The Conway Drive-In

This summer I started to brainstorm Christmas ideas for my kids so I could start to pick them up at the consignment sales I go to. Neil and I had already talked about doing a Christmas with less presents to make it a fun part of the day, but not the main focus of the day. However, when you start thinking of all the things that would make your little one's face light up, the list could go on and on. All three boys LOVE the Toy Story movies and the few toys we have from those movies. At each sale I would pick up a few toys and put them in a box in the closet waiting for Christmas maybe? As time went on and other ideas came up for Christmas and family members started buys presents for the boys, I decided to change my idea for the box I had tucked away.
From an idea I found on a blog, I started to put together a drive-in movie night. I figured instead of the kids having one big pile of presents on Christmas morning, we would split the presents and get a fun family night out of this as well!
I wasn't sure when it would happen, but I was sure a night in December would present itself where we would need some good old fashion family time. This weekend was it! After the five of us getting REALLY bad stomach bugs and having the most miserable two days ever, we needed some fun. We were supposed to head to Zoo Lights tonight, but none of us were 100% yet... this seemed like the next best thing.
While the kids were napping, I took the boxes I had stowed away for this occasion and made them into cars for them to color before the movie.

Since no one was eating real food still, we had movie time instead of dinner. We colored the cars, played for a bit, brought out the new toys, and started the movie. The movie and playing with our new characters brought us right to everyone's bedtime. This was so fast, fun, easy, and just plain different. In my house, different is all you need to make a night exciting!