Day 3 - 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy
November 24th, 2010
Welcome to Day 3 of my 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy - 5 or so days of celebrating Gnoma Claus from my Holiday Happy fabric.
I gained 4 pounds just reading Day 2’s comments! I promise, today’s 5osDofHH is 100% fat free. At least for me. I can’t help it if someone eats half a dozen devil’d eggs while writing reading this post. Today I’ve got a printable download - happy little Gnoma Lights.
The lights for me symbolize love, family and traditions - and being far from home and away from my family. We’ve been a military family for the last 21 years, and in 1993 when we moved to Honolulu and had our first holiday away from my family and all our traditions… we started a new tradition - we spent every Christmas Eve going to downtown to Honolulu Hale to see all the city and county departments’ decorated trees and all the light displays at Honolulu City Lights. It was fun and different and it was exciting to start a new tradition.
I refused to let a giant ocean get in the way of my family’s fun and joy - and I was adamant about starting a new tradition. I look back at our seven Christmas’ on the island with love and smiles - and proud of myself being ya-hoo smug instead of being bah hum-bug. There’s always light. We just have to twist our own bulbs to “on” sometimes.
Download, print, cut and enjoy.
Maybe you’ll want to string them or hang them on the tree…
Maybe you’ll want to use them as gift tags….
I’ll give a little charm pack of Holiday Happy to one lucky commenter who answers the question of the day (or just leave a comment).
Q: What’s your favorite holiday and it’s tradition(s) and/or what holiday tradition(s) did you start? Did you twist your own bulb to “on”?
EDITED IN 11/29/10:
Winner picked for this day has now been picked (by random.org), and is… comment #141 Jessie of Quilting Mommy! Congratulations, Jessie!
[Day 1] ❄ [Day 2] ❄ [Day 3] ❄ [Day 4] ❄ [Day 5] ❄ [Day 6]
[See what others have made @ HH flickr group]
[Shop] ❆ [Contact Lecien]
PS…
May your day be filled with a [gravy]boat-load full of family, gratitude, love, warmth, kindness, peace, friendship & stretchable pants. xoxo
Posted in Holiday Happy |
Farting around with needle & thread and then blogging about it.
Ooo, I’m the first commentor. :) or is it a commentator. Or is it a comment tater. Anyway, we don’t really have one set tradition other than getting up late and staying in our jammies all day! :) Have a great Thanksgiving, you little turkey. :)
November 24th, 2010buying a xmas live xmas tree each year and planting it in the yard after xmas
November 24th, 2010Our very first christmas together was in 1973…there was an oil shortage so everyone was supposed to conserve…NO lights on the tree was our contribution. We hung paper chains, glass balls and candy canes. IT was a pretty tree. We didn’t have lights on it until 1984 and we still have a paper chain and candy canes. You don’t have to add my name in your drawing…I already have my own supply of your darling fabric!
November 24th, 2010I always read the night before Christmas and the Christmas story passages in the Bible to my girls on Christmas eve so they get a story about Santa and the true reason for Christmas!
November 24th, 2010Donuts for breakfast on New Year’s day :)
November 24th, 20101982-Newly married….very poor college students living on hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we started our own tradition of going out to a tree farm and cutting down a tree. It was expensive but it was something we looked forward to every year. It was fun!
Now we’re middle aged and lazy…we go to a tree lot in town. It’s still fun because it Christmas and we still love each other. For that, I am very thankful. I would also be thankful if I won some of your beautiful fabric. Come on random number generator!! ;0
November 24th, 2010My son and I love to do the Black Friday thing. We love every part of the day. Getting up at super dark thirty, driving to the mall in the dark. Having to mess with the crowds and loving every second of it.
November 24th, 2010Love reading your blog.I am gonna let my kids (3 & 5) cut them out for a garland… SO CUTE. I have not started any new trAditions but I’ll share one…we like to hang ornaments from the ceiling inside the house.
November 24th, 2010Oh it’s been a tears of joy and friendship day. Happy Thanksgiving to my fav Zombie fam. xop
November 24th, 2010Let’s see…..ooh…we hang snowflakes from the family room ceiling- lots of snowflakes, all different sizes. We started doing the bedrooms as well. Simple, but just makes me happy.
Thanks for the lights- and the love the statement- “just have to twist our own bulbs to “on” sometimes…”
November 24th, 2010A holiday tradition that I took over from when I was growing up was that the whole family goes to midnight mass together on Christmas Eve.
November 24th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving Monica!
you always have such adorable ideas. my head has been spinning with ideas of what i can make from your pretty fabric.
after i got married, me and my husband started sleeping at my parent’s house on christmas eve; along with any part of my family that is in town. we have a fire in the wood stove and make wassail and watch whatever christmas special is playing on t.v..
November 24th, 2010Growing up, my dad wouldn’t let us put up any Christmas decorations until Christmas Eve (including the outdoor lights!). So now I start putting decorations up the instant Thanksgiving dinner is cleared from the table. I have to make up for lost time! :D
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 24th, 2010One of our Holiday traditions is that I make each of our 5 girls a pair of PJ’s. It’s the first gift they want to open so they can wear them right away! I love shopping for fun novelty flannes so each pair is different. (The one year I gave them all storebought ones was not good, I was told that they are NOT the same!)
November 24th, 2010We get to open one present on Christmas Eve, and it’s always pajamas. Usually Mom made them, unless she splurged on store bought! Now I make them for my sons and husband. My husband buys mine. :)
November 24th, 2010Our family tradition involves Black Friday. Actually it starts on Thanksgiving Day. All the girls in the family get together and go over every ad in the paper. We make our lists and check them twice. We get our maps ready, synchronize our watches and get ready for the big day of shopping.
Then on Black Friday we all get together, shop till we drop, eat and laugh. Oh and don’t forget the shoving and pushing for the bargains! LOL Just kiddin! Well, sort of!
Hugs,
November 24th, 2010Gina
My favorite holiday tradition started a few years ago when my mom and I visited my grandmother and we all had a cookie baking weekend. We have done it every year since then and it’s always lots of fun and great bonding time too :)
November 24th, 2010When we were kid my mom always allowed us to open one present on Christmas Eve - new jammies! It was something I loved and am doing with my boys now.
November 24th, 2010Thank you for the cute tags, I will be using them this year. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for the giveaway
November 24th, 2010We have a “goofy grab bag” where you have to put in something usable that you no longer want/need.
November 24th, 2010Without a doubt, the nicer the wrapping, the crappier the gift.
I put in wedding champagne glasses with mine and my ex-husband’s names etched on them. What a hooot!!
Starting as a young child when 2 of my aunts made stockings for all the children in my grandmother’s family, I have used the same pattern for all these years—I guess at least 55 or so. And I have copied them and made stockings for my husband when we married 40 years ago, each of my sons, their wives when they married, and now their children–my 5 grandchildren. And my family is always here for Christmas–my boys say the stockings are the best part! And I cannot find that gnoma panel anywhere…HELP!!!!! I want one!!!!
