So, what will we do if there is going to be six more weeks of winter? Never fear, friends. There is plenty to do that will help you get through the next six weeks!

3 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues

Turn Off the TV and Computer

We know being active and maintaining a healthy diet are important parts of self-care, for ourselves and our children. Instead of watching the tube mindlessly or checking our Twitter account while munching on comfort food, let’s make a pact that we’ll be active every day this winter. Need inspiration?

• Have a snowball fight or build a snowman.
• Have a dance-off contest or set-up an indoor obstacle course.
• Play board games or Twister.

Get Crafty

• Make Valentine handprint cards.
• Make a living room A-frame tent.
• Paint the snow.  Fill bottles with food coloring and water; go outside and paint.

Do Good

Local heroes, the needy and sick, senior citizens, and children are just a handful of the people you and your family can connect with on a regular basis. Not sure where to start?

• Spread bread.
• Provide love, warmth, security and comfort to a child with Project Linus.
• Organize a makeover/fashion show event for a local senior home.

What does your family do during a long winter? What have you incorporated into your family that you did when you were growing up?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Desiree Allen is a thirty-something single parent with two children. A native of Denver, Colorado, she lived there until 2009, when she moved across the country to northern New Jersey with her kids. She is doing her best to avoid ‘picking up’ a Jersey accent, but she’s not making promises that she won’t eventually start sounding like some of her new friends. You can find her blogging at Writing to Sanity and tweeting @writingtosanity.

To create special and memorable moments with your kids, you do not have to spend a fortune!

5 Date Ideas for You and Your Kids

The following are a few ideas that we have done in the past and plan to do again this year:

1. Outdoor Fun

During the summer, my kids and I try to visit a new park each week! I call it the park tour. Sometimes we pack a lunch, enjoy a treat or ice cream, or invite friends to play! You can make it as individual or social as you want!

2. Indoor Fun

If your climate doesn’t allow for outdoor play this time of the year, hit up a mall playground. To make it more exciting, you can let your child choose the mall you visit! Remember, you can pack your lunch or a special treat to eat in the mall as well! You do not have to buy an expensive treat!

3. Nap Time Fun

If you have more than one child, utilize nap time! When your younger child lies down for a nap, take that time with your older child and make it special and individualized. Maybe you get out a board game, read some special stories, or do a messy art project — do whatever will make nap time unique for you and your kid.

4. Sweet Treat Fun

Sometimes slowing down and sharing some baking/cooking together can generate some great conversations! Not only will you be working on life skills (cooking) but you will be able to talk as you prepare the treat and of course take a little extra time to chat while you enjoy the yummy treat!

5. Movie Night Fun

This fun time could be adapted in so many ways! You could surprise the kids with a morning movie while they are still in their PJs. Or, you could do an afternoon viewing of their favorite movie or simple early evening cuddle with their favorite flick! Pop some popcorn for a crunchy snack or pop a frozen pizza in the oven!

These are just a few of my favorites! Be sure to start your own ‘list’ of dates you want to have with your kids! Let’s make this year special by creating some memorable times with our children!

How do you make special memories with your kids?

Photo courtesy of flickr.

3 Ways a Parent Can Volunteer

Consider these three tips when searching for volunteer opportunities for your family:

Consider Your Child’s Interests

As tempting as it may be to schedule a volunteer activity you enjoy, look at your child’s interests to help determine an appropriate place to serve. I love the outdoors and a few years ago, I thought it would be fun to take garbage bags to a nearby park and have a mini park clean-up.

The idea sounded fabulous, but I didn’t take into account that my kids would see the playground and have no interest in the pick-up. I also missed the fact that my kids would view picking up trash as a required chore, while other kids at the playground had the time of their lives on the monkey bars.

Pay attention to the activities your children enjoy and combine their passions with service. Does your daughter love animals or create art? Maybe watching a neighbor’s dog or making Valentines for hospital patients would be a perfect experience. Does your teenage son enjoy working with his hands? Maybe assisting an elderly neighbor fix a broken lawnmower would be viewed as both helpful and fun.

Consider Your Child’s Abilities

I signed-up my daughter and I to work a two hour shift at a local food-bank. Two hours seemed like a reasonable amount of time until twenty minutes into our shift when my eight year-old started asking if we would be given water and a snack on our break. A break? Was she kidding? We were just putting cans in boxes and working at a very slow pace. Two hours of sorting canned goods is nothing for me, but the task proved too long and tedious for my eight-year-old.

Think about the limits your child possesses and don’t dismiss things such as attention span or physical limitations.

Consider Kid-Friendly Organizations

Let’s face it, not everyone is going to see the value of bringing a young child to assist with volunteering. That’s why some organizations set age-requirements and suggested guidelines for those who volunteer. Make a point to follow them! Seek out organizations that recognize the importance of education and experience over productivity.

