Holiday Activities that Everyone Will Love

4 Holiday Activities that Everyone Will Love

The holidays are some of the greatest times of the year. You get to spend time with your family, eat fantastic food and open up gifts that you’ve been dying for. In addition to all of these wonderful moments, what are some other activities that you will be craving for? Here’s a list of the four best activities to do doing the holidays.

1. 1.       Football This is a huge one. I think everyone looks forward to a rousing game of football during the holidays, and what better way to spend time with your family after dinner than to go nuts watching your favorite team? Not only that, it’s also a great way to sit down and have something to do once you and your family have completed the holiday dinner for the day.
    
2. 2.       Poker Sure, gambling might sound like a pretty lame activity to do when your family is over, but it’s a great way to bond and joke around with everyone. If you beat your cousin or dad in a hand of poker, imagine how many laughs and jokes that would produce? In addition to possibly winning some money or some other form of compensation, you’ll have a blast playing poker with your family members. 
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4. 3.       Discuss News and Politics This might open up a can of worms, but having an engaging conversation with your family members is definitely a lot of fun. You can also stand to learn a lot about a topic you might not know about if one of your family members happens to have read up a lot on it. Even if you disagree with someone, you can give your opinion on the subject and take opinions right back without blowing up the situation. Try it and see what happens. Talk about some crazy news storiesand see how your family reacts to them. 
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6. 4.       Go Outside If there are children present during the holidays, they’ll definitely want to go outside and have a little fun. While adults might be okay with staying inside and doing activities that they prefer, children are a bit harder to please that way. Try tossing around a football or having a catch with the kids. If you have other lawn games, those will work as well. As long as you’re outside doing some sort of activity that children find enjoyable, everything will turn out great.

There are hundreds of activities to do during the holidays. While you may be strained for time, you can always find something fun to do to keep everyone happy and entertained. If you do any of these activities, I’m sure your entire family, both young and old, will have a great time.

About the author:

Joe Petchonka has been a writer for over five years, and has written for newspapers, websites and automotive dealerships. In addition to having an extensive writing background and bachelor’s degree in English, he has helped companies develop professional material to help them achieve their goals.

When you’re eating pizza do you think you’re munching on a vegetable? The answer is “yes” at least if you are in the federal school lunch program. Really? A vegetable? It all sounds reminiscent of the Reagan administration in the 1980’s trying to classify ketchup as a vegetable. In any case, it seems that the current Obama administration is trying to change the way pizzas are classified in order to make sure kids eat more vegetables but some lawmakers are saying “Basta!” (Enough!).

Also on the legislative plate, having more whole grains in school food, getting rid of starchy foods like potatoes and cutting back on sodium. The reason is a noble one as the Obama administration is trying to stop the tide of obesity in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 17% of children between the ages of two and 19 in the United States are obese! Yikes!

So, as it turns out, the tomato paste used in the sauce on pizza is currently considered a vegetable under federally funded school lunch programs and the USDA, which spends about 14 billion dollars on meals for kids, would like to cut back on how much tomato paste is actually considered a vegetable. Having tomato paste count as a vegetable is ok with the USDA, the problem is how much of it currently counts towards a daily requirement of vegetables.

Currently under government guidelines, each week children in the federally funded breakfast and lunch programs must be served at least two and a half cups of vegetables. The USDA would like to see that amount doubled. (Good idea!) Now if the tomato paste in pizza is going to be considered less of a vegetable, schools need to serve other vegetables with the pizza. Mama mia! Increasing the amount of vegetables kids eat does not sound like a bad idea at all. And having kids consume two and a half cups of vegetables in a five day breakfast and lunch program seems to be almost nothing.

What’s wrong with this new proposal started by the Obama administration to change nutrition guidelines for school breakfasts and lunches subsidized by the federal government? It seems to me, there’s nothing wrong with it. The amount of vegetables consumed by kids should by all means be increased, but a bill in Congress is trying to stop this. What do you think?? Let me know!

This helpful guest post is authored by the happyhealth.net editorial crew. Are you looking for the best hearing aid ? Then see our website to examine our ratings of hearing aids .

Healthy Holidays

You know those times after you’ve eaten Christmas lunch and gone a little overboard? There’s that moment you wish you’d mastered bulimia so you didn’t have to undo your pants (and also so you could maybe eat some more). You kind of splay yourself somewhere until your body manages to process the embarrassing quantities of food you just ate. Quantities that would make an obese person do a little jig. Don’t look away – you know what I’m talking about.  We all do, which is why it’s time to separate yourself from the gluttonous mass consuming swarms this festive season and try something different.

No expanding your gut to Father Christmas-style proportions at the table deal? You don’t have to be a saint, just consider a few simple alternatives:

Go easy on the snacking. We all know Christmas lunch takes eons to prepare but, just like you would on any other day, have a sensible breakfast in the morning;  maybe even a snack midway through.

If you’ve already eaten something by the time lunch is served, you’re less likely to unhinge your jaw and swallow the entire table from hunger.

If you can’t resist a snack bowl, skip the piles of crisps lying around.

Do a U-turn if someone offers you nacho chips with sour cream. Punch someone in the face when they say you simply have to try the three cheese dip.

Run! Wait!!! –   this is your house and you can do whatever you want, so don’t even serve this stuff in the first place. Rather, put out some sliced veggies with a hummus dip, bowls of olives, gherkins and pickled onions, or strips of toasted pita bread with a sweet chili and avo dip –  way healthier.

If you’re making mash potatoes, try preparing it with sweet potatoes instead of regular ones, which are higher in kilojoules. The sweet potato option is low GI too, so it’ll impress that old, sickly aunt of yours that feels faint all the time.

Skip the meat. You’re not a Viking okay? It won’t kill you to skip the piles of pork, turkey, chicken and whatever other animal you tear into every Christmas to opt for something a little less greasy. Look at your cousin at the end of the table, yeah, the vegetarian. Sure she’s a little pale and cries a lot, but she’s skinnier than you — ever wonder why? Try a vegetable dish or a vegetarian meat substitute and skip the skin on the chicken.

Aaaarrrgh! You’ve got to be drunk to survive but it will help. Try sticking to stuff like whisky and water instead of sugar filled cocktails and coolers. It goes without saying that you’ll need to get a little sloshed to make it through the day with so many family members around, but if you stick to a light white wine and drink slowly, you should be fine. If you’re mixing drinks, stick to diet soda and avoid telling everyone at the table you hate them it’s just embarrassing.

Jacky Letard is an experienced online content writer who enjoys writing about various topics such as natural health practice, festive foods, nhp omega 3 plus and holiday exercise.