[year] Best Family Holiday Ideas: Fun Places And Activities With Your Grandchildren

The holidays are imminent. Preparations can be exhausting, stressful, and can completely eradicate what is truly important about the season. Resolve that this holiday will be less stressful. Eliminate the not-so-critical things and instead focus on the joys of being with family and grandchildren. You will not regret it. Whenever you spend time with your grandchildren, especially during the holidays, the important component is to create memories for them. Choose activities that are fun to do together and that they will remember forever. The activities can be very simple such as baking cookies, making holiday decorations or gifts for their parents, or just taking a walk to see the neighborhood decorations. Other fun things to do are to take them on day trips. Of course, the selection for the trip should be suitable for their age. Wonderful trips in the area include the science center, the aquarium, train gardens, or neighborhood parks. When you have the grandchildren for a full day, do allow “downtime”. Don’t feel that you need to prepare an activity for every hour of the day. It’s fun to snuggle on the sofa and read books together. My grandchildren love to hear stories about their parents and look at photos and videos of when their parents were a child. Traditions and rituals are very important for enhancing family memories and of course, the holidays can be filled with traditions and rituals. An exciting part of family traditions is the recurring planned time with family members that gives parents, grandparents, and children a sense of connectedness. Holiday traditions should occur every year so that family members can look forward to it occurring. If families don’t have a family tradition, it is not too late to create a tradition. A tradition can be as simple as having the youngest child put the angel on top of the tree or having the oldest member of the family read a holiday story. One of the traditions in our family is playing holiday trivia. Children and parents team together for this entertaining activity. Baking with my grandchildren is always a delight and a learning experience with measuring and beating and watching the changes inconsistency. My grandsons and granddaughters love to assist with baking biscotti. The recipe is simple to follow and was handed down by my Italian mother, so it is very special. Whatever you choose to do with your grandchildren during the holidays, be sure that it interests you and your grandchild and that it creates lasting memories. Enjoy!

Recipe for Josie’s biscotti

1 stick of butter

¾ cup of sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 ½ cups of flour

 Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour and baking powder a little at a time. (Add more flour if the dough is soft). Form into a log shape and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove the log from the oven and slice into ½ inch slices and turn on the edge and bake for another 11 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.