November 24th, 2010Opps, forgot to answer the question. I love birthdays, because you celebrate one person and make them feel special. It is their day.
November 24th, 2010I always spend the night at my parent’s house Christmas eve. I don’t know why, it just feels right!
November 24th, 2010What a great post! We just moved to a new city and my parents also moved this year, so it’ll be the first Christmas that I won’t see my family. It’s going to be rough. But you give me hope that it’ll all be ok. Hugs. :)
November 24th, 2010I started a new one this year, a cactus tree w/lights and a red cowboy hat!! Too funny and way different ….a good thing, this year!! xo
November 24th, 2010it’s funny how you don’t really realize what are “traditions” until you have your first christmas away from home. and everyone looks at you sideways for blasting the boney m christmas album while baking christmas cookies because “you’re just supposed to”.
November 24th, 2010OUR CHRISTMAS TRADITION IS TO READ OF CHRIST’S BIRTH IN LUKE, PRAY + THEN OPEN ONE OF OUR GIFTS TO EACH OTHER. OPENING THE REMAINDER ON CHRISTMAS MORN!
November 24th, 2010LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR BLOG!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Favorite Christmas tradition is watching my kids, now grandkids put baby Jesus in the creche before we opened presents.
November 24th, 2010New to use last year was the advent calendar. I love finding little treasures all year long to put in it. The 5 yr old and 17 yr old look forward to it with equal enthusiasm.
Thought of you a couple weeks ago when we were in Astoria. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express by the bridge, it was beautiful! Had coffee at the 14th Street Coffee Shop. YUM :)
November 24th, 2010Our family gathers Christmas morning for a Christmas breakfast and then we all take turns opening our gifts. We are so blessed to have all our family close.
November 24th, 2010Thanks so much for your sharing your great ideas, I love your blog.
Going to holiday tea with my BFF Beth. Sometimes we let the guys join us but somehow it isn’t the same as the girls holiday tea and champagne.
November 24th, 2010this tradition started a few years ago when my son moved into a place of his own with roomates. I loving refer to this place as ‘MANLAND’. I go there on the holidays, cook for him and his roomates as well as any of his single friends who had no place to go. Im not the best cook in the world but the guys appreciate a homecook meal none the less. Of course, THEY have to clean up which they do willingly. (mauh) Liz
November 24th, 2010Wow, that’s a hard question! I really love most of the holidays equally, but I think my favorite is Halloween. Don’t have any unique traditions for that one, but I really do love carving the pumpkins with the kids, especially this year when my daughter drew her first pumpkin face!
November 24th, 2010Our own tradition. There’s just the 3 of us, my husband, son and I here in the South. Our family is spread across the states and we’ve never lived near anyone. We decided that our own tradition would be relaxing holidays. Eat what we want, when we want and enjoy being together. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
November 24th, 2010My favorite holiday tradition is our Christmas treasure hunt. Holiday clues are given leading everyone in search of their last gift of the day. It’s a great way to get everyone up and moving
November 24th, 2010My favourite is Christmas as it brings our whole family together (even relatives from overseas sometimes). But we don’t really have a tradition, each year is different. Except good food and lots of it.
November 24th, 2010Twenty five years ago I gave birth to one of our sons on Christmas Day; two years ago my daughter gave birth to a son on Christmas Day … so one of our traditions is celebrating three very special birthdays on Christmas Day :)
November 24th, 2010Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. I love to make gifts for friends and others, and now that I am quilting more, I would like to make lap quilts for nursing home residents.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Debbie
November 24th, 2010I love Christmas, especially when we get to spend it with my parents! I love going to church and seeing my Dad up the front doing the Christmas service (he is a church minister), and I love singing Christmas Carols, and I love the food (my mum is the best cook, especially plum pudding and shortbread!), and I love seeing the kids so happy and excited, they are 9 and 11 and still believe!! I can’t wait until the 1st December so we can put up our tree and start decorating!
November 24th, 2010When I was in Brownies (Small Girl Scouts) we learned how to make fresh cranberry relish. My family loved it & it has been my job to make every year since (please don’t ask me to tell you how many that is).
November 24th, 2010favorite holiday? the times between thanksgiving and christmas … they bring on such loving thoughts and memories of my children growing up and, now, we get to celebrate with the grandkids … favorite time of year and favorite holidays …
our tradition from when i was a kid is to get in a line, oldest first to babe in arms all holding on to the waist of the person in front of you, then going about the house, over the beds, through the bathtub, into the shower (try that with a line of 9 or 10 people all *tied together*) and finally after going through almost all the rooms, oh, i forgot, saying *toot, toot, chuu, chuuu*, making it to the tree … everyone get their stocking and opens it with great abandon …. thanks for the opportunity to win this fabulous fabric … it is happy fabric!
November 24th, 2010We don’t live near any of our extended family so we don’t need to travel for the Holidays. So our family has many Holiday family traditions. One of those is on Christmas Eve we go out to dinner. Then we go to see a huge light show which is a fundraiser for one of the hospitals. Lot’s of fun!
Cynthia
November 24th, 2010A treasure hunt all over the house for a special present was always our favorite Christmas tradition.
November 24th, 2010Our family tradition is to watch one Christmas movie each day from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Ok yeah…I’m the only one who enjoys it…but the others will give in one of these days. I’m sure of it.
November 24th, 2010Every year when we were young my brothers and I would leave out cookies and milk for Santa and a bowl of carrots for the reindeer … they get hungry too. Then before we could open presents the next morning, we had to go find the bowl. That was where Santa fed his reindeer. Happy Thanksgiving to all you fellow zombies!
November 24th, 2010Our traditions have evolved over the years, but the one that persists is sitting in a dark room except for the tree lights and listening to Christmas carols and talking about Christmases past. It is always surprising to hear what the kids and grandkids remember or found special.
November 24th, 2010I grew up opening gifts on Christmas Eve because my dad worked Christmas day. After married life I was switched to a regular Christmas but we still have a big family party on Christmas Eve. That is my favorite. Thanks for the cute little tags…that is what I am going to use them for.
November 24th, 2010Our tradition was to get up on Christmas morning & have waffles & sausage for breakfast. Not sure why that happened, but it worked out pretty well because when we grew up we’d all get together for our Christmas breakfast & had the rest of the day for our own celebration at home.
November 24th, 2010Christmas is by far my most favorite holiday. I started giving the kids a new ornament every Christmas and eventually began making them myself. There have been different techniques (lots of counted cross stitch!) and lately I’ve been doing wool felt ornies. I even make one for my daughter who died 7 years ago. I can’t leave her out.
November 24th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving and elastic waist pants!
