Winter things to do during a pandemic

[waverly]

I wanted to start a post here or on MM.  I figure we kind of get more of a back and forth conversation going here.  

What are some winter things to do/ ways to see people/ date nights/ things to do as a family during the pandemic?  I know some of you the weather will not get bad, but that is not true for most of us where we will have the combination of early darkness and cold.

Unfortunately, I do not have a hardscaped patio, but if I did I would be temped to get a hot tub.  Otherwise, I was thinking of patio heaters and maybe some kind of cover- I'm not sure that sun sails etc would hold up to snow.  I figure the holiday season we could drive around and look at lights/ bake/ decorate and do all that kind of stuff.

Good sledding snow is hit or miss here, so I hope we get some for the kids to play in.

Otherwise, all I have is Scouts and DS will do basketball masked (no games).  

We could do ski lessons or cross country ski.  

Obviously Legos/ puzzles/ and I plan to do some wood burning.  But I feel like that doesn't cover very much when the winter weather lasts from Nov 1- March 31.  

I may have to give in and see some people indoors, we've been doing everything outdoors for socializing. 

[Deleted]

I walk with my mom and grandma year round. We just wear warmer clothes in the winter and my mom and I don’t mind walking in the dark and cold.

We will probably ski some. We have passes.

We’ve been seeing people indoors essentially this whole time though and we will probably continue. The dangers to some people’s in my house’s mental health far outweighed any potential danger to our physical health from covid. Generally only my immediate and extended family and a few friends.

In CO the weather isn’t terrible in the winter so we will probably still be outside quite a bit, just with more warm clothes on. My oldest does horseback riding and drama club at school. My youngest does martial arts. Middle doesn’t do an activity at the moment.

[186momx]

We don't get snow here often but it does rain and is foggy gloomy from Nov-April. We still do a lot of stuff outside. I love going to the coast during the winter months. I work so much during that time that we don't normally do a lot of socialization anyways. Things we've done in the past have been dinner/playdates with another family. I don't see that happening as we both have small houses where distancing would be hard and this family has a number of medical issues so they have been pretty isolated.

If skiing is easy to get to I would totally doing that. Truthfully if you are still remote learning I would take a day off midweek to go then vs the weekend. Skiing for us is a good 2-3 hour drive during the winter so if we go it is only a 1 or 2 time thing and we like to cross country ski or snowshoe.

How about a longer craft type project? DD has been wanting to try a larger paint by number. I've been tempted to find some art tutorials for her to do when my hours get longer at work.

[twinmomma]

I feel like this year life won't be all that different than other winters. We have our small circle of people that we've seen indoors this whole time, so we will probably continue with that.

Normal winter activities include arts and crafts, reading, movie nights, etc. Nothing too special.

Otherwise, we'll just bundle the kids up and send them out into the yard to play - snow, cold, etc. isn't a big deal to us. Even at school, unless it hits a certain negative temp, they still go outside for recess. We raise them hearty. lol

ETA - hopefully before true winter sets in we'll be in a larger house with some kind of finished basement or something, so the kids can just take that over. In my current house, we will absolutely we trampling all over each other until then. 

[sandandsea]

We will do a ski weekend for sure, maybe 2

Game nights or movie nights as a family

One on one Family play dates with friends with similar aged kids

I’ve also seen family Mystery box ads that seem fun for older kids

We also are doing take out and a family movie or video game night every Friday to have fun and separate from work a bit.

[sandandsea]

Oh and on the hot tub front. We’ve been planning a backyard reno since pre Covid and were looking into particular hot tubs earlier this summer and most have a long waitlist now as their sales have skyrocketed since Covid.

[k3am]

I have never been happier to live in a warm climate and a friendly neighborhood than I have been during this pandemic.. I mean August-September sucked because we were trapped indoors and even exercising inside was off the table, but I'm choosing to block that part out.

So basically, we'll be doing the same stuff we've been doing.

We'll try to get a few ski weekends in. That is easier said than done based on coordination of schedules.

[sdlaura]

Like k3am, we don’t have to worry much about needing to move things indoors because of our location. I’m hoping that will keep local covid rates down 🤞🏻

We will try to visit snow/maybe ski.

sandandsea’s post made me think that I should look into a new pool heater for the winter. We have a hot tub that flows into our pool but the old inefficient gas powered heater isn’t safe to run. We wouldn’t heat the whole pool regardless because it’s super expensive (the kids just go in in their wetsuits if they want), but it would be nice to be able to use the hot tub this winter.

[mommyatty]

I’m worried about this. Our winters are short, but they are just kind of crappy. Cold, often wet, and windy. There’s virtually no chance of snow. So it’s too cold to be outside for long but not cold enough for it to be fun.

