Tag Archives: games

Five Things Better to Give Than Presents

It’s that point in the busy holiday season where we are all calling which corner we want to rock in later when we get a free moment. We say that you can keep on railing against the gods of time suck or you can make some adjustments. While we can’t stuff your stockings,  hang your baubles, or roast your beast, we can help you find happiness amidst the hullabaloo. In fact, finding calm in the Christmas chaos is as easy as putting down the paper and scissors and putting on your thinking cap instead. We’re gonna keep this short and simple, folks, because quite frankly, who’s got the time, but here are five things better to give than presents. It truly is better to give than to receive, and these will bring you back to the holiday spirit in no time. Promise.
 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

1) The Gift of Experience

We both believe that experiences trump things. To that end, over the years, we have given concert tickets, special trips, museum visits, and special lessons. We could say that the memories from those special moments were as much a gift to us as to our kids. But spending special time with their awesome moms is the ultimate gift for our kiddos AND they usually end up with a souvenir AND we end up with great pictures! Consider this idea a win-win-win!

Bonus that these gifts don’t need to be wrapped either.

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

The lads and Ellen AND her kids had a brilliant Christmas.

2) The Gift of Tradition and Time Together

We both be-deck our halls and weight our trees with as many memories as the walls and limbs can stand, but we never underestimate the power of unplugging.Erin’s family kicks it old school with a new puzzle every year. After they work as a family to put it together, then they mount it, and use it for a Christmas decoration the following year. A foolproof plan for fun and festive flair!

We both also give games. Sure, one might argue that our deeply rooted competitive natures might be at the heart of this one, but we offer this counter-argument. The Great Scrabble Rout of 2007? The Epic Camel Slaughter in Parcheesi? The time the four year old won the UNO tournament? These memories all rival any trip we have ever taken in the annals of family fun. So bottom line, you can think what you want. And if you are coming over this Christmas, be prepared to pick a card.

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Every year, Grandma likes a photo with all of her grandbabies. It goes reasonably well most of the time. Not this year, apparently, but most of the time.

3) The Gift of Memory

Each year we both work our Shutterfly accounts like a boss to create calendars with pictures from the past year to guide us through the new one. We also both make family yearbooks. Because we started blogging in 2011, Erin is a little behind so her family is getting the 2011 yearbook this Christmas. Resist the urge to point out that we are now in the fleeting days of 2016. She knows. She KNOWS!

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

We like the also ran photos more than the album-worthy ones. These are the memories we hope we don’t lose.

4) The Gift of Acknowledgment

Every year Erin’s kids pick someone who has been an angel to their family. Then they give a plate of cookies and an angel ornament to that person. The conversation as they decide who to pick each year is a gift to them all as they realize how many wonderful people they have in their life.

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

5) The Gift of Each Other

As a general rule, the best gifts don’t actually fit in a box or bag. When Erin’s kids were young, they spontaneously created a play one Christmas Eve.  Even as the kids have crossed over into Planet Teen, they have never given up creating a special performance for that night. It is, without question, the best gift Steve and Erin get all year and they are really hoping that one of the videos from these performances will hit it big on Youtube. Then it can keep on giving all the way to the Ivy League. How’s that for a Christmas wish?

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Watching a little girl get all her big cousins to play trains with her is wish fulfillment of a different but equally great kind.

But that’s not all.

Our trees are trimmed to the nines with handprints, school pictures, and handicrafts of all skill levels. Our schedules are crammed with band concerts and Christmas plays and choral recitals. Our houses are full of trays of cookies, homemade decorations, and gingerbread houses.

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Apparently when boys outgrow gingerbread houses, they get creative and start crafting things on their own. Like the TARDIS from DOCTOR Who.

We know that this is the good stuff.  So we clean up the glitter glue and the paper confetti on the floor, work our crockpots to the max to get dinner to the masses before each performance, and buy more cookie sheets to keep our little cookie sweat shops cranking.  The big wide world will be taking these kids soon enough.

For now, we will just take a deep breath, enjoy the chaos, and be grateful for our gifts.

 Holidays got you stressed and not your best? Here are five things better to give than presents. Parenting at Christmas made simple, easy, and full of the joy of the season. | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

And if none of this helps, we have found that nothing will help you get your holiday spirit on like a reluctant angel.

These are some things that have helped us find the happy sweet underbelly of Christmas in the midst of the madness. Think of them as the cookies before the main course. What? Cookies don’t come first? We’ll never tell. It’s the most wonderful time of the year after all.

A merry, merry Christmas to all!

Erin and Ellen

 

Hey! Want to buy our new book? I Just Want to Be Perfect brings together 37 hilarious and relatable essays that showcase the foibles of ordinary women trying to be perfect.

I Just Want to Be Perfect

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Our Top 10 Posts of 2015

We are suckers for a yearly top ten list. The good, the bad, and the totally cheesy are all winners in our eyes.  So now that all the presents have been unwrapped, all the ribbons unfurled, and all the calories consumed, we thought we would make one just for you.