I love, love, love Christmas. As a result I go a little crazy when it comes to decorating. My husband is always shocked when we start getting out the boxes, but enjoys it as much as I do when it’s all together. For about 14 years we lived away from family, so to help fill in for a large family dinner on Thanksgiving, we also put up the Christmas Tree. We are back with family and the kids are grown so now dinner is enough! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
November 24th, 2010My favorite holiday is 4th of July. They have the best little parade. I love going to it. At the end of the parade a plane or helicopter from NAS Whidbey does a low, low fly over wowing the crowd. Is the 2nd question a trick? I’ll say, yes I turn my bulb on! Happy Thanksgiving Monica!
November 24th, 2010p.s. The Gnoma panels migth be available at Keepsake Cottage Fabrics in Woodinville, WA.
Christmas is my favorite! I remember waking up early and we were allowed to open our stockings. When the adults got up we opened presents by age, one at a time so everyone could see what everyone else got. And the the best.. my grandmother’s Swedish Cinnamon/Cardamom Rolls and hot chocolate! I can smell them now!
November 24th, 2010I love Christmas. When the kids (all 5 of them) were little, I started buying everyone new pajamas and on Christmas Eve, the first thing we’d do is put our pjs on!
November 24th, 2010Our Christmas’ are stinking HOT here in Australia… we usually have a HUGE brunch in our house and not much else all day.. we just usually veg out, play whatever board game the ferals got and chill out in the a/c! One year it was over 40C here for Christmas (um 105F plus).. sticky, yucky and stay insidey!
Lissa who is hoping for a cool chrissy and a yummo brunch (even if I am cooking it this year!)
November 24th, 2010the day after thanksgiving, we have ‘thanksgiven’, which means another massive feast with friends, plus putting up the tree, decorating the house and watching christmas movies. it started 4 years ago and i look forward to it even more than thanksgiving.
November 24th, 2010I love the 4th of July. I love the patriotism of the country, the fireworks and THE BEACH!!
November 24th, 2010Since My grandmother Died about 15 years ago My Tgivings have been kinda small- I’ve tried lots of things but mostly they make me sad– so I scraped them and we go out fancy, then friday we catch up on house chores.
November 24th, 2010My Husband is an engineer and kinda asperger’s … Our first Xmas was Awful… He kept saying “Im getting you something great” what he should have said was “im thinking I want to get you something great, but Im really not getting you anything at all”
Now I do all my Xmas shopping for me before Thanksgiving, leave it bagged and hand it to my husband… He wraps it up and gives it to me on Xmas and Im always thrilled…. I get just what I wanted…
He is thrilled too; he didn’t have to shop, we have an Xmas, and I didn’t burden him with expectations he finds difficult to fill. Bulb On
no real tradition, the same food, spend the day with family, pies, etc.
can stay in my jammies all day, but am not :O}
November 25th, 2010my favourite holiday is Halloween… there are not fights or expectations just fun and candy and terrible monster movies and candy, and gruesome gory things and there is the candy… did I mention the candy?
I live in England and have done for 11 years and when Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around I always get a little bit sad and homesick for my parents home and my dad’s cooking.
For Christmas every year we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, Die Hard and The Long Kiss Goodnight… our favourite holiday movies… :o)
November 25th, 2010I live in Sweden and I love to have the party in the middle of the summer, it´s a lot of dancing and eating/drinking with a lot of friends, Midsummer evening!!
November 25th, 2010And I would love to win.
OH CUTE!! Ahnalin is going to LOVE these!!
Hm… favorite holiday? I love them all. But I will tell you my girl’s favorite holiday traditions that are special to our family. India’s favorite is St. Patrick’s Day. We are a little bit Irish on both sides so we claim the day and celebrate it like good Americans. We watch “The Quiet Man” while eating corned beef and cabbage with soda bread and mustard. My Irish friends tell me they never eat corned beef, so it is an American/fake Irish thing I guess.
Ahnalin’s favorite is Chinese New Year. We go to San Fransisco every year and visit the street fair and all the festivities, ending in the Chinese New Year Parade. We stay overnight in a hotel and then go to the San Fransisco Zoo the next day. We love these family traditions.
November 25th, 2010Thanks for the giveaway!
My favorite holiday is coming up soon dec 5th. Here in Holland we celebrate ‘Sinterklaas’ or St. Nicolas wich is a different kind of Santa Claus I suppose. It’s lots of fun especially for the kids, they get to put their shoe out at night and the next morning a present will be there. Lots of special candy as well, chocolate letters, ’speculaas’ and ‘pepernoten’ (peppernuts) anyway you should come one year it’s a blast!
November 25th, 2010Loving the gnoma lights! Since there are no little ones in the family, I instituted the “one present at a time” tradition. We each take turns opening our gifts one by one - otherwise gift opening would be over in 90 seconds in our home ;) Just to annoy everyone I take extra time not to tear the paper.
Dad also spruces up our morning coffee with Bailey’s for sitting around the tree. Yummy!
November 25th, 2010I really love christmas and look forward to starting our own traditions with the hubs to be.
November 25th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving! Being in the UK I don’t know if I can enter or not :/, but in our family, the main tradition is around the tree. It gets put up on the Friday night, the weekend before Christmas, then my and my brother decorate it on the Saturday night, then my Mum and Dad turn on the lights on the Sunday. Not that traditiony I guess, but it’s marks the start of Christmas in our hose :D
November 25th, 2010My favorite tradition is decorating the Christmas tree. We always buy ornaments when we travel so the tree is full of good memories. My husband even proposed by hiding my ring in an ornament box while we decorated!
November 25th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving, Monica! This happens to be my favorite holiday and the day of the Smith Family Heap Big Thanksgiving Breakfast Bash! (Say that 5 times fast!) My mom always got up early in the morning to make fried dough and bacon for us for breakfast on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Fried dough- bread dough that has risen overnight and then little pieces are cut of, stretched and dropped in hot oil. When they’re browned, out they come to be Slathered with butter and dipped in molasses or maple (real) syrup. We make bacon and sausage to go along with it. Oh, and fruit salad to go along with it. You have to eat something healthy, afterall. ;)
November 25th, 2010HAPPY THANKSGIVING HAPPY ZOMBIE!
When my niece and nephew were little, we were asked not to give them big baskets of sweets for Easter.
Instead of chocolates and jelly beans, I decided to make no-sugar crafts with them, so we made Dream Catchers. I try to come up with different crafts we can make together for each holiday.
Wasn’t sure what to make for Christmas this year, but I do believe we’ll be making Santa Gnome garlands this year!
Thank you for another great gift Monica!
November 25th, 2010On Christmas morning before we stop under the tree, we gather the children together on our bed and read the Bible scriptures about the birth of Jesus.
After opening our gifts, we enjoy sweet rolls and hot chocolate/coffee for breakfast. Then… we dress and head to my family’s all day get-together!
November 25th, 2010We have so many, but my favorite has to be watching White Christmas about 10 times.
November 25th, 2010Nighttime drives to see holiday lights!
November 25th, 2010Our favorite family tradition is baking christmas cookies…especially the cut out sugar cookies, everyone in the family from the grandparents to the kids participates in the decorating, with each trying to be the most creative.
