I have two favorite things about the holidays.
One is the feeling I get when I'm giving to someone else. Whether I'm giving love, advice, a gift, or a hug, seeing a smile on the face of someone I love because I took that extra moment puts me on cloud nine.
My second favorite thing about the holidays is tradition. Doing the same silly little things with my family every year, yet creating new memories is something you can't not love.
In the spirit of my favorite holiday things, I'm having my first ever giveaway!
Melynda of French Press Knits has generously donated 2 copies of her uber awesome French Press Slipper Pattern for my lovely readers.
Isn't she the best?
This is the hottest pattern on Ravelry right now and let me tell you, they are super cute and an easy, quick knit. Seriously folks, I knit mine in about three hours. You can win the pattern just in time to whip up a few pairs for last minute gifts or for yourself!
Want to know how to win? All you have to do is leave a comment below about your favorite holiday tradition. You have from now until Saturday December 18th, 11am, eastern time. Then I will select two! winners at random.
I cannot wait to hear all of your holiday traditions! I recently wrote mine out in another blogs comments and would love to share it with you. It's a little lengthy, but give it a chance.
Holiday traditions are abundant in my family; it's what makes Christmas so special for me. We've been going to the same tree farm for 22 years and I still cry when they sing 'White Christmas' at the Symphony and we enjoy a fancy family meal after. But there's one tradition that still warms my heart. Every Christmas Eve when I was little my Bubbie and Pap would come for dinner. I would head to bed early, eagerly awaiting Santa, anxious for everyone to leave so the big man would show up. My dad would come upstairs to find me in my bed with what seemed like a million Christmas stuffies. He'd pretend he didn't know where it was, and I'd happily jump out of bed and grab the copy "Twas the Night Before Christmas" that had been his as a child. He'd crack my bedroom window, even if it was ten below outside, crack open the tattered cover and read. "'Twas the Night Before Christmas' by Clement C. Moore". The father in the story never "tore open the shutter..." he always "tripped over the pisspot and threw up the sash". Giggles ensued. And Santa's "bound" down the chimmney always meant jumping on the bed. And of course he never laid his finger "aside of his nose", but in the world my dad created Santa's only way up the chimney was to "lay his finger inside of his nose". Then it would happen. Bubbie and Pap had left and, unknown to me, taken my parent's authentic sleigh bells. My Pap would park the car around the bend and trudge up the street in any sort of weather and ring those bells. As any child would, I freaked out. "Santa, SANTA, Dad stop reading...stop NOW". And I'd rush to the window, lean out as far as I could and listen to the bells. Santa was on his way! I had to get to bed; but my dad would insist that we read the story one more time, that Clement C. Moore had meant for us to enjoy. Sure enough, in the morning, Santa had come and I got to tell Bubbie and Pap all about how I had heard the reindeer's bells just before I went to bed. When I was nine, my brother was born, and though I no longer believed, the magic still lived in him and I now had the task of cracking the window and saying to him "Do you hear something?". Even as a young girl, it gave me chills to watch him gleefully toss the stuffies aside and rush to the window. I'm crying as I write this actually. The bells are silent now; my Bubbie passed away and my Pap now only comes out on Christmas day. But every Christmas Eve in our new pj's my brother and I (now 15 and 24) still gather all those stuffies and pull that tattered old book of the shelf.I married my college sweetheart this year and even he knows that when we have children, Grandpa will park down the street and ring those bells for our kids. I'll never tire of my Dad reading that story to me; never. I still laugh; I still jump on the bed; and yes, I still hear the bells. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night".
There you have it lovely readers. Be sure to check back next week for all sorts of fun things leading up to Christmas, and Saturday when I announce the winner!
85 comments:
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making my mother's Holiday Cheeseball. It's nothing fancy, but she would make it every year, on Christmas Eve. She seldom made anything from scratch, so it was a big deal! I am the only one in my family who still makes it, though my sisters always try to get me to make one and send it to them. You *have* to make it on Christmas Eve - but you don't eat it until New Year's Eve!
Thank you for the fun! I love that slipper!
Wow, it's hard to say what my favorite tradition is. Picking out and cutting down the tree (this year one child did not like the one we picked.) Decorating? (One teen was missing and another was cranky.) Well, I'm on a roll...
