Home for the Holidays

by Asma Hassan

Dreading the holiday season? Spending more time with more family all within a time frame of a week? The aunts whose names you can’t remember. The uncles who speak in an unidentifiable foreign dialect. The cousins who turn the house, and your patience, upside down.  Ok, it’s not that bad. But perhaps we think we’d rather be with friends.

Well fear not! Here are some easy and fun ideas to help you get through the holidays a bit easier this year, and perhaps turn it into something to look forward to!

A little bit of competition…healthy competition, of course! Try bringing the family together by teaming kids vs. parents or boys vs. girls in some classic board games. Some Brown Girl favorites include:

• Taboo – a popular word-guessing game which is fun for all ages

• Cranium – this game really will make you use your brain, along with everything else on your body, to connect with your partner (and beat the other team!)

• Good old cards – Speed and Poker are of course the classics, but show off your card-tricks and see what the elders have to offer as well as tales from “the good old days”

‘Tis the Season to be COOKING!…With the Holidays and family all around, the kitchen can be a really good place to connect. Some Brown Girl suggestions include:

• Try learning new recipes from your mom, aunt, or any family member. Keep a record of the recipes and keep adding new ones year round.

• If the board games aren’t your thing, get your siblings to meet you in the kitchen with their serious-cooking-aprons on. Pick a general ingredient, say “potatoes,” and have each sibling spin off their own “potato” dish. No rules, no limits, and the judges: the parents! Losers get to wash the dishes.

Crafts Galore…With no work, no school, you will most likely be spending a lot of time at home. Here are some ideas to help the time go by faster, while being productive.

• Pick a room, any room (even your bathroom), in your house to give it a full make over. Research creative ideas online and go all out redecorating. The refreshed space will refresh your spirits.

• Catch up on cleaning a closet or a drawer. We are all guilty of it- putting off cleaning till the Spring time. Get down and dirty with your gloves and pre-clean a closet or drawer, and you will be a lot less stressed come the real Spring-cleaning.

• Go through old family photos. This is always a fun and nostalgic thing to do around the holidays. Consider creative projects like making a master photo-album, or perhaps one for each family member as a fun present.

Redeem Rainy Days…Take the extra time you have on your hands and do things you were saving for rainy days. Here’s some fun leisurely activities for every Brown Girl:

• Read a really good book.

• Rent a television series, and catch up on an entire season. Or watch your top 5 movies of all time.

Since you have an excuse, eat that extra piece of pecan pie, with a dollop of ice cream on the side!