It takes more effort to incorporate your child’s interests and abilities when scheduling a volunteer activity for your family, but by doing so and also searching out child-friendly organizations, your kids will have a positive volunteer experience that will leave your family longing to help others again.

What tips can you add to this list to ensure volunteering with children is both helpful and instills the desire to volunteer again?

Photo courtesy of flickr.

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.

For China, this is one of their most important holidays. It’s a celebration that lasts for 15 days, culminating with the Lantern Festival. Each year is associated with one of twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. For 2012, it’s the Year of the Dragon.

Chinese New Year Fireworks

The Chinese New year is all about family. New Year’s Day children are given red envelopes filled with money. The money usually comes with a wish to be fast and clever. The money is used to buy their favorite things, which probably include fireworks for the big celebration. In the past, it has been said that fireworks were set off to ward off evil spirits. Today, fireworks are set off just for fun and celebration. Fireworks are set off all over the cities. Molten iron is also melted for a huge fireworks display. Homes are decorated with symbols and the color red to ward off evil spirits, and lanterns are made and placed in ponds after being lit one by one.

Chinese New Year Feast

For the New Year’s holiday, cooking is serious business.  A huge feast is prepared with the whole family taking part in the process. Dumplings are one of the most important foods eaten on this day. They can be filled with chives and minced pork. White radish, lotus root, pork, and cabbage are prepared to make a delicious stew. Fish, which stands for plenty, is also prepared.  The fish symbolizes that there will be plenty to eat throughout the upcoming year. The fish is dusted with flour and cut in a special way so as to hold loads of delicious sauce. Rice pudding is also prepared and can be topped with jelly which symbolizes wealth in the New Year. The New Year’s feast is the biggest of the year. It is their hope that they will have all of the things that the food represents.

This is one of the best time during the year to travel to China. This is considered the off-season, so one may be able to find lower prices for airfare  as well as tours given to celebratory events. There are tons of cultural events happening as well as Chinese-style carnivals and folk performances. You could find yourself enjoying a dragon dance while munching on some grilled, spicy squid or rice cakes.

 What holidays do you and your family enjoy celebrating together?

Photos courtesy of Tonya Staab and Getty.

Stephanie is the mom of 2 daughters and a South Carolina native. This southern girl is married to a wounded warrior who served in Iraq. She enjoys traveling and trying new foods. She is a teacher by day and consults with businesses to connect them to the military consumer. You can find her boasting of travel adventures at Military Travel Mama. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook!

12 Ways You and Your Kids Can Serve Others

Today we are talking about 12 ways you and your kids can serve others. Get ready for some others-centered fun.

1. Walk across the street and welcome a new neighbor.
2. Write thank you notes to people who serve you: a teacher, the garbage man, local fire fighters.
3. Tour a facility that helps people in your community such as a local food bank.
4. Participate in a Craft Hope Project.
5. Learn about the life of someone in another country.
6. Sew a blanket for Project Linus.
7. Read 77 Creative Ways Kids Can Serve.
8. Start a change jar and let your child pick a cause your family can support.
9. Offer to read at the library’s story time.
10. Go to Volunteer Match to find a local service project.
11. Read about teens making an impact at Generation On.
12. Plan a party with a purpose.

What family activities do you and your kids love to do that help those who are in need?

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.

But as you nestle into that perfect spot on the couch, little faces meet your stare and although words are not spoken, you know what’s behind the look. It’s the dreaded question. What’s next?

10 Fun Activities To Do After Opening Gifts

If you are looking for ways to linger a little longer in the magic of Christmas, check out these 10 fun things to do after unwrapping the gifts.

1. Enjoy your presents. Instead of plowing forward and searching out more activities to fill your time, spend the day exploring your new gifts. Read the first chapter of  a new book or play a round of that board game.
2. Watch old family videos. We record everything from baby’s first giggle to your son’s first high school formal. Dust off old footage, gather around the TV, and laugh about all of the “remember when moments.”
3. Share your favorite Christmas book. Have each family member read different pages of the book to bring the family together.
4. Cook together. It doesn’t matter if you are going fancy with turkey or fun with tacos. Get in the kitchen and cook something together.
5. Pick up the phone. Even though our days are filled with social media screaming updates, often we don’t get to connect in real ways with people we love. Call your college roommate, old neighbor, or uncle who lives in California.
6. Get creative with your thank you notes.  Goodbye to writing two, short sentences of appreciation about new gifts. Have your kids take pictures of each other playing with new presents and email pictures as photos of thanks, or use some of the artsy gifts to create art of appreciation.
7.  Start a family journal. Each year, a friend’s family passes around a cheap, spiral notebook, and everyone writes funny comments and stories about the day. The notebook is then packed away with Christmas decorations and pulled out the following year.
8. Watch one of the many Christmas movies on today. Pop popcorn and toss in leftover red and green, cookies sprinkles and watch one of the many Christmas movies on today.
9. Make a donation box. As your kids put away Christmas treasures, encourage them to find a predetermined amount of items to giveaway.
10. Go for a drive and host a best decorated contest. After the sun sets, pile in the car and notice all of the sparkling lights. Have a contest in which your family votes on a favorite home.

