Saturday, December 17, 2011

Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop and Contest


Well it's official - the holiday maddness upon us.  My house is overflowing with Christmas ornaments, my pint sized tree and plenty of Christmas Cheer! And after doing an assignment with my daughters about their favorite memories of the holidays, along with all the wonderful answers I got from Kharisma and my Kindle Touch Contest, I thought it might be fitting if I give you a glimpse of my favorite holiday memories. 

Top Ten Holiday Memories/Traditions

10.  Spending Christmas Eve with my grandparents as a child. We'd take a two hour drive from Cedar Rapids to Clinton every year until the year my Grandfather passed away.

9. Going to my mother's for Christmas  Eve Breakfast. She always made breakfast quiche and french toast, a tradition she started during my teen years.

8. Making Christmas Cookies and sweets with my daughters.  They love decorating sugar cookies. I have a whole drawer full of various sprinkles.

7.  Putting up the Christmas Tree with my kids.  Every year one member of my family gets to put our stain glass star at the top of the tree. This year it was my dad who did the honors.

6. The last year I sat on Santa's lap. A family tradition on my mother's side - each year, my uncle Harry would dress like Santa, and all of us grandkids sat on his lap and he'd give us a gift. The last year I was required to "sit on Santa's lap" I was twenty and 8 months pregnant with my first child. I still have the Polaroids of it - maternity dress and all.

5.  Putting together my daughters's Little Tykes Kitchenette, complete with stove, microwave and sink when they were 2 and 4. Box said some assembly required...and it should have said complete assembly.  I spent from 11pm Christmas Eve til 2 am Christmas morning putting it together so it would fully assembled under the tree. I woke less than two hours later to my daughters playing with it and screaming that Santa had come.  I laugh now but I wasn't happy at the time. 

4.  The year we got our Missi-moo, our rat terrier/shih-zhu puppy and the kids got her a raw hide bone bigger than she was.  They put in her own Christmas stocking and as little as she was, she crawled into the sock to get it. 

3.  My first Christmas with Mr. Trace.  We didn't have much so I made popcorn strings and paper mache ornaments.  I was huge with my son and my hubby had to help me up off the couch.

2. The birth of my son. (He was born Christmas Eve.) What a wonderful year that was. My mother had to bring the Breakfast Quiche to me in the hospital.

1. Making Christmas Breakfast of Homemade Belgium Waffles and Sausage for my family, a tradition I took over after Mom passed on.

Okay now that I've told you about my favorite, give me a glimpse of what you find the most memorable about Christmas by commenting below to be entered to win the complete set of my Dom of Chicago books, including the just released His Christmas Wish: Myrna's Submission. Just make sure you list your email address, so I have away to contact you if you happen to be the winner!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dakota  

20 comments:

  1. The last few years we make a big Christmas breakfast, open presents, and then go see a movie :-) Merry Christmas!

    smaccall AT comcast.net

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  2. My favorite Christmas memory involves my grandfather. The whole family would gather at my grandparents' house each Christmas Eve for dinner. It was always a loud, crazy event with my grandparents, their 11 children & the in-laws, grandkids, great-grandkids, a few extra family/friends. After dinner, everyone would gather and my grandfather would read the story of the first Christmas from his Bible. Everyone from the oldest to the youngest would always listen quietly. My grandfather passed away 5 years ago and Christmas is not the same since. Even though I have a few DVDs of various years gatherings, it is not the same.

    Thank you for the giveaway. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
    June M.
    manning_j2004 at yahoo .com

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  3. Every Christmas Eve, my family goes to the drive thru Christmas light display. It's great to remember when the kids were small.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

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  4. Lots of special Christmas memories, especially with my boys. Those Christmas mornings filled with laughter and excitement, always get me smiling.

    caity_mack at yahoo dot com

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  5. I have some great Christmas memories but my favorite is the ones that I make with my 3 kids while baking and decorating cookies!! My girls make sure that they have the perfect decorated cookies but my son isn't concerned with anything but playing in the icing!! He's 5 so it's funny when he is covered with icing and we all laugh because he usually has it everywhere!! Now that just make me smile just thinking about it.
    Thanks for the giveaway!!!

