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In the run up to December 1st, I have had many conversations this week about what to do for advent. Be it on or off line it seems to be the subject on everyone's mind right now.
Jenny over at the blog My Perfectly Imperfect Every Day Life is facing her first year without kids in the house, and so came up with a new advent tradition to enjoy with her husband. She took a 25 slot cubby, and added a gift for each day. Each box contains a prompt for something to do together that day.
I thought this was an inspiring idea, not just for the new empty nesters, but to parents struggling to maintain a sense of self, to keep a relationship going that didn't involve the words mom or dad. So here is my 24 day advent for my geek husband and myself. I hope you join in with us.
- Start with a bang - wear the kids out, put them to bed early and get as far into The Lord of the Rings
- extended edition - as you can.
- PlayElf Bowling (remember that!)
- Pull out an old favorite game, one from the pre-kid years. For us this will be a nice game of Othello
or Stratego
.
- Wake up before the kids and make pancakes together, pancakes in the shape of the Millennium Falcon.
- Find an app you like and play together, we enjoy Cradle of Rome 2. It's a one player game and so having two people on at once is cheating, but fun! It has to be on a phone or a tablet, playing together on that kind of device means that you have to be close, no child width between you.
- Finish decorating the Christmas tree while watching MST3K: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
.
- Eat like a Geek - pick your favorite GeekMom recipe and make it together.
- Settle down with an episode of Sherlock
after the kids have gone to bed.
- Sunday December 9th. Play Glitch together before it disappears forever, the game will be killed at 11pm EST.
- Play a new favorite game - in our house that would be Roll Through The Ages: The Bronze Age
. We discovered this game last year but get very little downtime to play together.
- Get a sitter, go see a movie.
Find a new game, one that neither of you have played before, play it. We have had a couple of games on the shelf for some time and that we have yet to crack open.- Find your quiet spot, pick a book of the shelf each and sit and read. Set the timer, you have to sit for at least an hour with no laundry going on in the background!
- Pick your Starbucks drink of choice, strap the kids into strollers, hand them a book and take a walk around the mall. By walk I mean hold chariot races, winner gets to pick which game to test out in Best Buy!
- Wear the kids out and put them to bed early - play a monster game of Risk: Lord of the Rings Edition
.
- In an attempt to recover from invading Mordor at 2am, let the kids hop into bed with you and watch old cheesy Christmas cartoons. Okay this doesn't get you away from being parents but it sure is relaxing!
- Recreate a moment from your dating life. Our plan? Put the Grinch
soundtrack on and hug. The moment we realised how we felt about each other as naive youngsters was during a hello hug that lasted the length of this soundtrack.
- Decorate Sugar Cookies together, our choice will be Bake at 350's constellation cookies. Eat cookies.
- Watch Jackie Chan. A Jackie Chan Christmas: Episode ten, season three of The Jackie Chan Adventures- "A Jolly J-Team X-mas".
- There is enough time left for Prime shipping on Amazon, make a hot cocoa and browse online together. Find something you can both enjoy and order it. It will be here in time for Christmas and will give you something to do, that isn't cleaning or cooking, while the kids sleep on Christmas day.
- Time for the Christmas episode marathon. Begin with "Jolly Old St Dick," make sure to hit "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", end with the piece de resistance of Christmas episodes, "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis."
- Find a sitter, bundle up and take a chilly walk through one of your favorite spots. We own two acres of Maine woods so we may just do that, but downtown Portland is a wonderful place to stroll with a loved one. Walk for the sake of walking and holding hands with mittens on.
- While sorting through toys to be put away before the Christmas packages arrive from Santa, play with them, with no kids around! You can make the Little People Batman and Wonder Woman kiss if you like.
- The calm before the storm, expect no time to yourself. Sneak in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock before passing out after the last minute wrapping session.
Christmas day hasn't belonged to us since 2009, so I turn that over completely to the geeklings and their new toys!
