Day After Christmas: Fun Links & Family Chores

We hope you had a very merry and meaningful Christmas yesterday. Our day was simple but full, spent with those we love. And today, I wanted to share a few fun Christmas links to enjoy once you finish your after-Christmas chores.

Just as every family has their own way of celebrating the holidays, I’m sure we all have routines in place for wrapping up the celebrations, putting away the decorations, and getting back into a normal schedule.

Day After Christmas Chores

In our family, those routines include the following.

Pack Up Tree
We all take down the Christmas tree and boxing up ornaments until next year.
Eat Up Leftovers
Mom finds creative ways to polish off leftovers from Christmas dinner. Hot ham & cheese sandwiches or turkey pot pie, anyone?
Send Off Family
We say goodbye to adult children and other family members who must now return home. Already counting days until their next break in classes!
Draw Up Resolutions
We begin thinking through and praying about New Year’s Resolutions in earnest. And some of us even try to get a week’s running start on establishing new habits.
Finish Up Reading
Dad finishes reading aloud the last of our family Christmas letters. We do this every year beginning on December 1, but we’ve been married long enough now that we can no longer finish the whole stack before Christmas. Plus, since we got a late start this year, we’ll still be reading on into January.

I (finally!) got this year’s Christmas update posted late last night. And I also finished updating all our children’s about pages. The last time I did that was about five years ago, which is why this sweet girl (who is nearly six):

…still had this old photo (which was taken at the hospital when she was only hours hold):

…as her profile pic up until this week. In other words, those pages were long overdue for an update if they were going to be anywhere close to current!

Fun Christmas Links and Online Activities

While you’re on the computer, here are a few games, apps, and videos our family has been enjoying this season. Maybe someone at your house will like them, too.

Spot the Difference
In this challenging game by Sherwin Williams, you race the clock to find all the differences in several pairs of nearly identical holiday photos. We found most of them before the buzzer sounded, but a couple of pages had us completely stumped.
Feliz Navidad
My daughter Bethany sent us this clip of Walk Off the Earth singing this traditional Spanish Christmas carol. If you enjoy watching five people play one guitar as much as we do, you might want to check out their earlier song, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” too.
Piano Guys Christmas
If ten hands on one guitar seems crowded, how about forty-fingers on a grand piano? We first heard the Piano Guys’ version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” a couple of Christmases ago, but it’s still one of our favorites.

Piano Tiles 2
Inspired to play a few Christmas songs yourself, but don’t have forty fingers to make it happen? Here’s an app that only takes two. Our kids have all been competing for high score on this one. Don’t touch the white tiles! I like the fact that most of the music is from classical selections — and some of them are extremely challenging!
Glass Duo’s Sugar Plum Fairy
No guitars or grand pianos at your house? No problem. This pair proves you don’t need expensive instruments to make beautiful music — just a little water and some stemware.
JibJab Christmas Music Videos
Last but not least, our little ones LOVE it when we put familiar faces in these video cards from JibJab. Every new scene leads to uproarious laughter. You can try it out for free, thanks to this Office Max “Elf Yourself” promotion.