The teens are exhausted, right? That pretty much sums it up reaching the end of 2011 with its short, dark days, and end of the fall semester (even if your child’s official semester or trimester isn’t over) for high school students everywhere. Be it the too-early school start (you can sign a petition to encourage later start times nationwide), the overwhelm of classes and extracurricular activities and social engagements and work and social media possibly stacked with the extra layer of college search or college applications teens all over are feeling worn out by the time this big holiday stretch begins.

Before any New Year’s resolutions are made (on my part; my guess is my kids aren’t so excited by the practice) I decided to think about what I’m hoping will happen during this breather when 2011 makes its festive close and 2012 begins in earnest. It is a pretty short list.

  • SLEEP: I am going to encourage my teens to sleep more than would seem right to a practical and active person. My tenth grader especially has built a pretty massive sleep debt—and so he needs to pay up. He’s got some time off, and this seems the very best way for him to use it. (I have a sleep debt, too—and a three-year-old; I will not be paying off my debt over the holidays, but I wish I could).
  • Take walks. I hope we’ll do some walking together—probably to town, where we might go out for a bite or a movie or whatever. Besides wanting to get them outside and moving, I want to slow our collective pace. After the mad dash of the fall semester—for all of us—we need to reconnect with the act of strolling.
  • Watch some movies, pop some popcorn, play a board game, or have people over for brunch I don’t really care about the specific activities. I’d like to make sure we spend some time in each other’s orbits—not to go all “quality time,” I’d like to raise our game a notch above every person glued to a screen in different rooms. I don’t want to set the bar too high; a little would go a long way.
  • While it’s tempting just to cocoon, I’m going to encourage some good, old in-person social time. You know, hanging out? That’s such a nice thing. I was reminded of this when one of my best friends from high school called. All that time we spent together talking about pretty much everything and nothing? It bonded us for life.

We might also try to do some talking about the months ahead and how to make them better for us all. I’m trying not to put that on my list. During this holiday time, we probably need all that rest and relaxation more than anything. How about you? What’s going to make this break feel like you really get one?

Sarah W. Buttenwieser is a freelance writer with a personal blog, Standing in the Shadows. In addition to writing, she has four children.

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