally enjoy the fruits of their holiday labor.
But the day after Christmas brought me something I hate: the post-Christmas depression. So we went to the movies. Not only do I love going to the movies (especially now that I have a MoviePass) but it’s technically work-related (I have to stay current for my entertainment podcast).
Our pick as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which we’ve had our sights set on since we saw the first trailer. Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black – what’s not to love? As you can tell by my rating, this was a thumbs up for me and the family.
But to make things feel more festive, we spent a little bit of time driving around and looking at Christmas lights. I’m the best at driving around randomly and finding the most decorated houses! This is one of my absolute favorites in a neighborhood near mine.
After our big excursion out to the movies, we decided to spend the next day doing… pretty much nothing. Which, in my house, looks like this:
Putting together a jigsaw puzzle
Maybe I’m really 65 years old and don’t know it but once I crack open a puzzle, I am OBSESSED. My goal is to see if I can finish this 1000 piece puzzle in 2-ish days. I CAN’T STOP!
But I did stop when the lighting got dim and my back hurt from being hunched over. And I forced my son to head out of the house with me for… AFTER CHRISTMAS SHOPPING! I know that sounds like torture for a 10 year old boy so I made it sound fun by telling him we were heading to Petco to check out their Christmas clearance toys.
Unfortunately, the clearance price was the same as it had been a few days before Christmas so this bargain shopper was not impressed. Plus, I couldn’t find the Christmas pickle I was looking for.
Since I felt so unfulfilled, I casually mentioned to my son that I just wanted to “swing by HomeGoods real quick.” He didn’t mind too much because there are plenty of chairs in the store for him to “test.”
We picked up a few things from Christmas clearance and made a quick exit, as promised. As you can tell from this quick pic I snapped, Evan was not feeling the Be HomeGoods Happy mantra but we did pick up some cute Swedish Christmas figurines.
Once we got home, the fun continued! I helped Evan explore some of his new Christmas toys and I broke into one of my own. I opened up my round loom designed for “knitting” hats. And I knit one! It wasn’t awesome and doesn’t really fit on my head but, hey, it’s a learning experience. And I did it all in one night!
While I was knitting, I took in a new series I discovered on Netflix called The Indian Detective. And then I stayed up very late just because I could.
We’ve still got a few more days left and I do plan to get out and explore. In fact, there’s a whole post I wrote about things to do in the DC area during the holidays. But if I don’t, that’s okay because sometimes the fun is in having no agenda at all!
If you’d like to share your Winter Break Fun, please link up below and share in the memories!
1 comment
I have so many puzzles that I need to do. Every year I pull out this Disney Christmas puzzle and say I’m going to do it and I get so busy that I never get to it. I like to do a lot of nothing during winter break, I think you are right that this week exists to give moms some time-off.