Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A Christmas GIFT from Our House to Yours

When I was growing up, my family made it a point to eat together at the table on most occasions, maybe with some background music playing, but very rarely the television on. Yes, there were times when we all sat in front of the TV eating our meals while we watched a special show, but those were not the norm. The bulk of our meals were spent at the table - talking, sharing, having family devotions, and praying. My husband grew up doing similar things with his family, so we both understand the value in this type of quality family time. Likewise, we have made it a point to try and keep this tradition going with our own children.

A couple of years ago, as our youngest became more interested in watching full-length movies, we began having one of our weekend meals on TV trays while watching a wholesome movie or television show together. This has also become a special time of family togetherness that we all enjoy. However, as time has gone by, the kids began to look forward to movie night more than our meals at the table. Our youngest even eluded to the fact that our meal times were “boring” to him. Some of this, I’m sure, was just due to the fact that our kids enjoy movies and TV (and I admit they probably watch too much of it, but that’s another topic); and some of it could be because my husband and I have had a tendency to talk with each other and “catch up” about our days at home or at work, while unintentionally leaving the kids out of the conversation. So, I started brainstorming on ways to make our meal times more enjoyable for the kids again.

The idea that finally came to mind was to write questions or conversation topics on slips of paper; then, fold them up and toss them into a container. At our main meal of the day, we pull out one (or more) slips of paper and take turns answering the question. It’s a great way to get everyone at the table participating in conversation, and learning more about each other as well. Since we have been doing this, our youngest began looking forward to our meals at the table again.

So.....

As a special Christmas gift to all of YOU, I wanted to share this idea with you, but also decided to go a step further.... With my family's help, I made up a FREE download of 60 “topic cards” for you to assemble and use with your own family. All you have to do is print it out and follow the simple directions.

Please take this opportunity to download this FREE gift today! Have fun getting to know more about your family (or friends) while you spend quality time with them around the table.

Click below for the download page, and feel free to pass this along to anyone else who might have an interest.


We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

  1. I downloaded the link. There were some neat questions in there. Thank you for sharing them, Vicky!

    ReplyDelete

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