What kind of stuff does your family do together for fun?

[Stella]

Inspired by domestic goddess' thread about things that are going well with her DGD I thought it might be nice to talk about the fun things we do with our families.

Zach's family of origin are card players, as is my mom's family. Zach's family is really into euchre, which I had never played before I met him. It is somewhat similar to Sheepshead, though, which we played when I was a kid. Sheepshead is apparently not played much outside of certain areas of Wisconsin.

My grandma has a new pet card game every year and we all learn it. Some past games I remember are Kings on the Corner and Hand and Foot. I'm interested to see what she's onto now. I know we'll be playing cards after the kids go to bed when we're visiting.

My family, Zach the kids and me, have a few things we like to do. We like going to museums and living history sights and we have a great love of waterslides. We're also addicted to Bananagrams.

How about you? What does your family do for fun?

[Mrs. Hermit]

Crossword puzzles, sharing books, watching movies, card games (except for hearts. We maxed out on hearts), touch football, sandlot baseball. Even cooking can become a participatory experience. Now if I could get them to all like cleaning up, too....

[Float On]

Chess, Backgammon, Blokus, Tri-ominos (with 2 sets), dominos (the big tin), Phase10, speed, garbage, rack-o, various other cardgames.
Walks at the lake, yardwork.
We go to music shows rarely (we get into most for free or low cost on area appreciation).
Movies
Movies
Movies
We like to write silly stories. Remember the old game where everyone writes an intro, folds the paper so the last line shows, next person adds to it and folds so their last line shows, and you keep passing it around until you run out of room and end the story. Always has everyone laughing.

[Miss Cellane]

Board games. Card games. When we were kids, there would be marathon Monopoly games for days every summer. My brothers like touch football and catch and shooting hoops, but they are way too competitive for me. Baking cookies. Yard work--Dad would always drag all of us out to rake leaves in the fall. Now my sister and one brother and I all trek over to each other's houses and rake leaves.

[Rosemary]

board games, camping, crafts of all kinds, cooking a recipe together, reading together (aloud or silently), movie night (we don't have much time to watch something, so when we do, it's a fun event), visiting the cat shelter to play with the cats and kittens, museums, walks/bike rides around the neighborhood or to the local library

[Mrs-M]

Family get-togethers.
Tobogganing (winter season).
Night-out fun. i.e. Pizza followed by bowling.
Board games in our house, tops!
Cards.
charades (which we haven't played in ages).

[treehugger]

When I visit my mom (once or twice a year) we always do a jigsaw puzzle together. And we spend lots of time in the kitchen cooking or baking, too. Also, we go for walks and hikes with my dogs (my parents live in Lake Tahoe, next to a National Forest).

When I visit my dad (also once or twice a year), we don't really have family activities. Dad watches a lot of TV. I usually end up tagging along with my step-mom and step-sisters who shop recreationally. I don't enjoy that myself, but they do, and it is something to do together.

My husband and I both love museums and historical sites, although this hobby isn't frugal enough for us currently (we do scope out museum free days, but most are during the week). Another joint hobby that has been put away until we can afford it again is going to all the local Scottish/Celtic events that our friends' band plays at. We also used to see a lot of relatively inexpensive shows at the smaller clubs in the Bay Area (the Fillmore and the Warfield are the biggest we will go). We love live music! Even for a favorite band, neither of us wants to go to an arena or stadium to pay way too much and be way too far from the stage.

We regularly watch movies together. We both have wide-ranging tastes, but there's a nice lot of overlap in the middle, so we can always find something that both of us like. Board games and cards are also something we both like and do together. We have a tradition of playing Uno by candlelight when there's a black out. We also volunteer at a lot of greyhound rescue events.

Kara

[citrine]

We watch movies, bf and his sons love to play video games, cook, eat out, yard work, renovate things around the house, and I love to clean....they help sometimes!

[Stella]

Fun stuff!

Another one I had forgotten to mention was letterboxing. We all love the way it gets us off the beaten trail, seeing things we never would have otherwise seen.

[Mighty Frugal]

Stella, if I am not mistaken euchre is an eastern Canadian game. Does Zach hail from the north east? Usually the only Americans I've come across that play/know euchre live(d) in Michigan or upstate NY.

I love euchre but dh hates cards and my goobers are too young for that game. We play 'go fish' and 'old maid' and an Italian card game played with Italian cards-they look like tarot cards

We also frequent our teeny rep theatre that is a blast from the past (one small screen, red velvet, small glass ticket booth)

We go bowling 5 pin

Play in our local park with other local kids

Play 'What Time is it Mr.wolf' and 'Mother May I?' in our basement

Watch movies

Watch TV

Watch shark attacks spiders-Zach Scott and silly things on Youtube

We just love spending time together even if we are all doing different things-I am never cozier than when we are all in our front room together:)

[Stella]

Zach is from Indiana, but his family originally came from the Northeast. It might be a holdover from earlier generations.

We like the YouTube videos too. I have found that YouTube is one of the best ways to connect with preteens. We can get YouTube on the AppleTV and watch it on the big screen. The preteen set is always over here telling me, "Look up Bunny Vs Snake. It's awesome!"

[Acorn]

Aside from watching the occasional dvd, our family just likes to spend companionable time with one another. Our house has a combined living/dining area and we spend all our time there. Not long ago my daughter mentioned most of her friends spend time in their bedrooms, but we don't spend any of our waking hours in our bedrooms. We are always together eating, reading, on the computers, playing with the dog, talking...just hanging out.

[cdttmm]

We're an athletic crew, so hiking, mountain biking, road biking, kayaking, snowboarding, cross country skiing, rock climbing, and running. Also, cooking, geocaching, puzzles, crossword puzzles, Scrabble, chess, Trivial Pursuits, and YouTube videos. My mom and I also enjoy gardening together. At our house the pets are the center of attention, so there is always a lot of dog petting and cat cuddling happening, too. And there is a fair amount of movie watching.

[Stella]

Acorn we don't spend much waking time in our bedrooms either. The girls will occasionally play in their bedroom when they are playing with something they want to keep the babies out of, like their American Girl dolls, but most of the time we are together.

cdttmm all of that sounds like so much fun! I can't wait until the little kids are big enough that we can all do stuff like that together.

[CathyA]

We always liked playing board games together........pictionary/trivial pursuit, etc.

When we have a meal or go out, its a big time to talk. I remember when DS was in his first few years of college and would go out to eat with his roommates.......they would eat and run. DS didn't understand this at all! He'd learned to appreciate the big social occasion that meals were supposed to be.
So.....eating together has always been fun for us.
When the kids were real little, we would read alot of children's books to them. Sometimes they would put on plays for us........which were hysterical.
We took alot of walks on our property too.
We also would listen to children's music tapes with them, and watch children's videos.
We also had fun using play dough and making beads.

[artist]

Taking hikes in the woods has always been a big draw for us. We live 1/8 of a mile from the trail head for 325 acres of state parkland that is all wooded hiking trails. It's an "easy" rated trail but that's just right for the everyday. We live about a 20 drive from another conservation site that is full of trails and we are about an hour from Mt. Monadnock and 2hours from The Whites. We still do easy trails though. Not hitting the 4000 footers or summit sitting here anytime soon. Our knees can't handle that, though we wish they could.

Reading is our other major thing, listening to NPR and occassional some Jazz on the radio. Talking. Occassionally we'll play cards or a board game.

We don't own a television or look up videos on the computer.

[CathyA]

Artist.......sounds absolutely wonderful to live so close to all those wooded trails!