game

Family Christmas game: Laughing All the Way

Family Christmas game: Laughing All the Way

catherinemryan

Christmas is about the only time of year when my whole family gets together. And when we get together, we play games. (Ask me sometime about our tradition of Star Wars Drinking Monopoly. Epic.) Now that we’ve grown up and some of us have kids, though, we needed a more family-friendly game to play at the holidays. So this year, I made one up: a family Christmas game that can be as naughty or nice as you want!

This fun family Christmas game (via a free download printable) is a great way to spend time together over the holidays! Ten Thousand Hour Mama

This post contains affiliate links, which means clicking and buying gets me a few pennies to support this blog—at no extra cost to you.

Imagine this family Christmas game as a mix between Cards Against Humanity and The Game of Things (which if you’ve never played before, you definitely should—it’s one of our favorites!). Basically, your family answers silly holiday questions or fill-in-the-blanks, and everyone has to guess who said what.

Pie is optional—but strongly recommended.

This fun family Christmas game (via a free download printable) is a great way to spend time together over the holidays! Ten Thousand Hour Mama

Want to add a fun family Christmas game to your holiday? Read on for the rules—and a printable so you can get your very own! Read more →

Kiwi is 10 months: Time to play

catherinemryan

baby play trampolineThis month, someone must have hit the “play” button on Kiwi, because she just can’t stop playing! (Ok sorry, terrible pun.)

One day, I put a plastic cup on top of my head. (Why? No idea. Seemed natural at the time.) It fell off. And Kiwi nearly fell over, she was laughing so hard. She made a game of it: She’d hand me a random object for me to balance on my head then giggle uncontrollably when it toppled off.

My favorite game? After she finishes nursing, Kiwi faceplants on my bare belly and blows raspberries. The first time she did it, Eric had to stop what he was doing in the other room to check on us because I was laughing so hard.

Her favorite game is chase. She’ll crawl away from me then pause, peeking behind her to see if I’m following. When I come after her, she squeals in delight and motors away—until I catch her. As I tickle her belly and nibble her cheeks, she surrenders in a fit of laughter—until setting off again.

10 months play crawling

The bruises on my knees from crawling on hardwood and the drool-covered belly barely register. She is happy and I am happy.

I’m even more grateful for this ease of play for both of us because our time together wasn’t always this carefree. In Kiwi’s early months, everything was hard. She cried, and I cried, and neither of us smiled all that much. She was in pain and I was unhappy. On the worst days I had to force myself to play with her—singing nursery rhymes or doing This Little Piggy on her prehensile toes—even though I felt no joy.

The contrast to today is striking—like walking out of a dark movie theater into a July day, it’s almost blinding in its brilliance. Now Kiwi can light me up, and her smile sparks a glow within me that grows with every tickle fest and game of airplane.

baby dog playing

baby play toy carBaby's first taste of apple I thought of her recently when listening to NPR’s TED Radio Hour. The hour-long show explored the benefits of play. The experts made me realize that when I get down on all fours to crawl-chase Kiwi, or when we do pattacake, or when I have puppets act out a scene from Downton Abbey, I’m growing, too.

Putting me in closer connection with my own inner child is just one more gift Kiwi is giving me. As she plays, so do I, and we’re both better off—and happier—for it.