I think my favorite tradition growing up was decorating the tree Christmas Eve but not being able to see it with the lights on until the morning. We don't continue that tradition, so I'd have to say my favorite tradition is crafting gifts for all the aunts.
My favourite holiday tradition is spending Christmas Eve with my in-laws. We eat a feast of seafood, talk and laugh. Kids roam and play. It's the best night of the year.
Those are special and lovely memories thankyou for sharing them with me and my eyes may be a tad moist:)
We buy each of the kids their own ornament each year to hang on the tree so the trip to Hallmark is a special one and someday when they have their own homes and trees they will get to take their ornaments with them so they are keepsakes as well as memories:)Hugs Darcy
I love the slippers so pretty
darcysknottyknitter@gmail.com
that is such a sweet story! how magical for a little kid to hear those bells. :D
my favorite tradition is probably decorating the tree. i love to see ornaments that i made on the tree:
http://juliaas.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/snowflakes-again/
one christmas, i made ten of them for my sister, and her tree is so silvery with all those snowflakes!
My favorite holiday tradition is helping my mother decorate the house in all the Christmas glory. She has an entire walk in closet in her basement filled with decorations for every holiday season. We bring up her boxes of Christmas decorations, unpack them, and place them around the entire house. She even hangs up things us children made for her in kindergarten!
Of those decorations, my favorite is the Christmas needlepoint sampler she made. I can just imagine her at my age, sitting there and working on it with care. It is immaculate, just like her:)
My family has always waited till very close to Christmas to put up our tree. Two years ago when my husband and I had just bought our first house, we actually decorated it after Christmas Eve service as we'd been so busy working on the house that we hadn't had time to do it. We ate our fondue, also a family tradition and then decorated the tree in a house that held only enough things to sleep on, cook dinner for two nights, and paint! My family has also always had roast beef and plum pudding for Christmas dinner, as we have English ancestors. This is the second year I've actually made the plum pudding from scratch, which I think is the newest family tradition!
My favorite tradition is Christmas dinner with extended family. Catching up with aunts and uncles and cousins (and now their kids) is fun, and the food is always abundant and AMAZING. :)
Your Pap is a great story teller!
My favorite memory is the night my Mom would invite my nieces for a sleep-over a few days after Christmas each year and we all 'camped out' under the tree. We fell asleep under the stars, except they twinkled in color!
Can't wait to see your schlupas!
What a lovely giveaway. I've seen the pattern all over the place and it looks wonderful.
We have several holiday traditions, but the ones I like most are the ones my hubby and I created togther - like having latkes for Christmas dinner, or dyeing the traditional red velvet cake blue and white. It's that we make the various holidays this time of year ours, and not his and mine, that makes them special.
I love those slippers!
My fav holiday tradition is decorating the tree with my husband. We buy or make a new ornament every year and have fun reliving the memories with every ornament we put up.
My favourite tradition was "stealing" our Christmas tree. We live in Australia, so it's always hot at Christmas, but my family always used to have a real tree. There were lots of pine trees growing near our house, not the traditional shaped type, but more spindly ones. Still smell like pine and look beautiful decorated. Every year the family used to go and look at all the trees, try and pick one that would fit and chop it down (never used to take a whole tree, they used to grow back from the bits we left). The trees grow on council land, so it's not strictly legal, but we always used to sneak off to get one. In later years, just mum and I would go with her car to a new spot for trees. After the tree was cut, there was the other family tradition, which was good fun for us kids but not much fun for the adults: mum and dad's annual fight over whether the Christmas tree was set up straight, and the argument over the best way to get it straight. Living interstate this year means I'm missing out on this, and it just doesn't feel the same!
My favorite holiday tradition is eating all the yummy holiday foods! We always have my Mom's latkes, my husband's bacon wrapped scallops, and my sister's delicious cookies. I like to change it up every year, but I always bake and decorate piles of sugar cookies. Pair all these up with spiked egg nog and hot cocoa and peppermint schnapps - yum! My family will just sit all day, nibbling, chatting, and enjoying each other's company!
My favorite tradition is baking springerles, a German cookie made with a wooden press. We only make them at Christmas time. They are pressed out at night and baked in the morning - the only day of the year when we have cookies for breakfast!