November 25th, 2010I started the tradition in my family of giving each of the kids an ornament for Christmas so when they moved out on their own they have ornaments for the tree. Thank you for this great give-away. Take care and God bless, Cory
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Sixteen years ago, I realized we hadn’t seen my aunt and uncle in 3 years. So I called and invited my family of 4 (plus my mom) to their Thanksgiving feast. They delightedly said yes, and we’ve given thanks with them ever since. It’s all about sharing love with extended family, which is the reason why the quilting community is such a blessing.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
November 25th, 2010this is hard, because i love christmas and everything associated with it, and i have a daughter who was born on christmas. but i have to say, i think thanksgiving is my favorite. i love all the food, and i love that it’s more laid back than christmas. and today, while we’re in california and our families are in florida (my husband is air force), i’ll be introducing a bunch of californians to fried okra!
November 25th, 2010Favorite Holiday: Halloween through Christmas, I am Holiday Happy!… it’s like a season of homeward fun and family focus. We started assembling and decorating gingerbread houses about ten years ago, and though it was foreign to me, and I felt a bit apologetic for our methods… I now LOVE that we have our own style and gingerbread traditions. I love sharing the fun with a few friends, and the time spent sharing creativity and laughter. When my holiday bulb needs a twist, I put on my tunes!
November 25th, 2010We have many that I started, and now I think, (25 years later) nuts do we really have to do that? But we do and we still love it. I will just tell you one, Gingerbread House. We alwasy make this over the long Thanksgiving Weekend and they eat it on New Year’s Day. This will be the first year we will be able to include a grandchild. Thank you for all this fun!
November 25th, 2010Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because its about nothing more than being thankful . . . and turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and . . . well stretchable pants. Thanksgiving blessing to you and yours.
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas. I love seeing Christmas through my son’s eyes. He gets so excited by all the traditions of Santa and seeing family. I can’t wait for this year!
November 25th, 2010I see I am not alone in this tradition…new jammies. I try to make the 3 girls a new set every year.
November 25th, 2010BTW I love your fabric line.
The first Christmas away from family, my older daughter was 2 and her Christmas Wish List was “Hamburger, Trick-or-treat”. That triggered a new tradition that Christmas dinner is “Everybody’s Favorites”. Everyone picks 2 things they love and I put together something that resembles a meal i.e.Prime Rib, Crab Legs, Artichokes, Pomegranates. My mom’s favorite is Hot Wings, so that has become our Christmas Eve tradition. We send the guys to Hooters for wings to go (kind of an early gift for them too.)
November 25th, 2010When I was a child, we always went Christmas caroling to some elderly neighbor’s houses on Christmas Eve. They are long gone, so that tradition died with them. Now we have other traditions.
November 25th, 2010My favorite tradition is playing Santa and filling stockings for everyone - grown ups included. We spend at least an hour in the morning opening up and looking at all the stocking stuffers. Fun!
November 25th, 2010I love the story, what a great attitude to have!
And I don’t need to be entered in the giveaway. I have my HH fq set that I won just waiting to be sewn! As soon as I’m done with the pattern…. ;)
Thanks for being so awesome, your blog always puts me in a great mood!
November 25th, 2010When my kids were little I started celebrating St. Lucias day on Dec. 13 - we exchange a gift to each other and make a holiday dinner. We still do it - spending time together just the five of us.
November 25th, 2010I love your Gnoma Claus’. They are so cute! My favorite holiday is Halloween. I love the smells (leaves), the colors (orange), and watching the kids make believe they are something else. My tradition is just putting out my Halloween decorations. Pumpkins, leaves, and anything orange. Thank you for the give away.
November 25th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving!!
I can’t say we have a specific tradition other than the families getting together
I am fortunate in that all my family and dh’s family live within a 30 mile radius.
That includes aunt, uncles and cousins.
Everyone enjoy your day! pam
November 25th, 2010Our tradition that we started is Chinese food on Christmas eve…
….love the Gravy boat but it looks like you are over the ocean without a paddle–the best way to be because you have to invent something new to get you across to the other side right?
….I hope you are having a WONDERFUL day with family I am so thankful I found your blog this year to connect with such a beautiful and talented person! Rock on!
November 25th, 2010My favorite Christmas tradition is eating take out or pizza on Christmas eve while watching the Santa Clause movies - we’ve done it for YEARS and we still dont get sick of the movies!
November 25th, 2010My favourite holiday is definitely Christmas! I love the lights and the smells and decorating the tree!
My favourite tradition is watching White Christmas on Christmas eve with my Mum (and now Alex), eating lots of really bad things, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol while laughing our bums off at Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye pretending to be Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen singing “Sisters”.
November 25th, 2010With kids & grandkids all either an ocean or an ocean & a continent away, any old traditions we had have kind of fizzled! My husband & I usually go to a flick on Christmas Day!
November 25th, 2010But, despite all the gov’t cutbacks lately, I’m happy to tell you the display at Honolulu Hale continues on!
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas and my favorite ritual is the Christmas Cantata. The week before Christmas, my parents, my family, and my siblings and their families get together for an evening of music. There are 11 grandchildren and they each bring something to perform for the cantata…a poem to read, a song to sing, or a musical instrument to play us a song. It is great fun and has made wonderful family memories!
I love Christmas, in our house Santa does not come by to deliver presents, the wise men do.
November 25th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you and your zombies are having a good day.
November 25th, 2010Thank you for the lovely prints!!!
November 25th, 2010My favorite Holiday is Christmas. It is actually the second day of Christmas. We celebrate that in the Netherlands. And I love this day, because then we have all our ‘obligations’ behind us and we can be with our own family, hubby and daughter making a lovely dinner and son and I making the desert. It has actually become a tradition now, so we are looking forward to it again (o:
Happy Thanksgiving!
Several Christmases ago we started a new tradition of trading names of the adults in the extended family buying one adult present. This cuts down the stress of shopping immensely. Also, since my siblings’ children have children, we go with the flow and have a family Christmas “around” Christmas. It is more fun if we can all be together and presents are secondary. Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for the giveaway.
November 25th, 2010Happy Thanksgiving Zombie.
November 25th, 2010Christmas is my favorite holiday because of all the beautiful colors that bring warmth to such a dreary time of the year in the midwest with all the snow & ice we usually have. I carried on the tradition from my own parents since I was a small child.They took us to a local tree farm where we picked out our own tree and then went home to set it up. I continued that with my own three boys at the very same tree farm which now being run by the fifth generation if I recall. We go each year, pick out,or go by horse drawn wagon to cut our tree then go back to the barn and sit near their huge fireplace and drink hot chocolate while they shake the needles from our tree. Then we would buy a new ornament from their gift shop, go home & set up our tree.Visiting the farm gets me into that holiday feeling.
