Jackson Free Press

Bellies are full, but the day is not over. Once everyone has helped with his or her assigned clean-up task, what is there to do but fall into a stupor in front of the television or stir up the old family argument? Fortunately, it is easy to keep a houseful occupied after a holiday gathering with a little planning.

Dessert
Instead of baking your pies while you eat your holiday meal, wait until the meal is over to assemble dessert. Set up two different stations, one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. Divide your guests into two teams, and send each team off to make a pie together. This strategy saves preparation time for you and gives plenty of time for everyone's holiday meal to digest before it is time for indulging in dessert.

Outdoors
Explore the neighborhood on foot, or pile into a car or two, and drive to the closest park or nature trail for fresh air and calorie-burning. Or get everyone together in the backyard or at the neighborhood park for a game of kickball, Frisbee or tag. If you don't have a big enough crowd, see if you can get some neighbors in on the action, too.

Puzzle
One of my favorite holiday activities is gathering around a puzzle with my family. It is easy to visit and sip hot chocolate or cider while looking for that certain piece. Look for a puzzle in the 500-piece range that has plenty of color and pattern variety. Puzzles with big areas of one solid color are notoriously frustrating.

Craft
Ask your guests to bring their knitting or crochet projects to work on together after dinner. Or run by the craft store to check out the seasonal craft kits. Don't forget to pick up crayons and coloring books for your younger guests.

Game
In our house, our favorite board games for big groups include Loaded Questions, Guesstures, Hoopla, Trivial Pursuit, Outburst and Scattergories. For a big group, get two different board games going at opposite sides of the room. If you don't have any board games, don't forget easy parlor games such as charades and pictionary, which are fun for guests of all ages. For any kind of game, be sure to make teams of varied skill levels.