That was a really touching story! My man and I are starting our own traditions now that we are out on our own in our own place.... I think my favorite one is that every year on Dec 1 (our anniversary), we go to the school in another neighborhood and pick out our Christmas tree...I'd never had a real tree before we met, so it's very special to me. And the particular tree lot we go to donates all the money to a school program for teens, so they make the teens work on the tree lot... man do those kids LOVE selling Christmas trees!
That's my favorite tradition of ours so far...
Darcy (yarnballa on Rav)
One tradition that has followed me all over the country is reading Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" again, every holiday season. :)
My favorite holiday tradition was when we were kids.
My dad would always wait until the last minute to buy my mom's present. Every christmas eve, he would sneak into the house about dinner time and get us kids to wrap her present. We weren't allowed to peek, but we always did.
I'm from Poland, and we when I was little we used to open gifts on Christmas Eve, as soon as the first star (indicating the Star that the Three Wise Men followed to get to Jesus)would rise. I remember always being very excited about this & think that my American husband won't mind if we introduce the same tradition when we have kids :)
My favorite holiday tradition is when my husband goes in our woods and chops down a Christmas tree with one or both of our sons. Sometimes, it is a bit Charlie Brownish and other times it is full and lush, but each tree is unique and very special. My two sons and I then decorate the tree and I know they will have fun memories of doing so.
when my nephews were little, they would shake their gifts and i would always tell them it was underwear. well, one year, i actually did buy them all funny boxer shorts. what is even funnier, was that they really liked getting the underwear. in fact, the youngest (7yo at the time) loved his scooby-doo undies so much, he wanted to wear them everyday!
so, my nephews have been getting underwear for christmas for a long time now. of course, the green stuff attached to the tags is appreciated too.
Mine is our tree decorating night :). We don't have a regular dinner but have all of our favourite finger foods.We also have fizzy apple cider in wine glasses for children. It's so much fun looking at all the ornaments and the history of some of them ( yay kindergarten!). It's relaxed and the tree gets beautifully decorated by all.
My favorite tradition started with my grandmother, which I am pretty sure started with her mother and so on. For Christmas my grandmother always got all of the grandkids pajamas, and wrapped them up and added the curly ribbon and a candy cane. We always knew what was in the package and who it was from, and we always got to open those presents on Christmas Eve. We always looked forward to those new pajamas. Looking back I think we got to open them Christmas eve so we all looked good in the Christmas morning pictures lol. I my Mother did the same thing when they started having grandkids, and I am now doing it with my grandkids. It is a great holiday memory for me.
My family's not big on tradition, and I enjoy that the most. We're not afraid to travel to get out of the snow for the holidays. We always open presents on the 24th, then spend the 25th eating :-P
knitmit on rav
Our family tradition was everyone would gather at my mother and mine house on Christmas day. We would eat a wonderful feast that she had prepared. We would then open all of the presents. This year will be very different, my mother passed away in June with a brain tumor. My older sister and I are still going to fix lunch but it will not be the large feast my mother always fixed. My younger sister and her family are going to Florida for Christmas. We are not sure if my brother and his wife are coming to eat with us. It may just be my sister and me but we will enjoy Christmas, the way my mother always did.
I've had my eye on this pattern! I'd love to win it!
Hmm...favorite Christmas tradition is putting out "sticky Santa." He's an antique plasticy/waxy Santa who stands about 5 inches tall. I put him on my mantle. Just seeing his sweet little face makes me so happy each year.
This is silly... but we always have Pop-Tarts on Christmas morning. Never any other time of the year. Pop-Tarts are Christmas food in my house, and when I see them in the store I think fondly of the holidays.
Christmas Eve, room lit only with candles and tree lights, mulled wine or champagne, Johnny Mathis singing carols, opening gifts with family and friends.
*sigh*
Happy memories.
Oh, how I'd love to win the Felted slippers pattern! Thank you for designing such a great item.
Season's Greetings!
My favourite holiday tradition is having a post-holiday with my friends. We descend on one person's apartment bearing leftovers and have a thoroughly amazing after-party with only the good-parts, multicultural version of dinner: bamboo-wrapped steamed sticky rice, tea eggs, cranberry sauce, goose, pork tenderloin, stuffing, and everybody's best Christmas cookies. I love it!