What are your favorite things to do after gifts are unwrapped on Christmas?

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.

10 Tips for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Activities

These ideas were suggested by tweeters at a PBS Kids Curious George-sponsored MomItForward Twitter Girls’ Night Out party:

1. Make simple ornaments out of recycled products. @NoFlashCards says making lid ornaments is one of her favorites. She’s also made advent calendars out of baby wipe lids. Similarly, after opening gifts, you can keep boxes and other material to build a spaceship or playhouse. Decorate with old wrapping paper.
2. Make thank you notes for gifts to relatives with your kids. Check out PBS’ card maker e-card ideas or SplitCoastStampers.com.
3. Write an annual letter to your child, maybe filled with observations about the past year and hopes for his or her future, suggests @PBSKids.
4. Make marshmallow snowmen, suggests @GoGrahamGo.
5. Have the kids make napkin holders. @GoGrahamGo posted a free printable DIY holder that you can personalize with your child’s face.
6. Make Santa pancakes Christmas morning. Here’s a Curious George version.
7. Play Grinch Christmas Bingo, suggested by @WonderForge.
8. Make treats. @MinkyMoo provides this recipe for Chocolate & Salted Caramel Mug Cake and @GoGrahamGo provides one for Great Grandma’s Potato Candy.
9. Take treats to neighbors. @RedRover raves about making four different kinds of Greek cookies and taking them around: Koulourikia, kourabiedes, baklava, and loukoumathes. She says, “They’ll change your world!”
10. Put together a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child.

What fun family activities do you do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to celebrate the holidays?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

I grew up in Southeast Michigan, went to Michigan State University, and always enjoyed all that the state had to offer. When I was younger, we would always travel to northern Michigan to vacation throughout the year. The summer always offered great times on boats and beaches, the state was coated in the most beautiful colors during fall, and the ski hills always resulted in great adventures during the winter.

When I met my husband, I was immediately shocked to find out that instead of growing up in southern Michigan, he spent his childhood years in northern Michigan, specifically in Charlevoix. To me, this was unheard of since “Up North,” aka northern Michigan, meant vacation to me. I asked question after question about how he spent his years in one of my favorite areas in the state.

We try to escape to Michigan as much as possible to see family and friends, spend time riding boats on many of the beautiful lakes, attend sporting events, ski and snowboards at some of our favorite ski resorts, and take in all the local flavor of the small towns in northern Michigan.

Top 5 Things To Do in Northern Michigan

The following are some of my favorite things to do in northern Michigan:

1) Visit the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The Sleeping Bear Dunes found along the Lake Michigan shoreline can be enjoyed by way of Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, located between Glen Arbor and Empire. Drive up and down rolling hills and through the woods and dunes. This is truly one of the most scenic areas in the state.

2) Eat fudge and bike around Mackinac Island. This island is the truly “all natural” theme park of America. Limited to transportation of horse and buggy, bicycle or foot, surrounded by water, it has escaped the vast changes of time. Motorized vehicles have been prohibited on the island since 1898, with the exception of snowmobiles during winter, emergency vehicles, and service vehicles. Travel on the island is either by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. The island is filled with fun activities and delicious food, especially the fudge!

3) Attend the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. This festival entails a week of parades, concerts, cherries, and family fun. The Grand Traverse region, known for its world-record tart cherry harvest, bursts with visitors eager to savor the flavor of cherries tucked into everything imaginable. Each day, Festival-goers find cherry delights along with parades, family and kids events, and entertainment.

4) Visit the small towns for local food and boutique shops. Northern Michigan is filled with small towns such as Charlevoix, Glen Arbor, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs that are filled with lakeside fun, beautiful galleries, local food, and unique shops.

5) Go to the beach, play in the sand and water, and check out the lighthouses. From Lake Michigan to the Glen Lakes, from kayaking to charter boat fishing, getting on the water is a must-do in the state of Michigan. When I lived in Michigan, hardly a day went by where I didn’t go out on a lake. With 3,177 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, and that doesn’t even include the other lakes throughout the state, it is easy to see why Michigan boasts a thriving recreational industry. Plus, there are tons of historic lighthouses that make for great adventures and amazing photographs.

For more ideas, please be sure to visit www.Michigan.org.

Where did you grow up? What was your favorite part about living there?

