Will you have the opportunity to spend New Year’s Eve with your grandchildren?  This could be a great opportunity to have lots of FUN!!!

This is a time to break out of your ‘but-grandmothers-don’t-do-that-kind-of-thing’ attitude.  Be zany!  Be creative!  Be outta this world!

Lest you are at a loss for ideas of what to do, here are a few to jump start your thinking.  (And, make sure you have plenty of crepe paper streamers, balloons, noise makers, and confetti).  As always, adapt and modify your activities according to the ages of your grandchildren.

• For young grandchildren, move the clock ahead a couple of hours.  This way, they can celebrate the ringing in of the New Year but still get to bed before midnight (and before they are too tired and cranky).
• Get glow in the dark sticks to wave outside at midnight. (Fun for ANY age!)
• Have a dress up party with fun clothes, hats, tiaras, jewelry, cowboy boots, whatever.  Kids love to dress up and doing it only on Halloween just isn’t quite often enough for their dress-up souls.  Make sure you and Grandpa dress up, too!
• Have a pajama parade at midnight with your grandchildren wearing the new pajamas they got at Christmas.  (If they didn’t get new ones, maybe you could give them some and have all the more reason to parade!)  If you can, find fun masks for them to wear (like the picture above) as they parade around.
• Do the Bubble Wrap Stomp.  Buy sheets of bubble wrap used for packing.  At midnight, put on some lively music, put the bubble wrap on the floor, and stomp away.
• Make your own noise makers by putting dried beans or rice in cans or cardboard tubes or empty pop bottles and decorate the outside of the container.  Shake the containers wildly at midnight.
• Have a Dino-Mite Dance.  Make dinosaur masks for your little mites to wear while doing the Bunny Hop, the Hokey Pokey, the Funky Chicken, The Macarena, the Limbo (how low can Grandma go???).  To get copies of these songs, go to the iTunes store where they cost only 99 cents per song.  Burn them to a CD and then play the songs for your party.  (You can then pull out this CD and dance anytime during the year with your grandchildren!  Yes, Grandpa, even YOU can dance these types of dances with the grandkids!)
• For the granddaughters, have a jewelry making night.  Go to a local craft store and get beads and baubles for them to make bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
• Have a cheese or chocolate fondue.

Here are some previous activities that I have written about that you could do:

• Play Fox and Geese. This could be a fun challenge if there isn’t much moonlight . . . Wear glow in the dark necklaces made out of the sticks! Then, come in and warm up with hot chocolate and donuts.
• Play Zilch.
• Play Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• Play the Cup Rythm game.
• Play Panic (a card game).
• Play the Candy Bar game.

Last night we were spontaneous (yes, we are spontaneous on occasions).  We played card games with our neighbors.  They had two games that we hadn’t heard of before:  Category and Wizards.  Teen-aged grandchildren would enjoy playing these games.

What ever you do, may you have fun (and be safe) strengthening your relationship with your grandchildren while playing with them on New Year’s Eve!

Digi-Gram

Grandma Ideas

I love the view from my window as I stand at the kitchen sink.  It has changed dramatically over the years.  Here is what it looked like when we first bought our property — before the kitchen window was even built!  (Click on the pictures to see a larger view.)

This is what the same view looks like (now from my window) twenty-one years later.

And this is what the view out my kitchen window looks like this very morning!

I was worried that we wouldn’t have a white Christmas.  Silly me!

After you’ve been out in the snow with your grandchildren — whether from shoveling the driveway or building snowmen — warm up with hot chocolate. I’ve got a great recipe here for a hot chocolate mix in addition to some delicious variations you can make.

Enjoy!
Digi-Gram

Want to put a fun twist on Christmas caroling with your grandchildren? Try playing the melody to Jingle Bells on your head with a cardboard tube!!

Gather up cardboard tubes left over from Christmas wrapping paper or empty paper towels tubes.  You will need enough for five tubes.  It really doesn’t  matter the diameter of the tube.  It’s the length that counts.

Cut tube number one 15 inches long.  Write the number ‘one’ on the tube with a marking pen.  Cut tube number two 14 inches long and write the number ‘two’ on the tube.  Cut tube three 13 inches long and write the number the number ‘three’ on that tube.  Cut tube number four 12 inches long and write the number ‘four’ on that tube.  Cut tube number five 11 inches long and write that number ‘five’ on the tube.

Click here for the musical directions for playing Jingle Bells using the cardboard tubes.  (These directions are in Word 2007.)  The directions have the number of the tube that is to be played and when it is to be played.  For example, when there is a number three, the person holding the number three tube hits her head.  Since everybody knows the melody, it’s pretty easy to ‘learn’ how to play the tubes.

Since my 9 month old grandson isn’t quite up to playing the tubes with me, I got some good sports to help out. This is a 30 second movie clip showing them playing Jingle Bells using the cardboard tubes.

Of course these wonderful surrogate grandchildren weren’t serious all the time . . .

I hope that you have a safe and a very Merry Christmas with your family.
Digi-Gram

Having a family Christmas party and need activities for the grandchildren? Will you be spending Christmas Eve with them and need something to help make the time go by faster for them? Here are three activities that you can easily do with them.

	Got old burned out Christmas light bulbs?  Light Bulbs — How to Recycle with Style shows how to make this cute reindeer, and also a Santa and snowman ornament. Make these ornaments with your grandchildren and let them hang the ornament on your tree — or take them home to hang on theirs. (There are also directions for an Easter duck and a Halloween pumpkin and witch.)  Cute and clever!
	Here’s another fun idea for making Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Something that even a fairly young grandchild can do.
	Make this adorable thumbprint reindeer card. Find the directions on Family Fun

Merry Christmas,
Digi-Gram

Grandma Ideas