Do you give the gift of time to your grandchildren? Today's busy world needs reminders about prioritizing family and family fun. A lot must be done, but spending time with family is restorative to our souls and a building block for the future.
As we age, the value of loving family becomes more and more obvious. Long life means many experiences, triumphs, and trials. Having family means having someone with whom we can share life’s experiences. The familiarity bred by engaging with our family becomes a source of joy and strength. It provides centering, loving, and even comedic relief against business, community, and political stresses. Close family members help create the ordinary cadence in an often frantically paced world.
Too frequently, people don’t prioritize family, wonder where the years slipped away, and why youngsters who have grown up have no interest in a relationship.
The gift of time in the early years helps build and strengthen multigenerational relationships so they don’t drift into holiday-only encounters.
As we head into the holiday season, let’s make some time to prioritize family and family fun. Think about things on this list that might interest your family, and then do them!
Bake special holiday cookies or have a cookie exchange. Depending on the ages of your children and grandchildren, this could be quite an undertaking with sweet results.
Gift time by giving grandchildren tickets to experiences with you. Maybe tickets to a live music or theater performance, depending on where you live. Tickets to a lunch or coffee date. Tickets to a local art class. Maybe tickets to a sporting event. If you’re splurging, maybe tickets to a vacation adventure. Whatever the activity, it’s time spent together. You might discover a new shared interest that leads to more get-togethers later.
Write Christmas cards together. Teach your grandchildren the old-fashioned art of sending Christmas cards through snail mail. Help them build a list of addresses and make it a tradition you can repeat in coming years.
Find an old-fashioned craft project to complete for either Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Hanukkah. Create something while you spend time together.
Take a drive to see the holiday lights.
Make a video together about your favorite part of upcoming holidays. Kids LOVE to watch videos of themselves! Get in on the fun and give them a treasury of videos to enjoy over the years and after you’re gone. Let them hear your voice and see your smiling face long into the future years. This teaches them to save and categorize the videos on their devices and in the cloud if you want them to enjoy them for years.
Start a memory book to keep at family gatherings. Have all family members present to write a note or copy a picture on the book's pages. Not only will it become a family treasure, but the pictures and stories will become part of the activities at future family gatherings. I’m testing this type of activity soon on a family vacation! The notebook is already in my go pouch for the trip.
There are so many ways we can slow down and enjoy family.
I can’t begin to name or imagine them all. Your family has traditions and interests that you can use to create activities that result in gifts of time, prioritizing family, and creating family fun.
Think outside the box, Grandma and Grandpa! Find ways to make time spent with children and grandchildren beautiful in whatever ways work best for your crew. Fancy isn’t always necessary, but time together is.
Make it count and make it a priority!