Holiday Recap

Hello friends. It has been a while since I've posted, and a lot has happened. I had a milestone birthday. I turned forty a couple weeks ago. I completed a forty day fast the day before my birthday. I felt lead to do it for both spiritual and physical reasons. I plan to talk more about my experience in a future post. I’m still processing the whole thing.

Then there was Christmas and Leslie and I decided to take a week off to spend with our families. I’m so glad we did. I hope you got to enjoy some quality time with yours as well. This has been a week of games for us. We got the game Ticket to Ride as a family gift. It is a board game where you compete to complete a path across the United States with train pieces. It is especially great for our family because it can have up to five players. It has very little reading, which is great for my youngest, but involves a lot of strategy to make it interesting and fun for ALL ages. (Click on pictures for affiliate links)

We also got the game 10 Days in the USA which was actually a gift to the youngest. We are studying the United States this year in history and geography so I thought it would reinforce some of what we are learning. The funny thing is that this game is really designed for younger people, but in some ways is harder that Ticket to Ride. Ten minutes into the first game AJ said “I can’t wait to sell this game in a yard sale!” He has such a funny sense of humor. We played again tonight and he won, so he is warming up to the game a little.

The last game we’ve been playing is Bananagrams. I’ve seen this game around for years, but we have never played it. Tim’s daughter bought it for him for Christmas and we stayed up late one night playing it after the younger kids were in bed. It is a version of Scrabble where you divide the tiles and race to make your own scrabble board. The winner is the one who can use all of his or her tiles up first.

I know you’re not here for a play by play of what games we got for Christmas, but they are all great games and I would recommend each of them. 

We try to stay away from electronics as gifts, but that seems to be what our kids ask for most often, especially the boys. My husband and I went out shopping the night before Christmas Eve to see what we could find. We stopped at a local toy store and found The Swurfer. It is a wooden swing that you ride surf-board style. It was a REALLY big hit with my daughter. She’s probably spent ten hours on it over the three days that we’ve had it. The weather here was really pretty on Christmas day and the following days. If you are looking for a way to get your kids OUTside, this is another toy I would highly recommend. It is also great ab workout! 

Check out a video HERE to see it in action.

One last thing before I go. I know y’all know Leslie and I like Amazon a lot and make a lot of purchases through it. What you might NOT know is that Amazon has a groovy feature called “Wish List.” As you browse Amazon you can add items to your wish list. I started doing that a few months back just to remind myself of things I was interested in purchasing. My list consisted mostly of books that I want to read. Even though I might not get them from Amazon, I still put them on my wish list. Then, when I am ready to buy, I can search for the best price, but it helps me to remember what I am looking for. I also had several kitchen items and some other miscellaneous things. This year, when my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday I actually knew of some things I wanted. Usually I have a hard time thinking of things. He even shared the list with a couple people who were looking to buy me a birthday or Christmas gift, and this year I got a lot of things on my wish list.

I'm posting two back-to back posts because I have a challenge for you tomorrow, but wanted to share these fun gifts our family received this year.

Kristy