Us

Us

Monday, December 12, 2011

Your turn to speak....



Christmas spirit is all around...even here on my blog.

In keeping with our random acts of kindness month, I have a little idea.

I subscribe to several blogs, and a lot of them have give-aways. They give away nice things...like cameras, and sewing machines, and kitchen utensils, etc.

Although I would LOVE to do that here on my blog...my stay-at-home-momma salary just doesn't allow such things. Oh, how fun that would be though!

I do however love Christmas traditions. Not just my own, but I like to hear others traditions.

They just make me smile!

I like that the kids know what to look forward to and to anticipate. It just makes me giddy.

Giddy, giddy.

So, I thought I could give away a little something to one lucky little blog reader.

Remember, the value is not the importance, it's the thought that counts.( In other words, the prize will be worth about $15.00.) :-)

I want to hear your favorite Christmas tradition. Anything.

What do  you look forward to each and every year at Christmas time? It can be a new tradition and old tradition...whatever your heart desires.

I will then pick a winner from the entries ...and you will be my first blog prize winner!! **confetti, sirens and lights!!**

The deadline for your comments will be this Saturday. You can comment more than once if you can't think of just one tradition you love....the more the merrier.

If you are not sure how to "comment", you can just sign in as "anonymous" and post your comment. Just make sure you put your name and your city below your comment.

Fun, right?

Spread a little JOY and HAPPINESS today!

Let your little lights shine to all!

on the edge of my seat,

Jill

11 comments:

YH said...

We adopted a little boy almost 4 years ago. when he came to live with us, we didn't realize until Christmas that he didn't believe in Santa Claus. His previous adopted family had taught him at the young age of 5 (younger I guess since we got him when he was turning 5) that there was no Santa & Christmas wasn't real. SHOCKED!!! I have never been around a CHILD that didn't believe in Santa & Christmas.

Since we have had him, Christmas is a big deal...the tree, the dinners, the family coming over. It's not so much the gifts for him but everyone coming over to eat, play, laugh.

Our Christmas tradition has become that on Christmas Eve, HE reads us a book (The Great Reindeer Rebellion) - he started reading it to us at 5. It's a very cute & funny book! and most important is that his Granny A comes to spend the night with him on Christmas Eve to wake up with him on Christmas Day...Granny A lost her father right after we got our little guy so they depend on each other to make the holiday great.

I know that's not some grand traditon but for a 5 year old (now 8) & a "Granny A", it's the best tradition that we have ever had in our home :)

Jill Hill said...

Ok, YH, you have me in a puddle of TEARS! As a momma who longs to adopt a child one day...this spoke right to my heart.

Thank you for sharing your story.

You are precious.

jill

Anonymous said...

My favorite tradition.... My little family of 5...hoping to be 6 next Christmas ;)draws each others' names (around Thanksgiving time). Then, we have all month long to thing of the perfect gift(under $15) to get for the person's name that we drew. We go to Walmart one night & split up the kids to pick out their gifts. Then, on Christmas Eve we get to give our gifts to each other. Love teaching the kids how to give!
And by the way, I don't think it's a coincidence that you keep hearing from adoptive moms-I'm just sayin' ;)

Jill Hill said...

LOVE that idea, Mandy! LOVE teaching our kids how to GIVE. thank you for sharing your story! and i have chills up and down my spine over your last comment! thank you for bringing me HOPE. <3

can't wait to meet your new addition when she comes!! <3

Anonymous said...

I love dressing up and going to the Christmas Eve service at our church. We all enjoy lighting the candles and singing the last few hymns. Afterwards, we always set out cookies and milk for Santa (even though they now know the secret) and read The Night Before Christmas and the real Christmas story from the Bible. It always warms my heart when we are all together!
Wendy Barber
Madison

Ashley said...

There are so many things I love to do each Christmas! Our elves, Duncan, Boone, and Magnolia come on December 1st. We always watch Polar Express as a family. When the "Hot Chocolate" song comes on we pause the movie and go make hot chocolate. I love going to Bass Pro Shop to take Santa pictures and play all the games with the kids. We have breakfast with Santa at the Chophouse. We love to go look at Christmas lights. We always go to church Christmas Eve. I just love the music and singing with candles! We read the "Night before Christmas" and the real Christmas Story before bed. This year, we made an advent wreath. We light the candles each week and talk about what each candle stands for. We also bought gifts for the angel tree at our church. Hopefully we will make a 5 year old girl smile Chritmas morning. I would like to make this a tradition each year! That's about all I can think of. I LOVE Christmas time and am so sad when it is all over!