November 25th, 2010I am a free-lovin’ celebrant who could never pick just one favorite holiday - I love them all! I even celebrate between holidays, all the little things. I do find it hard to identify a “tradition”. Weird. Christmas Eve: Waving at Santa on the fire engine as he drives by the house, then playing games with family and friends until late at night when we drive around to look at Christmas lights before midnight mass. I love it!
November 25th, 2010Christmas is definately my favorite! A tradition that we enjoy is making mini gingerbread men advent calenders. The kids take turns sniping off a gingerbread man each day and eat him. A fun way to count down to Christmas!
November 25th, 2010I ALWAYS watch White Christmas while decorating the tree. It started when I was a kid and it was on one year as we were decorating the tree and awaiting my grandparent’s arrival.
November 25th, 2010Other then our cat knocking over the christmas tree each and every year (!) my favorite tradition is probably the family easter egg hunt. In March, not now :P
November 25th, 2010I pack the kids in the car a few days before Christmas and we go and see the Christmas lights in town. They love it and it’s nice to do something all together - just the 4 or us, my husband, myself and our 2 kids.
November 25th, 2010My favourite holiday is Canada Day, ’cause it’s my birthday! Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for the giveaway!
November 25th, 2010I guess Christmas is the ultimate holiday. Do you ever get over the magic of waking up to a bonanza of new toys? But, in truth, the whole trifecta of Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas is pretty wonderful. I suppose that’s why, as adults, we pull up our big girl pants and make all three of them with hardly a pause for breath in between.
November 25th, 2010i love mothers day…my sisters and our familys go to my moms house and weed her little flower patch, plant some new hardy plants and fill up her flower pots. i love this warming days and spending time with ‘the girls’
November 25th, 2010My favourite holiday is Christmas. I love the lights, the snow, the holiday cheer! Our family tradition is inviting my husband’s family in on Christmas Eve for supper. After supper everyone heads out to their churches for the Christmas Eve services. Last year we had 34 people!
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas, and I especially love the tradition the my mom started when I was too young to know what was going on…the advent calendar that she made. They are so popular and trendy right now, but the one my mom made has always been special to my brother and I.
November 25th, 2010Christmas is my favorite. The family is here, it’s peaceful. I run a charity so from Thanksgiving til February I am very busy. Christmas is a little island of peace, before all of the packing up, and thank you letters. Not much time for traditions.
November 25th, 2010My favorite tradition is spending the 4th of July at our lake cottage and taking a ride on the fire truck. Kathie L in Allentown
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas, and we have many traditions, but one that my hubby and I started is having a romantic fondue dinner in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve night. This year it won’t be so romantic as my 80 y/o mother will be sharing it with us. But it will just mean a minor change in the tradition.
November 25th, 2010Christmas is my FAVORITE! Our traditions mostly revolve aroudn food. On Christmas Eve, my mom and I make Chinese food from scratch - whether at my house, her house or if apart, that’s what our families eat.
November 25th, 2010Every Christmas Eve my mother would give us new Pajammas so Santa would see us at our very best. I do the same for my kids now.
November 25th, 2010Baking fruit cake cookies with my mom and daughter is my favorite tradition.
November 25th, 2010My all time favorite is Easter! It’s springtime, and everything is coming to life, and hopeful. My other favorite part is that every Easter weekend in our little town, one of the two grocery stores celebrates their anniversary with ten cent hot dogs and ten cent cotton candy. I can eat four hot dogs and six cotton candies (which is really not something I should be proud of, but I kind of am!)
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas. I love everything about it. Every year, we make homemade candies- turtles, cherry cordials, peppermint barks, “thin mint” bark, and also we bake cookies. I’m really looking forward to baking cookies with my daughter. And I LOVE playing Santa and watching the kids on Christmas morning… Like I said, I love pretty much everything about it!
November 25th, 2010Love this website!!! I just made a Penny Pocket–super cute:))
November 25th, 2010I really love Thanksgiving. I love the food. I love the reminder to count our blessings and to be thankful. I love the parade. I love that it isn’t as hyped as the other holidays.
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving! We’ve been hosting the family for about the past 8 years. I can’t say we’ve started any new traditions, but we’ve brought two families together and have open arms to others–it seems the crowd is never the same every year! One thing we always have is a toast to the cook(s)… And we remember those who are no longer with us.
November 25th, 2010My favorite has to be Christmas. When my girls were little, they would get a homemade gift from Mrs. Claus, usually pajamas. We still give homemade gifts and say they are from Mrs. Claus.
November 25th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas! I love the music most of all! The tradition I started is a big home-baked Christmas breakfast- think cinnamon rolls, wreath bread or scones! Yummy!
November 25th, 2010Almost Belated Happy Thanksgiving! I finally got the cooking and the cleaning done - go me!
November 25th, 2010We like Christmas best in these parts. One thing hubby and I make sure we do before the big day is watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Linus’ monologue still gives me goosebumps even though I know exactly when it comes on and know the words by heart, and I do love Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree before its makeover!
My favorite holiday is Christmas. And my tradition is to always hade make one gift for each of my children. This year, for the baby’s first Christmas, she is getting a stocking and matching ornament. The other kids are getting…. I’m not sure yet.
November 25th, 2010Every year we each pick a new ornament for our tree and we go up to a small town to enjoy their Christmas celebration.
November 25th, 2010I don’t want to leave the biggest “downer” comment, but December is a hard month for me. My parents died just before Christmas, two years apart, so holiday memories are kind of fraught, along with the usual just missing them so much because it’s Christmas. So every year, when I decorate the tree and play Christmas music and keep our family traditions going, I am making the decision to hold on to the happy memories of Christmas and make some more. Some years are easier than others, but I’m always glad I do it.
November 25th, 2010I think my favorite thing to do is make gingerbread cookies with my kids, 2 of whom are now in college, one in high school. I never did make them when I was a kid, but always wanted to. We have a lot of fun decorating them with candies before they bake. Even though my kids are old, they still like to make them! I was just in Astoria for a funeral and thought of you, wished I knew you in person so I could come and see your studio! :)
November 25th, 2010Your Happy Holiday fabric makes me think of my holiday tradition of buying my mom Scandinavian ornaments for her tree. They didn’t exactly fit her decor but they really said Christmas to me. When she passed away, the ornaments came back to me and I think about her every time I put them on my tree. Have a wonderful holiday season.
November 25th, 2010A tradition I started with my family is that each year I put out all the decorations the children had made. They were made at play group, kindergarten and school. With 3 boys, I’ve finally started leaving some of the decorations in the box as there are so many!
November 26th, 2010my favorite holiday is christmas…i just love the special feeling of the time of the year. in germany we don’t decorate the tree before dec, 24th (23rd) but as we aren’t at ove the holidays (we always spend the three days in our family’s homes) we started to have an ‘advent tree’ so that we still can enjoy the tree during december…i know, it isn’t special for you in the us but for us it was ‘new’ and a tradition that makes me smile.
November 26th, 2010happy {belated} thanksgiving,
julia
Christmas is my favorite holiday because it’s the only holiday where my family gets together. Since everyone now has their own families, it’s hard to get together with everyone because of all the obligations.