My favourite family tradition has been in our family for at least 3 generations. After Christmas Dinner we settle down and the youngest child hands out the presents one by one, waiting for one to be opened before the next is given out. We shout out our thanks to people who aren't there, adorn ourselves with the wrapping ribbons and bows, and really take our time with opening the gifts.
Ness
I could go on all day, but I guess I'd have to say baking is the best, along with colorful decorations and listening to old songs. And the movies!
I love just about everything about Christmas–baking cookies, finding (or making) the perfect gifts for everyone on my list, making and sending cards . . . but probably my favorite thing is putting up the Christmas tree and unpacking all the ornaments I have saved over the years.
I'd love to make those slippers; they're adorable.
My daughter's favorite tradition was leaving out carrots for the reindeer, and making a napping place for Santa. Christmas morning would find the carrots nibbled, the napping place mussed, and a thank you letter (complete with glitter) from Santa. My favorite tradition (although it is not really a is not really a tradition) was my daughter's delight on Christmas morning. Now that she is older, I look back on those wonderfilled moments, the excitement of Santa, and the giggles at the reindeer who ate the carrots she left out. While it is lovely to sleep in a little later, there is nothing I wouldn't give to have back even just one of those early mornings.
My favorite Christmas tradition is going dog sledding on Christmas day with my husband after we've opened all our gifts!
My favorite holiday tradition is watching "The Muppet Family Christmas" with my husband and daughters. We taped it back in the '80's onto a VHS tape--our VCR was crummy and the quality of the tape is very poor, with snow and static. The tape even includes commercials for Oscar Mayer, Oshkosh and My First Sony...but we treasure it because it is no longer being broadcast due to snafus with copyright. The whole family knows all the songs, and most of the lines, which have become part of our family's "inside language"...
Only eight days 'til Christmas?! YAY! I'm so excited. I just realized today that I haven't watched "White Christmas" yet. And this year I'll decorate gingerbread cookies with my little girls. A new tradition that I hope to continue.
I love these slippers!! I need this pattern!!
I started a new tradition with my husband. Each year (if we can) we set up our Christmas village. We are both Renaissance re-enactors so we gravitate towards a more rustic village complete with the Globe Theatre!
Sadly, I haven't gotten to participate in many family holiday traditions, since I moved 3000 miles away from my family.
When I was a kid, though, there was always the search for absolutely the tallest tree we could find. It had to be a Scotch Pine (don't ask me why -- my dad was obsessed), and we'd often go to several tree places to find one that was appropriately tall. The tallest we ever had was 15 feet. (My parents have 30-foot ceilings). My dad had to install a winch on the ceiling to get the darn thing upright!
Thanks for the chance to win this lovely pattern. :-)
We always take a two or three day trip right after Christmas. From the moment the road trip starts to looking at the pictures after we get back home it's a very special time of the year!
I think my favourite holiday tradition is either Chinese takeout for dinner on Christmas eve (to reduce stress, of course), or watching Home Alone with some nice wine, cheese, and bread (a new tradition my husband and I are starting :) )
My favorite holiday tradition is our family dinner on Christmas eve. We have the same (delicious!) meal every year. We all get dressed up and we use the nice china and glasses. There are even roses and silver candle sticks on the table. It's especially nice now that my brother and I don't live at home. It gives at least one meal a year where it's just the four of us, giving us all time to catch up. And given that my family usually isn't so formal - we inevitably end up using the wine glasses to play music with (you know, by rubbing your fingers around the top rim.)
My dad works for an airport, so growing up (and still) most of our gifts were wrapped in airmaps instead of christmas wrapping! I love it because it's something no one else does!
My favorite holiday tradition is my town's Santa Train! Hope I win!
Every year, we spend a large amount of time playing board games. Since we love them so much, it is a special time for us. Being able to spend extra time with my husband during the holidays is especially wonderful, since he is gone so much.
My favorite Christmas tradition is how my family opens gifts...we celebrate 12 days of Christmas, beginning on Christmas day, and ending Jan 6. We generally open a few presents on the first day (to appease my husband, who did not grow up with this tradition) Then 1 day until Jan 6, or we run out. It really lengthens the holiday, and makes it so we don't have a pile of broken toys on Dec 26.