Jen Tilley has an insatiable appetite for all things related to baking and cooking. She is the author, photographer and recipe developer on How To: Simplify, a blog that shares tips, tricks and recipes to simplify life in the kitchen. She enjoys sharing recipes that require very few ingredients and only a small amount of prep and cook time, all of which make time spent in the kitchen simple and enjoyable. Find her online at How To: Simplify, @HowToSimplify, and Jen Tilley Photography.

I couldn’t wait to tell my kids when they got home from school that we had received 25 loads of precious dirt. I decided to text a few of them instead. “Guess what surprise came to our house today?” Now you might be asking, why is this family so happy about something as simple as dirt? What you need to know about us is that we love dirt biking. Our kids have built a mini race track in our back yard and spend hours building ramps, turns, and jumps. They are on the quest to build the perfect track. The day our dirt came the kids played for hours in the mounds of rich, dark soil. Who knew that free dirt could bring so much happiness?

I have thought a lot about this day, especially with the holidays right around the corner. I am already starting to wonder what I should buy the kids this year. Then I stop and ask myself if they really need anything? In an effort to scale back on Christmas, a few years ago we started a new tradition. Each child could have four presents.

• Something You Want
• Something You Need
• Something You Wear
• Something You Read

What are some of your favorites gifts that don’t cost money? What does your family do to focus on giving instead of receiving?

My family just returned from 7 days at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. We crammed a lot of fun activities into our week-long adventure, including visits to Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. Not wanting to be completely exhausted upon our return, we did a few things before, during, and after our vacation to help us more fully enjoy the trip.

Here are 15 tips we recommend for getting a little rest and relaxation that will last beyond the trip.

Family Travel That Build Memories Without Leaving You Exhausted

Planning Tips Before the Trip

The first step to not crashing after you’ve returned from a family vacation is to plan well in advance. Check out these simple steps:

1. Do the family’s laundry a week in advance and set clothes aside for the trip so you aren’t scrambling at the last minute to find important articles of clothing and travel gear.
2. Pick up the house prior to heading to the airport.
3. Go to the grocery store and buy enough food (items that won’t spoil) to last you a couple of days upon return from your trip.
4. Create a detailed list of all of the items you’ll need. Make sure to include: band-aids, sunscreen with high SPF, sunburn gel, sunglasses, tissues, a mini first-aid kit, ample over-the-counter medications to accommodate a variety of potential illnesses, etc.
5. Get the suitcases out several days in advance and slowly start packing, crossing items off your list as you load them into your bags.
6. If you are doing anything that requires a reservation or tickets—theme parks, restaurants, shows, activities, events, flights, car rental, transportation, etc.—book everything online as far in advance as possible to take advantage of great rates.
7. Create a file for all reservations and print out confirmation documents to take with you. Have a back up of these confirmation documents in an email folder online just in case.

Creating Family Memories During the Trip

Many people make the mistake of planning well in advance only to push themselves beyond their limits while on vacation. Here are some simple tips for staying energized while on vacay:

1. Schedule your days around what works best for your family. If you’re a super spontaneous bunch, allow yourselves time to veer off the beaten path. If you do better in a structured environment, book reservations in advance and have a reliable watch to ensure you stay on schedule.
2. Build in ample down time for rest and relaxation. Things like an afternoon nap, lounging by the pool, laying out at the beach, taking in a movie, enjoying a cocktail or mocktail before dinner can make all the difference in helping you truly relax during your vacation.
3. Bring a couple of “laundry bags” to store your dirty clothes in during the trip—one for whites, one for darks, and one for wet clothes (if you go to the beach or to a hotel with a pool). This will allow you to easily unpack once you return from your trip.
4. Make healthy choices! Often on family vacations—especially on theme-park trips—families go, go, go until they fall in bed at night, exhausted. The result? The absolute need for massive recovery after the vacation is over. Instead, make choices that help you keep your energy high while on vacation: eating healthy, exercising, getting ample sleep, drinking lots of water are all ways to help your body from crashing after the vacay has ended.

Staying Rejuvenated After the Trip

If you took the time to pick up your house before leaving and ensured that there was enough food to last you a couple of days upon return of your vacation, you’ll immediately feel relieved when you walk through the door. In addition, after returning, do the following:

1. Unpack your luggage and put it away within 24 hours.
2. Start a load of laundry immediately after unpacking.
3. Get a great night’s sleep the first night you are back.
4. Wake up the next morning and have each family member share their favorite memory from your relaxing family vacation!

Now you’re ready for your next family vacation!

What is your family’s favorite vacation spot? What are your tips for planning a truly relaxing vacation?

Disclosure: Universal Orlando Resort provided my family this trip as part of a press event. The tips, insights, and experiences shared are all my own!