    melissalamb@musfiber.com

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  6. Hi Dakota, when I was a twelve years old I volunteered after school at a Head Start Center at a inner city location. At that time PAL used to donate toys for the children at the center, and we would get a Santa to hand out the gifts. On this occasion, the dad that was scheduled to play Santa would not make it to the center in time. So the Teacher selected a dad, Mr. Jerome, that was there. He's six feet four inches tall and black. With some creativity we made the costume work and hoped for the best. When he entered the
    classroom there were mixed responses from the children (they were four years olds). Some screamed "Santa!", one vocal young lady said "A black Santa!" Which caused the room to become quiet, then one boy says "No, he's just Santa. Remember you gotta believe"
    Needless to say, there was a mad rush to Santa. All the women that day had a tear in their eye at that moment. I always remember this around the season.

    Happy holidays,
    Loray
    sweetpea122 at rocketmail dot com

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  7. I remember my kids with chicken pox one Christmas and it snowed so no one had to say that weren't going to come to our house. No on could
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  8. Unfortunately, holidays are not big in my natel family, so I've gone elsewhere for holiday magic. Probably ten years ago or more, me and 2 friends went to a spa for 2 nights..had the best "healthy" Thanksgiving feast ever and shared all that we were grateful for. That was really special.
    Thanks for the very generous prize.
    MJB
    msmjb65 AT gmail DOT com

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  9. What a great giveaway fun blog hop thank you so much! I love christmas I like the simple things like making homemade christmas cookies with my mom!
    Happy holidays to you!
    tishajean@ charter.net

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  10. My favorite memory is when my son was 6 and got a pedal car. We didn't wrap it, just put presents on it and all around. When the pile got low enough he could see it, his eyes got big and he jumped up and down then he jumped in the car and made car sounds, vroom, vroooom.
    luvfuzzzeeefaces at yahoo dot com
    Thanks for the chance to win.
    Merry Christmas

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  11. Fantastic prize
    I make my grandmas green jello salad with pecans and pineapple every year. She has Alzheimer really bad so this is a way I keep her with us. Baking and cooking with my adult daughters to I Am Woman by Helen Reddy. I know not a carol but it pumps us all up
    lzz25 at yahoo dot com

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  12. My best christmas memory was the year we were able to be with my grandmother before she passed on. The family was able to be with her as she got her christmas wish to be with my grandfather who had passed 7 years before. Marie Lisk melisk1966@yahoo.com

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  13. every year on the christmas eve (which is my dads birthday) we would go to his moms house and have a big dinner, make homemade cookies, then open presents. Christmas day, we would open our presents then go to my moms mothers house. We'd have a big dinner there too and open more presents, then we'd sit and watch a christmas movie. Fun, fun times! Happy holidays to you! Thank you!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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  14. Seeing all the lights and seeing the wonder in the children's eyes.
    linze_e at hotmail.com

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  15. My favorite memory is Mom, my daughter & I all preparing a traditional Polish dinner for Christmas. This year, my grandsons (3&4 years old) will be "helping". That'll be 4 generations preparing dinner this year!

    Happy Holidays & thanks for the giveaway!

    elizabeth@bookattict.com

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  16. From childhood, I remember listening to the Andrews sisters and Williams brothers sing their Christmas songs as we decorated the tree every year. Now, we don't have the same holiday music, but decorating is still a family affair :)

    f dot chen at comcast dot net

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  17. I grew up in a family that I'm pretty sure the Griswold's from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation was based on. Love my Mom but she is a terrible cook so we are always finding ways to not have to eat. Plus me and my brother always wrap up gag gifts for each other. Last year I got him some of those HD glasses and he wrapped up a head of cauliflower for me. I could go on and on, but we have fun so I love Christmas with them!

    hhollyhal at gmail dot com

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  18. While I don't have children of my own, i love watching the faces of my younger relatives on christmas morning. You can't beat it!

    jslindzy@hotmail.com

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  19. Just spending time with my family in one place. It can be crazy at times, but i wouldn't trade it for the world.

    jslindzy@hotmail.com

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  20. Cooking dinner for my family and spending time together.

    ainfinger@comcastDOTnet

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