Candace Cameron Bure's Blog: Family Dance Parties!

Celebrity guest blogger Candace Cameron Bure, author of Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness, Full House alum and mom of three reveals one of her fave family pastimes. Read Candace’s previous posts about cherishing the little moments in the life of a parent and some of her favorite old and new family holiday traditions.

I remember the night back in 2000, we were in Calgary, Alberta, when Val was playing for the Flames. Our two friends were visiting from L.A. and we were driving home from dinner, having just watched Val play hockey. Natasha and Lev were at home with the babysitter asleep. It was late and Val had practice early the next morning but we weren’t ready to end our fun night. Let’s go dancing!! So there we were, having just pulled into the garage; Val blasted music from the car speakers and the four of us danced the night away! OK, it was probably about 20 minutes, but we laughed and giggled and thought... So this is what happens when you have kids! You have rockin’ impromptu dance parties in your garage!

I like to call myself a wedding dancer. Meaning, I love to get my groove on, but I’m really only going to let loose at a wedding where I know at least a few of the guests, and it’s a controlled environment. I’m too old for real clubbing and have no desire to dance with a bunch of young sweaty strangers bumping into me. I actually went out a few weeks ago for my friend’s 30th birthday party and my BF was pleasantly surprised to see me dance since I tend to get SO uncomfortable in public dance places. Don’t get me wrong, I can shake it. I mean, when Bell Biv Devoe started playing, I was all over it! Is it wrong that I still do the Butterfly, the Roger Rabbit, and the Running Man?

But my all-time favorite place to dance is right in my own living room! I don’t know who has more fun, the kids or the adults? I think it’s pretty equal. We’ve been having dance parties from when the kids were toddlers to just last week! We turn off the lights, push the couch back and blast the music! One fun element that is a MUST is a flashlight—the more, the merrier—because it becomes your strobe light. Shake that thing like crazy, and you feel even cooler showing off your moves! Now that our Christmas decorations are up, we used a small cylinder-shaped mirrored tree, put the flashlight on it and rotated it throughout the night. The effects were so fun, and the kids were elated!

I will admit that our next-door neighbor saw the flickering lights, heard the music and saw little feet through her kitchen window the other night. She thought our 13-year-old was having a party of her own without us! She came over to talk some sense into Natasha only to have our front door opened by all of us dancing away! She laughed pretty hard and joined us :)

So don’t stop dancing because you have kids. Have a dance party at your house and make it cool. Invite friends or don’t! Your kids will love to see Mom and Dad showing off their moves and most of all, laughing and participating in quality time with them. It’s fun for the whole family and you won’t have to wait until the next wedding you’re invited to to shake your booty. One more thing... if you dance for a few hours like we do, you’re burning lots of extra calories so you can keep Reshaping It All!

You can find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/candacecbure, Facebook at www.facebook.com/candacecameron and www.roomag.com.

~Candace