Making personal new year’s resolutions for the new year can be a great way to focus on what’s important to you. But sometimes those individual goals quickly fall away as the year goes on.

This year, how about you make goals for both you and your family? When your new year’s resolutions align with the rest of your family, the chances of seeing them through greatly improve because you’re working as a team and holding each other accountable.

Family New Year’s Resolutions

Start a Weekly Tradition

This could be a family movie night, a game night, or a repeated weekly meal like taco Tuesdays or homemade pizza every Friday. The point is having something to look forward to and rely on since family life can get pretty chaotic at times.

Get Outside More

We all need more fresh air. Whether it’s a family walk after dinner or bundling up to see who can make the biggest snowman, try to get outside as a family for at least thirty minutes every day when the weather allows.

Read Together

Read to, with, and around your kids. Help them become lovers of reading by incorporating it into your daily life. It could be an audiobook while getting dinner ready, bedtime stories with young kids, or shared reading time where the noise is kept to a minimum and everyone reads their own books.

Practice an Attitude of Gratitude

Gratefulness is an important practice, especially when it can be easy to forget after almost a year of mostly being stuck inside with the same group of people. Because 2020 was ripe for complaining and focusing on the bad, it’s time for a reset on gratitude.

This could be a daily practice of sharing or writing down something everyone is thankful for, or even thank you cards at the end of each month for family, neighbors, teachers, or anyone you want to appreciate.

Volunteer Together

Serving others is an amazing opportunity to strengthen your family and your community. There are so many ways to get involved, and it’s never too early to teach your kids a sense of responsibility, the benefit of sacrifice, and that they have the power to make a difference.

Cook and Eat Healthier Meals

We all want our kids to have healthy eating habits. The question is how do we do that?

One of the most common tips is to get kids involved in the shopping and preparing of the healthy foods we want them to eat. The more involvement they have, the more ownership they feel over making those choices for themselves. Here are some healthy family meals to try together.

Refresh your Emergency Plan

If your family doesn’t already have one, take some time in 2021 to create a family emergency plan. Restock your supplies and go over your evacuation and shelter drills to make sure you’ll be prepared and safe in case of the unexpected.

Plan a Monthly Adventure

We have lots of ideas of things we want to do as a family, but often those ideas get lost in the hustle and bustle of life. This year, sit down as a family and plan one trip, activity, or adventure for each month and put it on your calendar right away to up the chances of turning those ideas into fun experiences and treasured memories.

Commit to Less Screen Time

This goal is becoming increasingly important, and both parents and kids can benefit from screen time limits. The less time your family spends glued to a screen, the more time you have for face-to-face interactions and quality time together.

Breathe Healthy Air

When it comes to healthy living, diet, and exercise immediately come to mind. But don’t forget about the air you’re breathing in your home each and every day. The Aprilaire Healthy Air System™ can help your family reduce illness, eliminate pests, alleviate allergies, sleep better, lower stress levels, and even increase the value of your home and make it more energy-efficient. If that sounds like a goal worth investing in, contact an Aprilaire Pro today to get started on your Healthy Home journey for 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned 2020 into a uniquely tough year. With the stress and isolation many of us are experiencing, the 2020 holiday season might seem like the perfect remedy to boost our spirits. However, as cases continue to rise across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a set of recommendations to keep in mind when planning your seasonal gatherings.

These recommendations continue to emphasize the importance of handwashing, mask-wearing, and keeping at least six feet apart from those you don’t share a living space with. Some added safety measures include: evaluating community transmissions, considering guests’ recent behavior/exposure, as well as limiting the location, duration, and size of your gatherings.

Whether you’ll be celebrating with just your household or completely alone, following these guidelines and modifying your traditional holiday plans to reduce the spread of COVID-19 can help keep your friends, family, and communities happy and healthy.

Here are some festive ways to still celebrate and make memories together.

Recommendations for the 2020 Holiday Season

Virtual Togetherness

By this point, we’re all pretty familiar with the group video platforms that we prefer. Here are some ideas for what you can virtually share with family and friends:

• Schedule a video dinner party with friends or family
• Share recipes of everyone’s favorite dish from the meal for the ultimate menu for future holidays
• Say something you’re thankful for or reminisce about some of your favorite holiday traditions that you’re looking forward to doing again next year
• Play a game to keep the party going

Household Fun

If the thought of spending your holiday with the same people you’ve spent the last nine months with doesn’t sound like much of a celebration, try some of these ideas to change things up:

• Let kids help in the kitchen
• Get out all your seasonal decorations and let the whole family help. You can even get creative by turning household items into decorations to avoid going out to buy more.
• Weather permitting, do something fun outside or active together: scavenger hunt, bike ride, lawn games. Maybe you can even make shoveling snow a “fun family activity”

Party of One

If you find yourself alone for the 2020 holiday season, it doesn’t mean you don’t have reasons to celebrate.

• Choosing to spend the holidays alone is probably for a loved one’s sake and that is important to keep in mind if you start to feel lonely
• Make good use of technology so you don’t have to miss out on all the love that’s spread on holidays
• Acknowledge the uniqueness of this year. It is not forever, it is just for right now
• Embrace your freedom to have a day to yourself and make it your own. Get back into a passion project, play your favorite video games, or schedule your own movie marathon
• Don’t be afraid to cook yourself a delicious meal with all your traditional favorites. You can always freeze the leftovers

Shopping

Thankfully, we live in a time when shopping from home has never been easier and there will be lots of chances to cross off that gift-giving list.

• Shop all the sales and price drops online
• Utilize in-store or curbside pick-up for items that are unable to ship
• Hold a Zoom shopping party with friends or family so you can all do your sale-hunting “together” in the comfort and safety of your own homes

Gift Giving

The 2020 holiday season will most likely look different when it comes to the amount and the type of gifts being given due to so many families struggling financially and people’s priorities shifting.

• Don’t try to prove your love with gifts; stick within your budget no matter how tight that is this year
• Try virtual gift exchanges after mailing gifts to your loved ones or send IOUs/rain checks for when you can finally spend time together
• Give a gift that will keep on giving: Healthy Air. The Aprilaire Healthy Air System™, and Aprilaire air filters or room air purifiers are gifts that can help you and your family stay healthy at home during this holiday season and into the new year.