Jill Hill said...

love hearing your traditions! they make my heart happy! thank you all for sharing your stories! will draw a name this weekend...will tell winner saturday or sunday!

Angela said...

Our family has many traditions that are so special to us all. And we seem to be adding to our traditions. For instance, this year, we went to see "The Journey to Bethlehem" put on by First Baptist Church in Loganville. It was AMAZING! Now every December, we will have this on our traditions "to do" list. Our Christmas Eve is very special to the 6 of us. We enjoy the entire day together, just us! We attend a Christmas Eve church service, we watch "The Nativity Story" movie, we open gifts (only Santa stuff on Christmas day), we eat dinner at the Waffle House and we end our evening in our pj's riding around looking at Christmas lights. Once we get home, all the kids sleep together in Jordan's room! They fall asleep watching Christmas movies. These traditions have been going on for years! Looking forward to this years Christmas! Each year is such a blessed time of family, love, and celebration of our Savior! Merry Christmas to all!

kh7572 said...

Well, everything will be different this year now that we have our miracle, Ian...but in years past here is what Chad I would do.

Our first date was on December 23rd, 1997 - he took me to Houston's and then Phipps and Lenox to do last minute Christmas shopping. Every year since, we have celebrated in the same way - nice meal out in Atlanta, last minute Christmas shopping and after we married, he'd book a nice hotel and we'd come back and exchange our gifts to each other.

With all the chaos that come with Christmas - traveling from one family to the next it was always so special to be able to count on that day just for us.

We may continue that tradition, but I'm so looking forward to the new ones we'll make with Ian. We'll definately be doing the new pj's on Christmas Eve...we'll leave the pickle ornament out for Santa to hide in the tree, we'll wake up and cook breakfast together and then let Ian rip open the presents!

Can't wait to read everyone else's traditions so I can steal them! :) LOL!

Heather Corbin said...

The Corbin's start their tradition on Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve Eve. All five of us, 3 boys and 2 girls go to a store and split up into our 2 groups. The girls shop for pj's for the boys and the boys shop for pj's for the girls. It's a surprise so we sneak to the register and meet back at the car. On Christmas Eve we exchange our pj gifts, and the boys usually add a little something "extra" for the girls. One year it was lip gloss, another year it was earrings, it's always something different and girly. Chris (my husband) says that girls deserve a little bit extra since they are special. Works for me!! After we open the pj's we run put them on and Chloe (11) and Dawson (9) crawl in bed with their older brother Jakob (15) and he reads TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS to them. They have an amazing older brother who enjoys savoring the magic of Christmas for them as long as they'll let him (-: They stay in there all night so that they can each wake the other one up bright and early to see what Santa brought. I forgot, the dogs join them too, we have three. It's a cozy night for all! (I have a really cute picture from last year of all 6 of them snuggled up on Christmas Eve reading the book, I'll try and post it. For bonus points!)

Rebekah said...

My favorite tradition... I love so many things about the holidays. Mostly, I love Christmas Carols and hearing them throughout the season, everywhere. The songs just beckon the day when we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

The thing that brings instant joy is the 12 Days of Christmas song. We have a big family so we (this was Mary's idea about 5 years ago) draw lines for each of the 12 days. When we are singing the song, everyone has a line and we laugh and laugh as we count down the 12 days. Chad (our brother in law) always gets the "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS" line because we rig it and give it to him every year because the first year he belted it out so perfectly. He belts it out, year after year, and we all just laugh and laugh. It's fun for the kids to see the adults be so silly and playful. We then read Luke 2 and recite Twas the Night Before Christmas. (precious, generations long traditions) Then, the kiddos get to rip open all of the presents from all of the Aunt and Uncles (my siblings.) It is a fantastic tradition, to be sure.

I love you, Jilly!
Bek