My favourite holiday tradition is eating myself silly on Christmas Day! My mom's extended family always gets together at one house for a huge meal together and the amount, and variety, of food is staggering. So Christmas dinner (maybe lunch is a better word. We eat kind of early.) is my favourite tradition :)
My favorite holiday tradition involves ... myself.
I take care of my family very well: I shop for presents, I wrap them all, I decorate the house, I bake like a fiend, I cook a lot, I profusely thank hubby many times for doing the annual Christmas letter and cooking the turkey and the stuffing: I enjoy it all! But in the end, my favorite tradition is
taking the week after Christmas off
to read and drool over the craft books that Santa manages to bring every year. We eat leftovers, and I sit and read and knit or quilt. I look forward to it every year!
Maryjo
my favorite tradition is making the egg nog with my parents. It's a true "recipe" circa the Waltons... apple jack brandy, bourbon, rum...all in a concoction of simple syrup and eggs...fresh grated nutmeg on top. delish!
Thanks for the giveaway and for the chance to share cherished memories.
My favorite Chanukah tradition is making latkes, or is it lighting the menorah? Hard to say which is more dear.
I grew up in the Midwest in a town without many Jews so I always shared Christmas with my Christian friends. I love caroling, decorating the tree, and Midnight Mass. Funny for a Jewish kid to have so many Christmas memories, huh?
I love this pattern - it looks so adorable! My favorite holiday tradition was when we were young, my father would bundle us up, pjs and all, into the car for some gas station hot chocolate and a tour of the late night christmas lights in the neighborhood. We did these until we were in college, and even now I miss those family times!
I'm naughtyknots over on Rav
Every year, we end the unwrapping of gifts with a giant wrapping paper ball fight. My Uncle Allen is an ace shot, I tell ya.
I am carrying on a Christmas tradition that my grandmother and my mother-in-law started many years ago. Every year I bake dozens of cookies in many varieties, then put them in tins to give as gifts to everyone we know. Each year, in addition to the traditional family cookie recipes, I usually try a new recipe or two. Everyone looks forward to getting their cookies. They often return the tins with requests for a refill!
In my family, we have a special tablecloth and candle which come out every year for the Christmas meal. The tablecloth was thrifted, and is cream with red and black cross stitch reindeer / trees. It is very scandinavian-looking. The candle is fragranced with cinnamon and francincense and absolutely smells like Christmas. Sadly, this year I left it on top of the woodburner and it melted....! It will smell like Christmas in our house for many months to come!
we always put up ornaments my Grandmother made years ago, hand quilted around a round glass one. SO unique and handmade, I love them!
Baking my mothers cookies. My fondess memories are making cookies with her and every year I make them and think of her
Over the years we have formed many traditions..as a child opening that one gift after mass on Christmas eve and eating tortiere was precious to me...
as a years passed and things changed the one thing that makes me happiest is giving to others...and to some less fortunate that we are...giving always makes me happier than receiving
of course we still do the Christmas baking and do the little gift exchange gift etc.but we are slowing down a little as far as making so many elaborate meals
have a great holiday season
Mary Ann
Favorite tradition??? Well, now that everyone in the family is over 21, we indulge in a Christmas Eve post-dinner tradition of helping my dad "perfect" the recipe for the ever-festive overly-alcoholic Dreamcicle. It goes something like this...
Dad - "Try this."
Us - "Dad, this is good, but maybe it needs a bit more... (fill in the blank with liquor of choice)."
Dad - "You're right. Try this."
Us - "Better. But how about a little more... (fill in the blank with liquor of choice).
Dad - "Try this..."
Us - "Good, but what if...."
...Um, you get the picture. Makes for a late start to gift-giving on Christmas Day. ;-)
My favorite Christmas tradition was Christmas Breakfast! We would spend the first waking hours of Christmas opening all the gifts under the tree. Once there was adequate adrenilan running through our veins and all the gifts were open we'd sit down for a big Christmas breakfast. Egg casserole, cinammon buns, pancakes, bacon, coffee cake. I could keep going. During that time we would do a grab bag. Various small presents, appealing to most would be wrapped up and everyone would get to pick one. It was usually something simple like a pretty notepad or a bag of chocolates, but the mysterious-ness of what you might get made it one of the best presents to open!
