“Why do we have to do this?”, I remember asking my mother as a teenager. That’s because she insisted that every Wednesday night we gathered for Family Nights.

I’m the first to admit that at the beginning I thought it was so corny. Being teenagers we felt we had so many other things we wanted to do. Like be on our phones or go out with our friends.

At the time there was a lot of resistance.

I have to give it to my mama for being faithful to having these evenings. Family Night just meant that we had dinner together. No electronics, we played games, talked and prayed at the end.

The more we had them we felt more connected, we looked forward to it and it became a non-negotiable thing. Even when we moved out we were asking our parents if we should come home on Wednesdays for dinner. It was really nice. It became part of our lives.

When we all started having our own families, it was evident that this tradition should live on.

My husband and I started seeing that we were all getting too busy with activities. We found ourselves and our children in separate parts of the house watching TV, on a tablet or our phones.

That’s when we decided to talk about having these special evenings.

It’s unavoidable that we will be busy, we all need time to relax but one night a week is a start. We saw how important it is and so we needed to both be on board. And we later explained it to our children.

Starting family night with younger children is so much easier. It’s been a delight to see how excited they get when it comes each week.

Sure you might say…”Each day should be family day.” …and I totally agree! If you’re already doing this everyday my hat’s off to you.

The one evening each week is our baby step to keep connected. An extra special and focused time that works for us. See if it works for you.

Our evening simply goes like this:

1. A special dinner menu

2. A dessert treat

3. Play a game/activity

4. Pray together

Here’s a few of the activities we’ve done so far if you’d like to give it a try.

A special dinner menu:

Mexican Night (Tacos and Fajitas)
Spaghetti Night
Fried Chicken Night
Pizza Night
Fish n’ Chips Special
Daddy’s BBQ evening
Burgers and Hotdogs
Pork chops and Rice
Seafood Boil
Tempura and sushi

Pizza. family night menu

Sometimes we make our own, other times we order in. Nothing too crazy just fun and easy.

A special dessert treat:

Again, this could be store bought or feel free to make your own

Funnel Cakes/Waffles and ice cream
Croissants with Nutella and strawberries
Cinnamon Rolls
Favorite Ice cream treat
Homemade Chewy Chocolate chips Cookies
Homemade Bread (Pandesal for Filipinos – a Sweet Bread)
Smoothies
Mango, Avocado shakes

Family night fuhnel cake with ice cream — Family night funnel cake with ice cream

Here is my favorite Funnel Cake recipe if you’d like, this is always a hit.

Funnel cake (from Allrecipe.com)

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
2 cups milk
1 quart vegetable oil for frying, or as needed
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, or as needed
Add all ingredients to list

Mix salt, baking powder, and half the flour in a bowl. Set aside. Cream eggs, sugar, and milk in a large bowl. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Continue to add remaining flour, but use only enough to achieve desired consistency. Batter will be thin enough to run through a funnel. Heat the oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) in an 8-inch skillet. Put your finger over the bottom opening of the funnel, and fill the funnel with a generous 1/2 cup of the batter. Hold the funnel close to the surface of the oil, and release the batter into the oil while making a circular motion. Fry until golden brown. Use tongs and wide spatula to turn the cake over. Be careful with this part. Fry the second side one minute. Drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with sifted confectioners’ sugar. Top with strawberries (or your fave pie filling) and vanilla ice cream.

Fun and games:

Picture charades
Puzzles
Treasure hunt (we make our own clues and map – parents make the kids hunt and the kids wanted to do one for mom and dad too after)
Pie Face the board game
Operations the board game
Heads Up (itunes app) – (I use the electronic devices to our advantage 🙂 )
Movie Night with popcorn (Disney movies are great for these)
Freeze dance
Hide and seek
Go Fish or Magic tricks (or any kid-friendly card game)
Guess the drawing (Aka Pictionary)
Let’s write a story (my family is working on a children’s book).
During summer nights, we might even go for a walk and shoot a basketball around.

Family night Pictionary game aka “Win, lose or draw”.

Julia riding her bike, daddy dribbling his basketball.

And before we all get ready for bed and the usual routine, we let the kids share more stories. We ask thoughtful questions like “What was your favorite part of this week?” “Do you want to share what makes you happy?” “Is anything frustrating you this week? — Can we can help?”

After that and we wind down, we pray together as a family. Time to be humble and acknowledge all the things we are grateful for. To articulate what’s in our hearts and share what is important. Saying it out loud reveals so much about ourselves as a family.

That’s it! Just time to connect, slow down and engage in activities we are too busy for.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Let me know if you have other activities you already do with your own family. Please comment below so we can all learn more. Take a photo of your own family nights, share it with me on social media, tag @lddesignloft and use the hashtag #familynight How amazing would it be if our own children kept this going too.

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A few designs for family nights.

Personalized, custom family photo collage jigsaw puzzle.

Single photo - custom family jigsaw puzzle. — Custom Family Photo, personalized jigsaw puzzle.

basketball for dad — Personalized basketball with distressed typography on chalkboard background.

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Keeping Family Night Alive