Family Fun Jars

Spending time with family during the holidays sounds simple. Since that's what everyone does during the holiday season, right?

Yet, I find it is hard to spend time with my little ones as much as I'd like during this month of the year. I'm working my tail off at work, creating my articles, shopping for gifts and trying to spend time with those I don't see very often so much, that I tend to forget about the very people in my home.

I am aware that sounds silly, since I am around them all the time. But it is easier to do than one would think.

Since I have found this to be an ongoing issue every December, our family has created steps to have some 'Family Togetherness Time' at least once a week - of every month moving forward. We're only a month in, but I'm so happy with how this is working for us that I would like to share it all with you.

What we have done is created two "Fun time" jars. One for at home activities and one for outings. We do one outing a month and the remaining three weeks of the month we pull from the at home jar. This allows us to not break the bank and gives the children something to look forward to. We added popsicle sticks to the jar with options on them. Options like:

At Home Jar:

• Movie night

• Painting

• Family board game

• video games

• Family reading

• Gift creation

Outing Jar

• Restaurant (Chosen by kids)

• Dave and Busters

• Shopping

• Hike

• Visit a Family member

I think choosing the items was the best part. We all sat at the table and one by one came up with ideas of things to place on the popsicle sticks before placing them into the jars. Derrek and I decided that next November (when we hit a year of using the current options) we'll sit as a family again and choose new options to go into the jars for the 2024 year!

We're not a perfect family, we get caught up in life just like everyone else. But holding a sliver of time out of each week to dedicate to one another has given us all something to look forward to!

What would you and your family choose to put in your family fun jars?

🧡Shine Bright, Kayla

Copyright © 2022 Kayla Tackett