Thank you for the lovely giveaway!
Kim
One of my favorite traditions is going out to eat on "little christmas eve" on December 23rd. We usually go and look at "the lady's house" afterward, which is a house in over town that goes overboard for Christmas with every decoration known to man. I love the cheesiness of it.
One of our family's favorite traditions is decorating the gingerbread house. I used to do it with my children and now with my grandchildren, too. It isn't as pretty with the little kids involved but it's a lot of fun.
My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family and friends and catching up on what is going on in everyone's lives. It's nice to spend time with the people you love!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is one my husband and I started with our children. We all exchange $1 gifts on Christmas Eve. We have so much fun doing it . . . the gifts are hilarious and we laugh until our sides hurt and we're crying. While all of this is going on, we enjoy a spread of our most favorite Christmas treats. We've been doing this for years (since our oldest was about 10 and she's now 24) and it has truly become my favorite family get together -- I look forward to it all year. :)
My favorite Christmas tradition is trimming the tree. I have ornaments from lots of special people in my life and ornaments dating back to when my husband was a toddler. Some of my favorites are the funny googly eyed doll ornament my niece made when she was about 7, a felt Xmas tree w/photo ornament my nephew made when he was about 9, the ornaments my sis and I made together when we were around 8 and 10, and the first Xmas painted dough ornaments my husband and I made for our first tree together. Friends and family have all contributed to our ornament collection, it brings so many joyful memories every year.
Driving around looking at lights is my favorite tradition. My children are finally old enough to appreciate it, and for several years, our favorite house has been done up in a Grinch/Whoville theme. My husband and I plan to slow down by the mailbox on our next trip out and get the owner's address. We want to send a card to thank them for making our holiday merry each year.
How fun and a great giveaway. My most favorite holiday tradition is that every Christmas eve, my husband reads Twas the Night Before Christmas to the kids. No biggy right, except that my kids are currently 23, 15 and 8 and I have pictures from every Christmas eve. This year will be a tad sad as my 23 year old will be working and she is getting married in May. However, she did tell dear old Dad that she needs to get her very own copy of the book so that some day he (her soon to be husband) will be able to read it to their kids.
I think my favorite Christmas tradition is being able to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was fun checking out the gifts and picking that perfect one to open.
Merry Christmas to you and yours :)
My favorite tradition is when my family goes up to my Aunt Alice and Uncle Steve's house in the Adirondacks. We stay for about a week and always have good food and (usually) the whole family sleds. It's the only time of the year that the entire family is toger, and it's always full of joy.
My favorite Christmas tradition was after a long raucous day and evening with my mother's extended family we would come home, put on our PJs and gather in the living room around the fireplace to drink homemade eggnog and listen to Christmas music.
My favorite Christmas Tradition is one that my husband and I started for ourselves at our first son's Christmas. I make pajamas for all of my children, sometimes my hubby too, and we all open them up on Christmas Eve so we can wear them to bed. I have four kids now so I have to start making the pajamas in July so I don't have to stress during the holidays. It is such a joy to make them for the kids and even more so to see them wear them throughout the year.
my favorite tradition is gathering with my family and mom's starvin' marvin christmas tree. It's so small and thin she has room to store it decorated all year long. Dad just hauls it out for her. We love that little 5' tree.
We start celebrating the holiday by putting out all the decorations and the tree the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving so we can enjoy all month long. We also watch all the classic and fun movies - Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas Story, etc. and make tamales .... love the slipper pattern - j.mysticmoon@ gmail.com
I love to bake cookies every year on December 23rd. I literally spend the whole day just mixing and rolling and cutting and baking. By the end of it all I'm saturated in flour and butter and I love it!!!
One of our traditions is to trace and cut out the handprints of all the little ones each year on felt and hang them on the tree. The hand prints "grow" each year and everyone has fun.
