What is an EFA?

This past Christmas my husband and I had a difficult time coming up with Christmas presents for our three kids. Normally we give each child one nice homemade gift. In the past we've made them quilts, afghans, shelves, pretty pencil holders, etc. But nothing struck us this year.

After thinking about it for quite awhile, we decided that once a week we'd make it a point to do something really fun/interesting as a family. Now, we're not a family that's going in a million directions at once. We do things as a family a lot. Most nights you'll find us all home together, unless we're at church together. But often we'll each be doing our own thing. I'll be writing a letter while Wayne pays the bills. Carl enjoys playing with his flight simulator, and Alicia and Justin manage to keep themselves entertained playing games or whatever.

It's no secret that our kids are getting older, and we didn't want to look back on these precious years with regret. So, we decided that once a week we'd all do something a bit "out-of-the-ordinary" together as a family. And so the EFA was born!

EFA stands for Eefsting Family Adventure. And we've had some adventures already. Sometimes it's hard to know what counts as an EFA and what doesn't, especially when we're on vacation. But some of the things we've done since Christmas include: playing racquetball, attending Handel's Messiah, touring a battleship and a submarine, snowshoeing, attending a conference with Buddy Davis, building a quinzee, watching the Olympics, going on an "owl prowl," and watching a movie (when we were too sick to do anything really fun).

Some weeks we do more than one fun thing. Like this week, for example. We finished building our quinzee, watched the Olympics together, and Wayne is planning on taking the kids to an indoor football game tonight. (He got four tickets from someone at work. I opted to stay home and get some work done.)

And so that's how the EFA got started and what it's all about. And I know we're all enjoying spending time together doing stuff as a family. It was one of the best Christmas presents I think I've ever given or received!