Ideas for Creating Family Memories:

1. Trips are always big memory-makers.

Especially meaningful ones. Mission Trips are a great way to serve and create memories that will last forever!

2. Game Nights at the house.

Have all the family bring their favorite game and you play all of them! Minute to Win It, board games, Wii, etc.

3. Dinner with the “fancy dishes” or our “Christmas Dishes”.

We break them out every year for the holidays, however, we have been known to do it in June or July just to get in the “Christmas Spirit”.

4. Family Camp.

Have all the kids in the family come over for several days and do crafts, games, and projects. It’s not really an expensive thing, but it will take some planning time!

5. Make homemade ice cream together.

6. Cook-out with the extended family.

Play Corn Hole, whiffle ball, horse shoes, etc.)

7. Watch fireworks

on the 4th of July together.

8. Water Balloon fights!

9. Visit a Christmas tree farm or pumpkin patch

10. Sporting event

– special ones! Do something to make it different the other times you typically go.

11. Shopping Spree.

Give everyone a small amount of money and have them buy a gift for someone else in the family…draw names so they know who to buy for. Then, have dinner, share your gift, and watch a movie as a family.

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The point of memories is to do just that! It’s something out of the ordinary. It doesn’t have to involve money, though it can. It usually needs to have planning of some sort though, however, spontaneous usually makes a memory as well. The one thing it has to have is a “fun factor”. It is best when it is fun, unusual, “once in a lifetime” type of a feel to it.

All of those things go along with the date ideas as well…because dates could/should do the same thing and make a memory.

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Ideas for Dates with your Spouse:

1. Climb Stone Mountain and have a picnic.

2. Relive your first date (or a previous one that was memorable).

3. Weekend getaway to a nearby city: Chattanooga, Destin, Charlotte, Atlanta

4. Memory Lane : Take your spouse to locations where you used to live, go to school, hang out, etc.

5. Progressive Dinner: Go to locations where you made memories while you were dating. Eat dinner at one place, dessert at another and coffee at another.

6. The “Kid” Date : Wear pajamas, eat kid food (pb&j, pizza, etc.) and watch a Disney movie together. Coloring books are great additions to this too!

7. The “Cheap” Date: Eat a really cheap meal (at home or fast food), followed by the dollar movie, then share a Frosty at Wendy’s. If you don’t spend money on the dinner, you can do this one for less than $5!

8. Go to a flea market and have a specific amount that you are allowed to spend on the other person.

9. Shooting Range: Find out if she pulls a gun on you if you are safer directly in front of her or not!

10. Go to a play. (The Fox is great, but there are LOTS of local playhouses that are less expensive.)

11. Go test drive a car that is WAY out of your price range.

12. Go to the zoo: Make sure that you ad lib what you think the animals are thinking and saying to one another.

13. Make a time capsule together, but make it a short time period (5 years or less). Guess what things will be like (family, jobs, house, cars, etc. and put in it). Mark a date and then open it up later (you actually get 2 memorable dates for this one!!!) Your anniversary is a great day to do this ; that way you don’t forget it!

14. Have an ice cream sculpting party. Messy, but funny!

15. Flip the Coin: Let the toss of a coin decide everything you do. (Ex: Heads we go right, Tails we go left, heads we eat here, tails we don’t. )