We will probably watch a lot of movies, read books as a family, get a few new video games for the kids, and that’ll be about it. We might try to find a couple of families we feel comfortable seeing inside, maybe teachers at our kids’ school so we generally are keeping the same germs.

[waverly]

Oh I highly doubt a hot tub will happen for us especially since we don't even have hardscape in place. Our patio is crushed stone right now like you might see in zoo paths or garden paths.

I've asked DH to funnel money to childcare rather than house projects for the fall/ winter. Our 3 main house projects are replacing our counter/sink, the patio and the bathroom. The bathroom will be a re-finance for that one, so we are hoping next spring/ summer maybe. Housing prices were high this summer in our area, so hopefully that will help with the refi.

[supertrooper1]

I've been thinking a lot about this since everything is still shut down here that I would normally do; movie theaters, bowling, no kids sports. My typical winter is 40 degrees and rainy.

DS has really taken an interest in Play-Doh lately and wanted to try modeling clay so I ordered some.
Puzzles, games, reading, laser tag, sledding (not a skiing family), continue to visit with family. DS loves cribbage and playing against my dad or me.

Beau and I went to an indoor ax throwing place and liked it so much we set up our own ax throwing area at his shop. He has a punching bag set up so maybe I'll learn how to box.

I wonder if there will be another baby boom?

[waverly]

Well we are done with babies, although I thought about a 3rd because of the pandemic, but I would love to not pay all my money to childcare. However, I don't want to take the mental health dip and not go in person to work. Maybe some of us will have a baby boom, but it won't be us. We did get the requisite dog. 6 months later, and I am still training her, but she is doing much better.

Boxing could be fun.

[twinmomma]

supertrooper1, We are actually prepping to see an influx of needs for labor and delivery nurses at work in the coming months. That 9 month quarantine clock is ticking!

Not a chance that beau and I will be a part of that boom though. I'm going to be 44 when my kids graduate from high school and am looking forward to a long life of empty nesting. All the things I didn't do in my early years because I was married and having babies young, I'm going to do when I'm older and have more money!

[librarychica]

Same here, twinmomma. I’ll be 47.

Honestly if H weren’t against it and we hadn’t pulled the trigger for his vasectomy in January, I’d consider it. But we did. 🤷‍♀️

[186momx]

Same here no more babies. I'll be 46 when DD graduates and only have 5 more years of mortgage payments left at that point. I also just realized that I will probably pay very little for childcare going forward. I can work with DD with me. She will be 10 in June and can technically stay home. I think the only childcare I will pay for are camps that she wants to attend not camps because she has to be cared for.

supertrooper1, I'm not ready for the rain and gray gloom every day yet.

I'm thinking we might go to the drive through animal safari over the winter. The safari is about an hour south which would allow us to escape some of the gray gloom.

[waverly]

186momx , I wish I could do that. I have a few problems from the childcare aspect. My boss doesn't want them here, so I can't bring them to work. I have in the past for active shooter drills at the school (no students, just police and teachers), but he doesn't want them full time.

DH has unrealistic expectations for how quiet they should be while he works from home. And they fight a lot. If I just had one 10 year old, I might be able to swing it but not with the little sister in the mix and all the wrestling he wants to do- then she screams.

The nanny manages e-learning and takes them to the park. Way more healthy then our spring shutdown where morning was me yelling during e-learning and then afternoon was them watching TV while I tried to do some additional work. But had the spring gone OK, we could have maybe gone that route. I am much happier being in the office than at home.

While I was not clinically depressed during the shutdown, there was some weird things going on with my mental health. Overall, we did OK, but to extend that for 1-2 years like this pandemic is looking is not going work.

[campermom]

I’m
Sure this varies, but roughly how much is a hot tub?

Also we already bought season passes to the ski resorts that are close (within 45 mins to 2 hours away)

[waverly]

campermom , I didn't actually buy one to look at quality, but I was looking at ones that were 2500. Much cheaper than an inground pool. Of course since we don't already have a flat base for it, it would be much more for us. 

[sandandsea]

Oct 15, 2020 14:09:51 GMT -5 campermom said:

I’m
Sure this varies, but roughly how much is a hot tub?

Also we already bought season passes to the ski resorts that are close (within 45 mins to 2 hours away)

They vary a lot. We are looking for at least 6 seats and the price range was $7-23k depending on what features you want. You also need a concrete pad and electricity run to them so that varies based on COL.

[186momx]

campermom, I think my girlfriend paid just under $5k in 2018. Hers seats 4 adults comfortably and DD. Has a lounger on one side so you could recline. I asked and she said look at about $100 a month for chemicals which will vary depending on what quality and usage. I've looked for us, a much smaller tub with basic amenities I was looking around $2500 but my electric panel isn't big enough for another breaker so that was going to cost $$$ so I said screw it.

[waverly]

186momx, good point that you would also probably need to add a line to the breaker. And I imagine it would be a higher voltage line?