This week, families around the world officially move into the holiday season. While many of the most magical and meaningful holiday moments involve celebrating with family, it’s the family aspect of the holidays that can often bring tension, stress, and bad feelings.

The who, what, and why of the holidays are easily overtaken by the when and the where. Enjoying time with loved ones seems like a peaceful proposition, but it all too often gets very complicated!

I certainly don’t propose that I have all of the answers, but I think sometimes it helps just to hear how other families navigate the question “Where will we spend the holidays this year?”

1. Establish your boundaries

This is the foundation for all of the decisions you will make for the holiday season. It’s also the most powerful and empowering part of this process because your holiday boundaries may be the only part of the season that you are able to control.
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I know you’ve been there, like me—on the evening of November 30, you realize the official month of Christmas begins tomorrow, so you’d better whip together your family’s advent calendar.

Every year, I have grand ambitions to thoughtfully, methodically prepare our holiday season with an Advent calendar or Jesse Tree. And every year, I scrap it together at the last minute. Or scrap the idea for next year. Not the biggest deal in the world, of course, but I do wish I had more time to enjoy the preparation of these sweet, simple family traditions.

Well guess what? I’ll enjoy them more if I start preparing now. I know, who wants to think about Christmas activities the week of Thanksgiving? But there’s only two weeks until December, so by doing a little bit of prep this week, you’ll be sitting prettier by the first of the month.

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Written by contributor Miss Dottie of Modernkiddo.com

I think the best party you can have for kiddos is a Halloween party! Costume + candy + friends = FUN!  That’s my favorite kind of math.

But how do you turn up the fun factor to 11 at your kiddo’s Halloween party? Add some Halloween-inspired party games!  Let’s leave the old bobbing for apples game for some new ones that don’t involve a crying, wet, wee one.  So, I rounded up some super fun games that you might want to try at your next Halloween party

1.) Pop Goes The Pumpkin

Of course, the doyenne of fabulous parties, Martha Stewart, has a few good tricks up her sleeves for children and this one, Pop Goes the Pumpkin,  is my favorite involving confetti filled balloons is sure to be a party-pleaser for older kiddos.

2.) Pin the Spider on the Web

I love this Halloween inspired version of the classic Pin the Tail on the donkey.  You could also make a web using white masking tape on a wall, which would be pretty darn awesome.

2.) Witch’s Stew Game

I love this witchy game since it involves things all pre-schoolers can do–sucking on a straw.

4.) Monster Mash Tag

This monster version of tag is great for a little outdoor game for your little monsters actually a lot more fun than a basic game of tag.

5.) Walk on the Witch’s Hat

You can play Monster Mash as the music of choice for this game as children walk over the witch’s hat.  No witch would like that!

Hee hee!  Man, Halloween party games are a lot more fun than when I was a kid.

What were your favorite games to play as a kid? What are the ones your kids enjoy playing?