My new favorite family tradition is seeing my parent's Christmas tree. Me, my sister, and my dad all went to UC Berkeley, and my mom dedicates the tree to us with a blue and gold theme. Go bears!
my favorite holiday tradition is christmas stockings - i think i like how much stuff gets stuffed in there, and how the limit dimension-wise makes people get creative with the kinds of goodies that go in...
My aunt always would ask for a potholder for Christmas. Sometimes they would be homemade, other years there would be a trek from store to store for the perfect hotpad. Just one and she would use all year, making sure you knew your gift was being used. It was always the youngest child who got to pick the gift but suggestions were always welcomed from siblings. She is gone now and I think I will have to pick up her tradition now. We always felt so important as children when months after Christmas we would see our gift being used . What a great way to teach that it is not the cost, or elaborate gifts that are necessary, just something from the heart.
My mom has always bought each of us a special ornament to represent something that we were into that year.... sports, scouting, a trip, etc. Then when we left home and had out own place my mom gave us a box full of our ornaments to decorate our tree. Every year I look forward to unwrapping those ornaments and reminiscing over all the run things we did growing up.
Watching Charlie Brown's Christmas, and baking cookies!
I adored your sleigh bell story.
Merry Christmas!
Not Lord Voldemort. Wouldn't want that.
Last year my dad went into the hospital on 12/18/08 with kidney failure. In January, his kidneys started to function normally again and all was wonderful. This year he went into the hospital on 12/14/09 with a different but equally serious heart malady. We are still awaiting the future on this one. It's just he and I, and I'll miss him terribly if he isn't here to spend another December together -whether in or out of the hospital. I don't want to think of these Decembers as tradition, but I DO treasure, the time all the hours of waiting in the hospital has afforded us to spend together. He's just the best!!!
One of my favorite holiday traditions is watching either The Polar Express or A Charlie Brown Christmas while baking cookies.
Thank you for sharing yours w/ all of us too. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's holiday traditions.
Aah! I wrote a huge long christmas memory and then my browser deleted it! Grrr!
Ok, well my christmas memory is making hand-dipped chocolate-covered mints, chocolate covered cherries, and home made turtles. We would spend an entire weekend just making everything while listening to the Boney M Christmas album. It's just not Christmas until I make myself some mints!
My favorite holiday tradition... hmm, does Masterpiece Classic premiere count? My family and I just moved back to MN, where all our extended family lives, so lots of traditions are shifting or being added. But that's ok! We still have It's a Wonderful Life.
gathering of friends and family.the christmas tree and all special ornaments. the holiday baking
dogwalker (rav id)
A Giveaway!!
(nice sicne paypal will not let me pay for these and they have been in my rav queue for sometime now...and would be perfect for my two girls and my best friend for christmas
we really only have one Christmas Tradition here in my house. it starts with my father-in-law who plays a very good (its his holiday job) you-almost-have-to-believe-in Santa. well he comes over to our house to read a Christmas story to my 3 monsters and hands out a present each to them. ( Christmas morning Jammies) then the wee ones fly off to bed while mommy and daddy feverishly finish wrapping the presents (by saying that it is usally me doing all the work while daddy watches tv or plays the xbox) then its off to bed for us just to know that i will have the work cut out for me in the morning (pictures to be taken, breakfast to be made, gift wrap to be recycled, tonnes of super tiny impossible to get out of the package toys to assemble, and of course prep for the Christmas dinner since it going to be at our house again)
sigh i love it and look forward to christmas every year!
A Giveaway!!
(nice since paypal will not let me pay for these and they have been in my rav queue for sometime now...and would be perfect for my two girls and my best friend for Christmas
we really only have one Christmas Tradition here in my house. it starts with my father-in-law who plays a very good (its his holiday job) you-almost-have-to-believe-in Santa. well he comes over to our house to read a Christmas story to my 3 monsters and hands out a present each to them. ( Christmas morning Jammies) then the wee ones fly off to bed while mommy and daddy feverishly finish wrapping the presents (by saying that it is usually me doing all the work while daddy watches tv or plays the xbox) then its off to bed for us just to know that i will have the work cut out for me in the morning (pictures to be taken, breakfast to be made, gift wrap to be recycled, tonnes of super tiny impossible to get out of the package toys to assemble, and of course prep for the Christmas dinner since it going to be at our house again)
sigh i love it and look forward to christmas every year!
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