The holidays are upon us! In just ten days, we’ll be celebrating Christmas! My children are beyond excited. I’m sure yours are, too!
They were really excited. Promise!
It’s so easy to get lost in all the planning, shopping, cooking, wrapping and stressing of the holidays. Sometimes, we simply need to stop, relax and enjoy the time with those that we love most. Just enjoy the holiday traditions that we all love so much.
What are your favorite holiday traditions? This year, my favorite thing is our Holiday Advent Calendar. It started a few years ago with this little red calendar (see below) that my mother-in-law found at an after Christmas sale.
Every night right after dinner, our children want to know if it’s time to do the calendar. They can’t wait to open those little doors to find what small prize might be hiding in there. The prizes usually range from a few coins to balloons to chocolates. This year I found it harder to find small little things to put in the boxes, so we’ve started adding little notes for them to go search in or under the tree for their prizes. They love it and I love seeing how excited they are to do it each day!
Because I love each of my clients, fans, family and friends, I’m going to do a giveaway! My first giveaway on my blog/facebook!
Giveaway 411:
The prize: A full session with me* including 3 Gift Prints (8×10 and smaller) and 3 Hi-Res images on a disc!
How to enter: Leave a comment here (click on the comments section to leave a comment) or on the Facebook Post telling me what your favorite holiday tradition is! Hurry, all entries must be submitted before 11:59pm EST on December 22, 2009.
How does it work: You leave a comment and you’re entered into the drawing. On December 23rd, I will add all the number of entries to random.org to determine our winner! Then I’ll contact the winner! Entries on the blog will start the counting and the entries on Facebook will continue from there (ex: if there are 10 entries on the blog, then the entries on Facebook will start at entry #11).
Who can enter: Everyone!! So be sure to pass this along to your friends and family!
Good luck to all! I hope you have a blessed holiday season!
xoxo,
Marinda
*Session for up to 5 people. Not valid with any other discounts. Cannot be combined with other special offers. Session must be used before June 1, 2010.
My favorite holiday traditions is when we all create our christmas stockings and ornaments for the tree. Its not much we even when our Soldier is gone we still create one for him as if he was here with us!
My favorite tradition is the one that I started when my kids were born….every year I buy them matching pajamas that we all open on Christmas Eve and wear them to bed! I try to get them matching or the same theme, so we all match in the pictures :O)
My favorite tradition is eating!! Especially my grandma’s fudge…yum!
I love finding the perfect ornament for our tree and having it personalized! & of course SHOPPING!
My favorite Christmas tradition is kind of lengthy to tell but it is so special to me. On Christmas eve as a child, my parents would let me stay up late and watch Miracle on 34th street (so I would be really tired and sleep in on Christmas morn! Yea right. LOL). Then they would “let” me sleep upstairs with my older sister (my room was downstairs) where she would proceed to tell me a story until I fell asleep. We lived in a big old farmhouse and there was a ventilation hole in the ceiling of the living room which meant you could look down that hole from upstairs and see a bit of the living room floor. One year in the middle of the night I woke up to hear Santa downstairs putting gifts under the tree. I looked down the hole and could see packages being put all around although I couldnt see Santas hands I knew it was him. I don’t think I fell back asleep and it seemed like an eternity till morning.
My favorite Christmas tradition is spending the night at my grandma’s on Christmas Eve. We (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) have all spent Christmas Eve night together for many years. It’s so exciting and fun to be able to hang out together until late at night and then wake up and open presents and eat breakfast together. I am also hoping to start a new tradition this year with my daughter where we read “Santa’s Favorite Story” together on Christmas Eve before bedtime. I bought it for her this year so we can read it on her first Christmas Eve.
My favorite Christmas tradition is making and decorating Christmas cookies with my mom…and yes I still do it every year even though I’m 34 years old. This year my precious daughter gets to join the tradition. I can’t wait to see the icing all over her cute little face!
My favorite christmas tradition is making christmas cookies and candies.. then gathering my whole family at my sisters house on christmas day to spend the day together opening gifts and eating.. and just being with family!
My favorite holiday tradition is the family brunch we have on Christmas morning at our house. It began about 8 years ago with just myself, my husband, two children and my in-laws. It has since grown to almost twenty of us, including my sister’s in-laws! I love the time spent with family.
MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS ARE WITH MY KIDS AND MY NEICES AND NEPHEWS DECORATING THERE ORNAMENTS, WE PASS THEM OUT A CHRISTMAS TIME TO ALL THE GRANDPARENTS AND AUNTS. I LOVE LOOKING AT HE PASSED ORNAMENTS ON THE TREE THAT THE KIDS HAVE DONE..SO CUTE!!!…..:)
I really like driving the kids around looking at the Christmas lights after dark. I always end up thinking we should do it on a particular night (like Christmas Eve) but that never seems to work out. Oh well, we all still enjoy it. And we make sure to do it atleast a few times during the season.
my favorite is watch the kids faces when they see the reindeer food is gone.