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Feel free to use this Top 10 to fill the void of shopping, cooking, cleaning, and wrapping or as a much-needed break from this “some assembly required” phase of the season. It’s also your chance to catch up with The Sisterhood and our year once and for all.

1. The 12 Commandments for Surviving Your Daughter’s Teen Years

Surviving the Teen Years Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

2.Ten Things I Want to Say to My Son Before He Graduates

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms3. 5 Ways to Earn Money and Rewards with Your Fitbit

5 Ways to Earn Money and Rewards with Your Fitbit! It's like getting paid to exercise! | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

4. The Truth about 10, 000 Steps and your Health

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

5. What Your Kids Need to Know Before Staying Home AloneLooking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

6. The Worst Ways to Answer Texts in Two Words or Less

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

7.  20 Great Ideas for Family Game Night

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

8. You Know You’re a Mom When

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

9. Handle with Care: A Sweet and Simple Guide to Helping Your Friend Send Her Kid to College

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

10. Stages of Shutterfly Delusion

Stages of Shutterfly Deadline Delusion: Photo books are such a personal, wonderful gift . . . that will drive you to the brink of insanity as you try to make that Shutterfly deadline. |Christmas| Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Of course, if you are still looking for more winning posts, our Great Gifts for Teen Guys and Fabulous Gifts for Teen Girls and this year’s 2015 Teen Gift Guide always hit it out of the park. Or you can check out the perennial favorites 10 Songs to Celebrate Women and Prayer for My Son on His 16th Birthday.

And as a bonus for being a great reader, here’s a highlight from each of us from our year.

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Scenes from Ellen’s family trip to Paris this summer.

Looking for a great break from holiday stress? Check out our top parenting, fitness, and humor posts of the year | Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

Lots of soccer, family time, and a little Pope action on the way to college was Erin’s year

We hope you enjoy  our ten most popular posts from this year all wrapped up with a little bow just for you.

All the best from The Sisterhood, Erin and Ellen 

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Check out our books, “I Just Want to Be Alone” and “You Have Lipstick on Your Teeth.”

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The Family That Plays Together

plays together

It’s that time of year again—time to let our competitive spirits have free reign, time to stoke the fires of healthy competition within our clan, time to pull out the teatherball, dust off the badminton net, and pull out the horseshoes! It’s game time!

We love games year round, just ask the poor souls who have to play Trivial Pursuit with us every New Year’s Eve, but summer is THE season for the sport of gaming around these parts.

In our ‘hood, summer means games. Yes, we love choking down cheeseburgers and corn on the cob with the best of them. And crabs too. We’re on the eastern shore, y’all. Yes, our toes are spending their fair amount of time in the sand. And yes, we are swimming in every pool, pond, or plage that’ll have us. But summer will always mean week-long Monopoly games, endless card games (especially Sleeping Queens!), board game extravaganzas, and of course, the MOTHER of all summer games, family reunions.

Erin is blessed to have married into a family nearly as boisterous and competitive as her own. Every summer Dymowskis harken from hills and dales far and wide to meet and eat and test their mettle in the friendliest of competitions.

Fearsome competitors come in all sizes.

Fearsome competitors come in all sizes.

We take this shizz seriously. Now we are not saying there is training for these events, but, well, there are medals on the line and Dymowskis will walk miles, scale mountains, and wrestle alligators into submission for free stuff.

medals

Step back, Cuzz! I got this!

Most of the day, we are a regular Norman Rockwell painting with all the intergenerational fun. Eating the crabs, sharing the memories, and wolfing down the awesome cakes (Steve’s cousin has some mad baking skills) would be worthy of a trip to our ancestral home every summer in and of themselves. We get practically giddy with the happy, family vibes we are all imbibing . . . or that could be the beer that goes so well with the crabs.

intergenerational

Don’t we belong in a frame from Kohl’s?

But don’t look too closely once the competitive events begin. The dark underbelly of family fun gets exposed and, well, you’ll see. . .

Yep. That's a baby wielding that water balloon.

Yep. That’s a baby wielding that water balloon.

sack races

Let the good times hop!

marshmallow carry

MARSHMALLOW on a spoon. Less mess. Same fun.    You’re welcome!

As the competition heats up, so does the temperature. It’s summertime in Baltimore after all. Since nobody has yet bitten the bullet to put in the pool, we are reduced to sprinkler and hose fun. But nobody seems to mind.

water hose

Family bonding via garden hose

But the best part of pulling out the hose means we get to see our favorite aunts get transformed from this:

happy aunt

into this:

aunt hose

Want to make happy family memories like this with your own tribe? Keep it simple. Think classic, easy-to-execute, and good for all ages. And when in doubt, just add water.

But adding medals is highly encouraged.

medal 2

Game on!

Erin and Ellen

 

 

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