November 26th, 2010My favorite tradition is one my mom started. Each year we buy all the kids a new ornament for the tree. That way when they move out and start their own family they have a small collection of ornaments for their own tree.
I love these little gnome lights. I think I am going to use them as gift tags. They are too cute!
November 26th, 2010My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love all the different foods and desserts and none of the hassle of presents and gift wrapping to worry about. My Thanksgiving was very nice, and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving too.
We do fireworks/ sparklers on Christmas Eve. Love it! :) I love everything holiday related though!
November 26th, 2010Love the ‘Lights’! thanks and I will strt a new tradition using these on all my gifts
November 26th, 2010Jill
I’m loving the holiday happiness from Zombie Hale! Your post made me remember my years of living in Honolulu and how Christmas sparkled. I still believe Santa arrives on a surfboard and that manapua or malasadas (or both) should be served on the holiday table! My holidays are tweaked with a Hawaii twist— my favorite is ThanksChristmas, the entire season is my favorite. Now my aloha wreath hangs in the hallway. Decorating starts the week before Thanksgiving so that on the Friday after, it is all DONE and I’m ready to settle in and enjoy. I find that I have MORE time to knit and craft and putter around Contessa Hale!
I’m hanging your gnome bulbs in my kitchen to make me smile! Thanks!
November 26th, 2010HEY MONICA!!! My favorite holiday is Holiday Happy! LOL Actually, I love Halloween. We decorate the house up (we live in the middle of nowhere, so it’s pretty cool) and have a bonfire and weenie roast with friends and family. Of course, I really love Christmas too. Anytime we can spend laughing and sharing with family and friends is a great time.
November 26th, 2010Because me and my hubby don’t yet have kids of our own, we always make sure to find somewhere that has a wish tree or other gift-giving program for children in need so that we can pick out some cute gifts for kids who would otherwise receive nothing. Hopefully even when we do have our own children we will be able to continue this tradition, teaching them that it is more important to give than to get.
November 26th, 2010My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving! We love to gather with friends who grew up in other parts of the world. We each bring to the meal items that “speak” Thanksgiving from our families and culture. We are so very blessed!
November 26th, 2010Thank you for the Gnoma Lights. They will make the cutest gift tags! Christmas is my favorite holiday. A new tradition that started with my generation is to check on Santa’s flight progress on Christmas Eve. It’s on The Weather Network website. The kids have to go to bed when he gets closer to our part of the world, because Santa doesn’t stop if you are still awake.
November 26th, 2010Monica - I don’t know how you come up with such cute things and using my name too! I love Christmas and have miniature trees around the house - one with just mice. I make fudge, peanut brittle and chocolate covered pretzels - has become a tradition and I send to my kids that live out of state.
November 26th, 2010My fave holiday is prolly Christmas. Growing up we would always put a 1000 piece puzzle together. Starting the day after thanksgiving. Loved sitting in front of the fire putting the puzzle together.
November 26th, 2010Christmas is my favorite holiday! I love to decorate, wrap presents, and bake tons of cookies! We always go out to a big light display somewhere. We are going to try the Warm Beach lights this year!
November 26th, 2010Hi again Monica,
My niece made a beautiful long garland of two pages of Santa Gnomes last night and plans to hang them on her door at school so all her students can admire them. Thank you so much for the early Christmas Craft!
Mele Kalikimaka!
November 26th, 2010your fabric is so cute - i love it,
we watch muppets christmas carol every year after putting the decorations up!
kellyx
November 26th, 2010You are sew much fun! Thank you for the smiles!!
I love Christmas time and the spirit of happy it usually brings to everyone. I really enjoy sitting and watching the Christmas tree lights twinkle at night in the silence after family has gone to sleep, sometimes with Christmas caroles playing in the background. A tradition I’ve started is one new Hallmark ornament a year for my children so when they leave home, they’ll have their own collection of memories to start with.
Thank you so much!!
November 26th, 2010My favorite tradition is using a little book of advent ideas through the month of December. My son has Autism and stopped speaking from the time he turned one until he was three. I still hang on his every word, which thankfully now come a mile a minute, all day long. A favorite comment written in our little advent book is a prayer he said during his fourth December- “I can’t see a thing, and I love the beach.”
November 26th, 2010Our tradition while our sons were growing up was to always go cut a cedar tree from our pasture to use for the Christmas tree. Nothing smells better— as long as you’re not allergic to cedar! Thanks for the giveaway!
November 26th, 2010I don’t have a fovorite tradition yet, other than using the stockings everyone in my family has for Chrsitmas. Right now I just love how excited my girls get about every holiday regardless of how big or small, we have the house almost 1/2 way decorated for Christmas already (and my oldest cleaned up her room-with some help-so she could have a mini tree in there!
November 26th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas, for sure! Every year, we start buying new Christmas ornaments extra early - think the minute Hobby Lobby has them out - and decorate our tree before our Thanksgiving turkey is even in the oven.
November 26th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas because it lasts a whole month with all the baking and decorating and fun:>) We started a tradition of advent tea with our girls whent hey were young. Finger foods only and we try new recipes and fancy fun things. We are always on the look out for a new appetizer recipe to try and we always have soft Christmas music and candle light.
November 26th, 2010My favourite holiday is Christmas. I love the feeling at that time of year. It’s a very happy time. When my children were young, we always had the same breakfast. Christmas Morning Wife Saver-a bread and egg and ham and cheese thingy. The kids are grown now and have their own Christmas traditions but I still make the CMWS for myself and my husband.
November 26th, 2010Favorite holiday is definitely Christmas…. I never mind crawling out of bed at 5am when all my excited shorties pile into my bed. We’ll head to the tree and take 5 minutes to open gifts that took days to wrap and prepare. Then they move onto their stockings which are full of mandarin oranges and chocolate. Not the healthiest breakfast but it’s our tradition of sorts, to just pig out and enjoy each other’s chocolate covered faces. :)
November 26th, 2010We as a family always open one Christmas present from under the tree on Christmas Eve. It was always so fun, to get that little “sneak peak” the night before!
marcijdebetaz (at) hotmail {dotcom}
November 26th, 2010I love Thanksgiving and carrying on the traditions of my MIL…. cooking both turkey and Italian dishes.
Thank you for the give away
SheilaC
November 26th, 2010My favorite tradition is the midnight wrapping and gift prep. My honey and I stay up all night the night before Christmas Eve to wrap our family gifts. Our last believer is 8 years old, and we are trying our best to help that little girl keep her giddiness on Christmas morning. We open our family gifts on Christmas eve, and on Christmas Eve night after everyone is sleeping Santa’s helper (me) puts out all the Santa loot! In the AM we act suprised and say Santa must have gotten the wrong house because Milly had some questionable days during the year. Each year I worry that the Santa story we have weaved for her will be the last, so I cherish every Christmas morning.
