Create Memories This Thanksgiving and Christmas - Activities to Do and Games To Play As A Family

This Will Make You Think...Or At Least It Should

Thanksgiving is almost here! Many of you will be hosting family in your homes. Others will be traveling to spend time with family. Whether you are staying home or will be traveling, making memories together, giving thanks, and having fun should be your goal.

Recently, I posted something on Facebook about things to do with Family this Thanksgiving. I said I had two family activities to share that you can do together during the holidays. I have actually put together a list of three things instead of two.

The first activity is something that will hopefully make you think. It's actually the most important thing you can do as a family this year. The second and third things are fun games you can play together. Make sure you have your cameras ready for all three.

1. Family Activity – Get Out A Camera - A Real One.

(Read this. It's important. )

Thanksgiving 2017. It’s a time of giving thanks and for being thankful - for reminiscing, for remembering.

In our family, I have an entire cedar chest full of photographs and photo albums from when our children were younger. There are 30 years worth of photographs in that chest.

Fast forward … to today. Our children are now grown and in their twenties. We have a precious 3-year old grandson. Our children and grandchildren are living in a time that is considered the most photographed time in history. On a daily basis, trillions of selfies and other images that are taken on our phones, are uploaded to our Instagram accounts, Facebook and to Snapchat.

Ten years from now, Facebook, Instagram our computers and our even our phones themselves, will probably be obsolete. The unprinted photos on our phones and computers will be inaccessible and will be long forgotten.

Sadly, even though this is the most photographed generation of all time, this is also the generation that will have the least amount of printed images to enjoy and to remember.

When children today become adults, they will likely have very few printed photos of themselves, their parents or their grandparents.

Without even realizing it, we are raising a generation of children and grandchildren who the Professional Photographers Association of America calls the ‘lost generation’ – an era of people, currently fairly young, who risk losing these magical images of their childhood and with it, a strong sense of their history.

So this Thanksgiving and into December as you spend time with loved ones, challenge yourself to document your time together through photographs that you can print. Then take the time to do something nostalgic – take those printed images and create photo albums so that your children and your grandchildren, have something to see to remember you, to remember themselves and to remember the time you spent together this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And lastly, if you haven’t done it in years, (or better yet, if you have never done it), take the time at least every few years, to have professional photos made of your family. Include your parents and grandparents. Create memories that your children and your grandchildren will have so that they have something to look back on. Don’t simply get the images on a CD or on a jump drive. Find a photographer who provides professional, tangible prints and products. Document your family life. You only have one family – one life. Don’t let time pass you by.

2. Family Game - BeanBoozled

From the makers of Jelly Belly candies, there is BeanBoozled. This game is hilarious and is great fun for families of all ages – from 3 to 93. The game comes with ten delicious Jelly Belly jelly bean flavors (like Juicy Pear or Chocolate Pudding) paired up with ten lookalikes in weird and disgusting flavors.

Spin the spinner. When it lands on a candy, that’s the candy you have to eat. You don’t know until you start chewing, which candy you got. Will you get…

Tutti Fruitti or Stinky Socks

Lime or Grass Clippings

Peach or Barf

Buttered Popcorn or Rotten Egg

You can get the candies almost anywhere – Target, Walmart, even Marshalls. We played this recently and everyone had a great time – Even 3 year old Nathan. Visit the website for more information and to locate a candy retailer near you.

https://www.jellybelly.com/beanboozled-challenge

NEW! There is now an app. You can download the app and play the game with friends anywhere. The app comes with a video sharing function so you can challenge your friends – wherever they are – in real time.

DOWNLOAD THE APP HERE

3. Family Game - Face The Cookie