death to the doom scroll

Holiday hobbies for the chronic scroller

It’s the Friday before holiday vacation. Emails are being sent with “let’s touch base after the holidays”, kids are getting early dismissal, and their teachers are rolling out the VHS tape stands with Frosty on screen (does this still happen or do they have Disney + now?) There is a buzz in the air, excitement connecting us all. Nothing really productive is being done and everyone is holding their breath until 5pm when we can go home and start our break. The metros will slow with daily commuters and the streets will be lined with people, arms full of bags of gifts.

We probably all have plans to go see some festive lights, have a big dinner, play with our new toys…. but Christmas is still 5 days away. There is a lot of time between the then and now, and I am guilty of filling it by sitting on my mom’s couch while she ferries me treats and I scroll on my phone.

This year looks a little different of course. Michael will get home tonight, and instead of catching flights to see my parents, we will be cozying up for a week spent just the two of us. We have spent Christmas’ alone for a few years now so we know what to expect. We are sad to be far away from our loved ones. However, Christmas just the two of us is always restful and full of love. It’s like a little bubble we make where we wear our pajamas 24/7 and binge watch movies or do our hobbies alongside each other. Normally that is until it pops and he has to return to work in the new year. This year however I’m popping our metaphorical bubble a bit early and sharing what our Christmas week usually looks like.

Michael and I are hobby hoarders. Him more so than me (you know it Mikey). So when the opportunity arises for us to have almost 2 1/2 weeks of uninterrupted hobby time you can be guaranteed we are making a checklist (we also love checklists). If you saw my blog of our family notion page on organization then you know we make a checklist for things we want to do in our free time.

At risk of sounding preachy, we use it as a way to spend intentional time together doing the things we both love. Lucky for both of us, we married people whose hobbies mostly overlap with our own. We do everything on the checklist together. Key word being “together”. This isn’t a list of things we just wanna do, it’s things we want to share.

Here is the checklist we made for our holiday break (and yes I make one this extra every time, even if its just for the weekend). We have to make our own everyday magic.

I adapted Alexandra Khaikonen’s template to make my own

I usually add a column to show who is suggesting which activity to make sure there is a balance for us both. If you do this with your family that’s even better because the more people there are, the harder it is to ensure everyone gets to do what they would like.

I’m going to link here a sort of mini magazine with clickable links for some of the activities we are doing in case you want to do some of the same.

Clickable guide

I hope this brought a bit of inspiration and motivation to avoid your phone this holiday season. It’s ok to scroll, we all need to disassociate sometimes, but don’t forget to mix in a bit of good ol’ healthy PLANNED fun, ya filthy animals.

I am linking here a blank copy of my checklist in case you want to join in, if you do, I would really love it if you could send me photos of your lists/crossing them off! I print mine off and place it on the living room table for the week, but this also works great on an iPad.

Happy Holidays lovely

Nomi