Thursday, January 21, 2010

One of Winter's Side Effects

Winter.

Lately I've been reading lots of opinions on this glorious season, not all of them favorable. I happen to be a fan. The snow. The crisp air. Fires in the fireplace. Hot chocolate. Hearty soups and stews.

It's all good.


I know that winter does have some side effects that aren't so cheery. Lack of sunlight is hard on a person. Being cooped up inside along with everyone else also provides a wonderful breeding ground for all those germs and bugs that are just waiting to attack. So there is also much illness with which to cope. Colds, flu, various viruses...yuck. Not winter's most endearing qualities, but sometimes you have to take the bad with the good.

But winter does have one very positive side effect for our family. It seems that whenever the temperatures drop and Old Man Winter settles in for a nice, long visit...
...we tend to spend a lot more time together. Good, quality, family time. Board games, jigsaw puzzles, card games. They all come out of the game closet and get the dust blown off them.

Some of our favorites include...





And of course dominoes.

We LOVE dominoes. They are such great teaching tools, too. Perri learned great math skills playing dominoes and now Tucker is doing the same.

What does your family do to while away those chilly winter evenings? Do you have a favorite board or card game? Are you a jigsaw pro? Do you get crafty? I'm always looking for new things to try and I'd love to read your suggestions. :)

6 comments:

  1. I have been doing a lot more crafts,and we have been playing a lot of sorry and uno.

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  2. Yes! Winter is wonderful! It really makes family time even more precious because we're mostly snowed in or, at least, wanting to stay warm inside. We love crafting: paper crafts, bookmaking, scrapbooks and more. And we also love working a good (Springbok) puzzle in the evenings. Reading and reading aloud is another great sharing! Yup, winter is not only "cool" it's a good time for family sharing!

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  3. Ugh...we start to get a little stir crazy about this time! We play games too...the kids really like UNO right now ;)

    We're definitely getting spring fever...but I like the snow and cool, sweatshirt, boot-wearing temperatures, too!

    {Can you believe we've never played Dominoes! Alex got them for Christmas this year, though...so I have no excuse now...we need to get them out!}

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  4. I love games and we should paly them much more often. When I was little my mom and I played games ALL the time. She plays dominoes with a friend every Friday!

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  5. I'm one of those who "grumps" my way through winter - just can't handle not having sunshine 24/7...However I do LOVE the luxury of wearing Sweats during the winter - they feel like wearing pj's...We are BIG game players. Our new family game this year is "Things". Lots of fun!

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  6. I always tend to get larengitis during the winter season, so I'm not the biggest fan of that time of year. But our son and his wife come over every other Friday and we play games of all sorts and mostly play "Liverpool Rummy" (a card game). We so enjoy our time with them!

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