December 21th 2009 Over the River and through the Woods………
………And through the barnyard gate
We seem to go extremely slow
It is so hard to wait……….
Uuuggghhhh…….holiday travel! It’s that time folks, pack the car, say a prayer and hit the road. Oh, I feel for anyone who has to travel this week. When my kids were much younger we had family living a couple hours away, every few years we’d make the trek on Christmas morning to have breakfast with them. It was torturous some years! Besides the stress of the holiday itself, I needed to think about prepping for a trip. There was the midnight pantry hunt for snacks on Christmas Eve, or the sudden realization we didn’t have ‘blankey’ after we were on the road for 2o minutes! Well, after a few years of complete havoc, Joe and I had the prep and trip down to a science. Here’s a few fun ideas on how to take the stress out of traveling with your ‘bunchkins’ this holiday season.
For the younger babes……
~Food! Stock pile some great snacks. Goldfish, crackers, raisins, Cheerios (my fav)
~Beverages! In moderation of course, keeping pit stops to a minimum.
~Security blankets or toys! It’s gonna be ugly if you’re two hours from home with out ‘Thomas Turtle!’
~Puppets, use these for an impromptu puppet show
For the older kids……..
~ABC Game, its a race through the alphabet! Use the first letter of a word, title or licence plate. You must go in order and a letter can not be reused by another player! First one to ‘Z’ wins!
~Count Santas, Stars, Reindeer………anything to celebrate the season, the person to get to 10 first wins!
~Sing-a-longs….Oh yea! The older kids love this! We mix it up by changing the words. ’One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me scalding hot cup of tea!’ You’ll be surprised how creative you can get!
~ Scavenger Hunt, this requires a bit of prep, give each person a list of items to find while driving……Red pick-up truck, Nativity Scene, Cow, Speed Limit 45………you get the idea, mix it up with really crazy stuff and easy stuff!
~Story telling, kinda like mad-libs, this requires a stop watch or a time keeper & a bag of words………one person starts the story, every 30-45 seconds the story teller must stop and some one else fills in the blank with a word drawn from the bag…….then the story teller continues for another alloted time frame…….Don’t think you can pull it off? Buy a book or two of mad libs!
For the Adults
~Strong coffee
~Lots of Patience
~Christmas Spirit
~Sense of Humor!
You probably notice I didn’t list iPods, Gameboys, DVD players…… It’s easy to stick your kids in front of electronics and keep them quite, and yes it does give you a break too. Yet, remember the road trips you took as a kid? It was just you, your family, and the open road. You survived, your parents survived and you spent time together! I even bet you have some pretty fond memories of those road trips….wouldn’t it be great to share those with your kids?!
There’s a part of me that misses wild ride each Christmas morning. Even though it was hectic and hair raising at times to pack up the kids, once we got on the road it was fun! If your traveling this week, pack up your tolerance, humor and your smiley face and enjoy the ride. Be safe out there!
Tags: holiday travel
