WE LOVE watching Olympic events and, given how chilly it is to be outside, we are thrilled for a family viewing event! I originally posted this for the Summer Games in London, but since the activities work for winter sports as well, jump on into the fun!!! Here's a few ways to have your own "Team" celebration!

1. Family Viewing Party - Move around the furniture, pull out the sleeping bags, bring out the popcorn and watch the festivities together. Sure, Bob Costas is a fine announcer, but making jokes and having ongoing family commentary on what's happening is THE best!! Cant. Wait.2. Medal Competition - Of course we're going to cheer for our country, but then we thought "why not add MORE countries to the mix?" The more the merrier. And so, we each selected five additional countries to adopt for the games. We started by pulling up the medal table from Vancouver (here) and then picked a couple of large, medium, and small countries to put on our list. Through the course of the games, each person will "win" every time one of their countries wins a medal.

What do you win? A sticker of course!!! (I hope you didn't expect something fancy!)

3. Decorate! After picking our countries, we printed out flags from each country.My daughter cut out the flags so that each person had a complete set of the countries they were cheering for. She didn't turn them over until you could correctly match the flag with the country.Next, everyone decorated their door.

Billy and I have an especially festive door!We have a friend staying with us in the basement, and even he has been drafted into the festivities.

4. Food Celebrations! It's no surprise that I'll turn any occasion into a chance to have a new dining excursion. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to experience food from at least one of EACH of our adopted countries. I'm guessing this is why my son picked Mexico, my daughter picked England, and I KNOW that's why I adopted Japan. I'm already scheming on where we're going for Korean food from Billy's list! 5. Learn Something! We've decided that we have to learn and teach each other five facts from our adopted countries. This could include how to say a word in a different language, explain the meaning of their flag, talk about their athletes in the games or even, as Billy suggested, learning a local dance. I think our daughter is going to brush up on her knowledge of British music.In all instances, our goal is to have fun and cheer along while staying near the fire!What's your favorite thing to do during the Olympics?

5 Winter Olympic Events for the Family