November 26th, 2010I’ve started so many traditions and kept up the ones my mother passed down to me. One of my favorites is Thanksgiving night I make homemade hot cocoa and my kids and I decorate the tree! And then I give my babies empty boxes to wrap in separate rooms while I wrap presents.
November 26th, 2010Every New Year’s Eve my aunt & uncle have hosted a party. We all go out on the front lawn at midnight and count down at the top of our lungs. Sometimes we add fireworks if it’s not too cold.
November 26th, 2010My favorite tradition is finding a restaurant open on Christmas Eve and going out for a nice dinner and then going to 11:00 church.
November 26th, 2010Thank you for the super cute tags!
November 26th, 2010Hope you had a wonderful Turkey Day SW1! Christmas is definitely my favorite — I love our gingerbread competitions, now that the kids are older and much more creative!
November 26th, 2010Christmas is my favorite of all the Holidays! I love everything about it from hanging the Advent calendar to Holy Communion on Christmas Eve through family gatherings and opening gifts on Christmas Day. A tradition I started was making & collecting ornaments for each child each year. They hung on my tree each year as they were growing up and when they married and had their own tree, I gave the ornaments to them. Such sweet nostalgia!
November 26th, 2010When the other sisters have their thanksgiving at the in-laws instead of Mom’s, I don’t make a turkey. Instead, I make a really good breakfast with hash browns, biscuits, eggs and bacon, maybe pancakes, whatever we want and that’s our holiday meal. We actually do it for many holidays when we don’t travel.
November 26th, 2010Eversince my husband and I moved into our home, we’ve participated with the christmas eve luminaries tradition. Several streets put luminaries on the edge of their lawn. It looks so pretty. The street is lined with glowing luminaries. We didn’t turn our own light bulb on but we did light the candle to bring joy in our hearts! I grew up in the military so, I know what its like to move around. It broadens our imagination and minds!
November 27th, 2010We have some old and some new holiday traditions. One tradition that I will miss terribly this year is we use to go to the kid’s service at church on christmas eve, drop in to my MIL for a visit and a bowl of clam chowder (for those who like it) then attend a fantastic open house gathering at my neighbor (my best friend). Going to be missing the open house this year because she has moved too far to just pop in. Time to make a new tradition.
November 27th, 2010Growing up, we had to sit and wait at the top of the stairs while Mom turned on the tree lights and she always said, “oh, he didn’t come” and we’d giggle and FINALLY be allowed to come downstairs. As we got bigger and brought husbands and granchildren to the stairs we took up way more room. Now … that tradition stills holds at our house. My grown children sit on the stairs with their husbands and kids.
November 27th, 2010Thanks for the chance!
November 27th, 2010My favorite holiday tradition is cutting down our Christmas tree. We go to the same local farm every year and let the kids take turns on my husband’s lap driving the truck through a field looking for the perfect tree. It’s always freezing cold, but such a good time.
November 27th, 2010Favorite holiday tradition is an orange in the toe of every stocking.
November 27th, 2010We love to go shopping on Black Friday (my DD2 and i) I think “stalking” someone for a good parking spot is a hoot. We usually have a great time shopping and then coming home and looking at our great deals.
November 27th, 2010Simply snuggling in front of the TV watching old Christmas movies together……White Christmas and Its a wonderful life are my two favorites :0)….warm drink in hand with homemade cookies……perfect.
Thanks so much for a chance to win.
Happy Sewing
November 27th, 2010My favorite tradition is the one my Grandmother started that my Mom carries on.
November 27th, 2010My grandma would get every one of us grand kids a Hallmark ornament. They would be something to commemorate an achievement or something we loved. From graduations to fairies and barbies for the girls, and trains and cars for the boys.
With my grandma passing away 3 years ago this past October, my mother continued the tradition. We have two ornaments given to us by my mom. The third ornament, the first one we received after Granny’s death, was picked out by her. She shopped early and we had a little gift from her even after she was gone.
I like almost all holidays, so can’t pick a favorite. I don’t think I have any set traditions (despite trying), and this year will need to change them more to fit in some new family members. I think I’d like to add the tradition of flying to Hawaii–say every other year just to enjoy the sun! (gloomy snow day here!)
November 27th, 2010We had to “wing it” for the last three years because one of our sons was battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. For two years in a row, he was recovering from a stem cell transplant over the holidays. Gone were the live tree, pine boughs, even some favorite holiday foods. And you know what? It didn’t matter. We still had our celebrations together and appreciated them more than ever before. Now we have an even better reason to celebrate: the anniversary of the successful stem cell transplant between brothers. It doesn’t get much better than that!
November 27th, 2010Christmas is my favorite holiday. Its fun to have the house decorated and I like to bake special cookie recipes at Christmas. Another thing that I bake is a Christmas tree out of frozen bread dough, and then decorate it with green frosting and red cherries. My 25 yr. old son still asks for it.
November 27th, 2010One of our favourite Christmas holiday traditions is to visit the Calgary Zoo for Zoolights. The entire zoo is lit up with thousands of moving lights and there are firepits and hot chocolate available. It’s a family favourite!
November 27th, 2010Thanks for the change to win!
hello! i live in argentina and i love christmas!!! its a time to forget the bad and hope for the best. on december 8th we arrange our tree with my girls full of white lights. on christmas eve we wait until is midnight and open our presents right there. happy holidays for you!!
November 27th, 2010I finally had the comment box display - when started there were only 20 comments. There are now more than 170. Please enter me into the day 3 giveaway. The tradition at our house now is to draw names so each adult has one present to purchase and makes less stress for all. We concentrate on being with each other at Christmas rather than the presents.
November 27th, 2010Every year we took a hay ride out to cut down our own tree, then stopped at a greenhouse to buy our wreath…now my kids are doing the same with THEIR kids, it does a heart good!
November 27th, 2010my favorite holiday tradition is to play the sound track from charlie brown’s christmas during dinner at thanksgiving and christmas :-)
November 27th, 2010So you stepped on the scale and almost fainted too!! Cookies, paper snowflakes..
and our new tradition is to buy our three kids ornaments every year. At age 21, or whatever age, they get to have them and use them on their own tree. My husband and I had our first Christmas together with a regular tree and a cheap box of 1 inch mini ornaments from CVS the first year! I’d like them to start with at least 21 ornaments. (I do still have the little ones and they make me smile every time. :)
November 27th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas, and we started a Trim-the-Tree party tradition at our house. It’s always the Friday night after Thanksgiving when we put up our tree, serve hot apple cider, and bake orange danish rolls. It’s a lovely time! I’d love to win your giveaway.
November 27th, 2010We have an ocean themed tree at my mom’s house, which has been a tradition for about five years now. It’s fun to stay on the lookout all year long for new fish and sea themed ornaments for the tree.
November 27th, 2010Seeing how much stuff I can stuff into everyones stockings before I run out of space….my fav part!!!!!
