Family Time

When we moved schools I got all the paperwork that the teachers usually ask for at the beginning of the year.  Along with all the boring forms, Ellie's teacher had a little "Getting To Know You" kind of paper.  One of the things she asked was if the child had a TV in his/her room (which up to a week before would have been "no" but Santa had just brought her one--although it's only hooked up to the Wii U) and another was "What 3 Things Do You Do As A Family?"  Now, I'm not sure what the purpose of this question was, but it made me feel a little guilty.  I had a hard time coming up with 3 things we do.  I said 1. Family Walks (which, admittedly, we haven't done in a LONG time--thank you very much Ohio Winter) 2. Sunday Morning Coffee and Donuts (a tradition that was started when Evan and I moved to our first house, before we even had kids.  Even on vacation we scout out the local Dunkin and get our Sunday coffee and donuts.)
3.  Family Movie Night (We pick a movie we all want to watch, pop popcorn and watch all together.  This sounded pathetic to me.  Besides the walk, we eat donuts and watch TV.  GREAT family togetherness!  I suppose we do other things as a family on occasion, family vacations, trips to the zoo and museum, but routinely, there's not that much that we all do together.  I attribute part of that to our large size.  If it were just Evan, Caden Ellie and I, playing board games might be something we could do--but add in Vince and Olivia and that's just a mess.  What I'm saying is, I feel guilty that we don't more as a family, but I'm also at a loss as to what we could do that would be FUN for us all to do as a family.  Beach vacations.  We all like those.  Yep, we're going to start doing weekly beach vacations.

I also feel guilty I don't read to my kids more.  I read with them, every day, in fact, but I feel like I should be doing MORE reading with them, and allowing THEM to read to ME (mostly Ellie).  So to multi-task I'm going to try giving Family Story Time a Try.  We can read some short books that will hold even Olivia's attention, but also some that are longer with more of a plot, for Caden and Ellie.  This doesn't have to be something that we do every night.  It can be something that we only do once a week, or even once every month, but it will be something that we "do as a family".  I want my kids to look back on their childhood and think about things that we "did as a family."  I never had this kind of family when I was growing up.  My nuclear family dissolved shortly after I was born.  I have no memories of "doing things as a family" with my mom and dad.  I have some memories of family things with the two other families of which I then became a part, but I always feel a little envious of my husband and his brother when they reminisce about "when we were little".    So begins Family Story Time, so when my kids are old they can say, "Remember when Mom got that dumb idea to do Family Story Time and made us sit around and listen to her read?"  *Sigh* creating memories.