November 27th, 2010Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love the reason for the season, and I love the trees, the lights, the baking, and being with loved ones I don’t see often enough
November 27th, 2010Our family tradition is to walk or picnic on the beach Christmas day, weather permitting. It usually does, too. Thank you for the great printables.
November 27th, 2010The children opened one gift Christma Eve, and the rst in the morning. We had Stolen while opening gifts.
November 27th, 2010Well, for me it’s the night of the Year when we get all our family together under our roof and just eat and talk and laugh hours on end. And if the kids didn’t keep track, we’d probably miss midnight all together! It just goes by so fast! You build momentum for weeks and then it’s just gone. lovely fabric, thank you for the opportunity.
November 28th, 2010I love your blog header, “Unsupervised and armed with scissors!” It makes me laugh! I used to teach preschool, where cutting skills are essential. I have great cutting skills from working in preschool for so long!
November 28th, 2010Since my Mom passed away a couple of years ago (Dad’s been gone for 11 years), my sister and her family all moved to Kansas, so Thanksgiving is just me and my son. We do a pretty lazy day - cooking the turkey and fixings, watch football (for him), sewing (for me) and celebrating his birthday (he’s a turkey baby!) It’s just a nice quiet day.
Thank you so much for all these adorable freebies!These will certainly be used!
November 28th, 2010A favorite tradition that we started was the “Boose Tree”…sounds strange but really it’s a lot of fun. All of our children are grown and have been for over 8 years now. About 7 years ago we were selling one of our homes and I just didn’t have the energy to pull out all the Christmas decorations with our house on the market. So I bought a mini, table-top tree and went to the liquor store and purchased a bunch of minitures. Then I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of mini plastic wine glass favors and hung them on the tree for “shot glasses”. Our wedding anniversary is on New Year’s Eve so everyone always came to our house to celebrate the extended family Christmas and to ring in the new year. So I’d get everyone new pj’s and sew a pj bag and they’d all spend the night.
November 28th, 2010ooppss…ran out of comment space ;)
November 28th, 2010So then we’d TAKE DOWN THE TREE by opening up the miniatures and play games until wee hours of the night. We have some of the best memories from those years. A Boose Tree…it’s a good thang ;)
Even though I love Christmas, Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. Since family is spread near and far, this is the time of year that everyone gets together. All the nieces and nephews (and now a great niece) stay at my house. We always start with Chili on Wednesday night with lots of friends and family stopping by. But the best time for me is staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning with those young people and laughing til I cry. They will keep me forever young. Thanks for the “happy Gnoma lights.” How did you “gnoma” need for these pretties!
November 28th, 2010Every year we go on Christmas day to a restaurant together. A real French auberge, nothing chique or expensive but real French country feeling with good food. And of course we have to eat Foie gras (goose liver), huitres, homard and comme dessert buche(very fat and sweet cake in trunk form). After dinner we need a siesta!!!!!!
November 28th, 2010Favorite has to be playing games and doing puzzles with my family….just hanging out together and laughing.
November 28th, 2010My favorite holiday is Christmas, and the tradition I love best is my dad reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” aloud each Christmas Eve. From the same Little Golden Book he’s read from since I was a baby! Now the grandkids enjoy it too.
November 28th, 2010I started a new Christmas tradition to share with my grandson - I made a christmas village wallhanging that he can pick a house to “decorate” with little charms, beads, buttons, etc… each year. And then when it is completed, it will go to him to keep.
November 28th, 2010I love to make beaded mitten ornaments for Christmas and I encourage my family to try to make one. I stitch the year on the back and the name of maker.
My dad even made one. A lovely pink one with lots of orange beads. Go Dad!
November 28th, 2010Loving the lightbulb printable! Favorite holiday–Christmas with Valentines Day second (love making chocolates and cards for my family). Somewhat unusual tradition we have is having crock pot spaghetti for Christmas dinner. I grew up watching my mom or grandmother spending most of Christmas day in the kitchen cooking a big formal dinner. I want to play with the new toys. Spaghetti is the whole family’s favorite meal so, we have that for Christmas and something fancy for New Year’s dinner.
November 28th, 2010My favorite holiday tradition is that my parents spend Christmas eve at my house so they are there for the 5 a.m. present opening bonanza with my children. It makes Christmas morning so special!
November 29th, 2010Spending an entire Saturday during December making Christmas cookies with my mom, my sisters and all of our children. Thanks!
November 29th, 2010My favorite holiday is Halloween! Always has been! I love the time of year!
November 29th, 2010I love Christmas best. I work in a hospital, so often have to work on Christmas Day, but I’m glad I’m on the helping end, rather than staying as a patient. I tell myself that Christmas is a season…of joy, hope, and love, so if I miss one day of it, there is more time to share.
November 29th, 2010Thanks for the fab gnome lights download, such fun!
November 29th, 2010I love Christmas and it’s even more special now I have a daughter. It’s great to maintain little traditions like having new pyjamas for Christmas Eve and leaving a drink and a mince pie out for Santa :)
We feast on crab on Christmas Eve around here. It’s our only “holiday” that we spend without the rest of the family so it’s our chance to do something we like and not worry about allergies or dislikes or whatever. We steam up some crabs and have dipping sauces and artichokes and sourdough bread and eat dinner with our hands. So fun and so delicious!
November 29th, 2010As part of a large family and with a new family of my own my husband and I decided that Christmas Eve would be just for us and our children. We pack a picnic and head out to somewhere for a quiet night of togetherness. No matter what comes after with the Christmas rush we have spent that night together being a happy family and it is a tradition I really value.
November 29th, 2010I made an advent counter a while back and my granddaughter always wants to make sure we get it out. Linda Gerig
November 29th, 2010Every year we make about a dozen new ornaments for our tree. It’s so much fun to unpack the early ones the kids have made. We’ve had to add trees though, to have a place for all of them!
November 29th, 2010Karen in Breezy Point
Christmas has always been my favorite. I have worked at UPS and now at the Post Office so my December time can be crazy. When my kids were little, I gathered up the rest of the neighborhood kids and their instruments and got them going on Christmas caroling. One neighbor used her cookie exchange as a vehicle to hear these kids play and sing. The bonus was lovely confections to eat afterwards. I am blessed as my kids continue this tradition with other friends - singing at night to the delight of friends and neighbors. Mahalo.
November 29th, 2010Maybe if I print these light bulbs on heavy paper, than I can use them to replace the burned out, cracked or wacked light bulbs in our town’s holiday display. The light bulbs are being replaced with LEDs @ a cost of 93 cents per bulb and last year we spent $5000 just on bulbs. The gnomes would look cuter and cost a bit less! There are over 10,000 candy canes given to people who drive through or walk in the park to see the display during the 6 weeks the lights are lite. Last year we found kids with hockey sticks hitting the bulbs so paper maybe the way to go… The whole sheebang is funded by donations and volunteers put thousands of hours in.
December 1st, 2010Can’t divulge my fave holiday tradition. It’s a secret, but it always involves surprises for my entire family.
January 21st, 2011