Category Archives: Holidays
I believe that most of us become emotional when unpacking our Christmas decorations. They are not just “things” but are precious memories that we get to re-live each year. Afterwards, we then lovingly put them away in a safe spot until next year.CHRISTMAS IN JULY CELEBRATION
Have you ever considered a Christmas in July Celebration?
WHEN GRANDPA BOB IS AWAY HUNTING
Each year, for the past 29 years that we have been married, my husband takes up residency in his hunting cabin about 45 minutes away. He use to stay for 6 weeks but now it is only a total of 4 weeks. This escape from civilization begins the week prior to buck gun season. He is a dedicated hunter. He does come home for Thanksgiving dinner and then once a week to re-stock on food and wash his clothes.
The hunting season becomes my time to create the holiday home for our family. I make lots and lots of lists to begin with. I am a micro manager of myself with lists.
I decorate the house, upstairs and down, as well as outside. This year I had some assistance from 2 grandsons with stringing lights in the bushes and creating their North Pole in the woods.
FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS TREES
The Festival of Trees is an event held in our town to celebrate the Christmas season. The trees and wreaths are decorated by people in the community and sponsored by different agencies. They are not only beautiful, but for a good cause. They are on display for a few weeks and then there is an auction. The proceeds go to the Easter Seals of West Virginia.
A friend and I went to see the festival of trees and then went out to lunch last week. We are now planning on making this an annual get together.
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
I always enjoy being a part of the Christmas shopping hustle and bustle but things seemed to have changed over the years.
I can remember going Christmas shopping with my mother and grandmother from the time I was a small girl. We always shopped in our downtown. There seemed to be so many stores to me. I can still feel the chill of the cold air as we darted in and out of each store. The snow was blowing in our face, Christmas music was playing over loud speakers on the street corners, and there were happy people every place.
Continue reading CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
THANKSGIVING FUN WITH THE FAMILY 2015
This year my North Carolina family was able to come to our house for a few days over Thanksgiving. My husband came home from his deer camp for the day. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner followed by a lot of activities.
The weather was very nice so I took the opportunity to do some outside Christmas decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The boys (age 3 and 6) wanted to help me.
We needed to take down the fall decorations first so that kept them busy for a while. The 3 year old wanted to get it done quickly, so he decided that he could do it by himself.
Whoops!!! They were a little heavy.
GRANDPARENTS SHARE THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS
Thanksgiving traditions are created from memories.
Traditions are defined as the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. I was thinking of my Thanksgiving traditions and asked a few of my friends to tell me about theirs.
When I was growing up I remember that my mother cooked and baked for days preparing foods for Thanksgiving. I believe that I can still feel the warmth in our home and experience the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. Everyone came to our house to eat including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. My father and the men in our family always liked to deer hunt so they were out in the morning doing that. After dinner we drew names for our Christmas gift exchange.
When I was in high school we moved to the country and for several years the same tradition continued. My mother decided to try hunting and enjoyed it so she started going out herself. Over the years as my brother, sister and I grew up and had our own families we were not always able to be together.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Happy Valentine’s Day.
I love to make decorated sugar cookies and special treats for my grandchildren to help them celebrate a Happy Valentine’s Day. Continue reading HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
CHRISTMAS 2014
MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family. Sharing some fun, food and traditions from our Christmas 2014.
We had our family celebration on December 13th.
As usual, it was crazy, busy and so much fun. We had lots of good food, talked and laughed, played some games, and opened gifts.
See some of our Christmas traditions in previous post.
Christmas Traditions..Creating New Ones as Grandparents.
I always make cookie trays, candy bags and Chex Mix for everyone to take home. I made double recipes of 10 different kinds of cookies and 30 dozen decorated sugar.
My husband, Bob, helped me cook and we worked on it for 2 days. Our Christmas 2014 menu was simple and had variety to satisfy the adults and children.
Here are some random pictures.
The first picture was the next morning when I was taking out trash. I looked behind me and my 2 yr old grandson, Hudson,was saying “me help” and dragging bags of trash. We are such a lucky family to have so many wonderful blessings. 
CREATING CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AS GRANDPARENTS
We all had family traditions for the holidays as we grew up and were able to continue these when we started our own families.
I think as grandparents we are now in a unique situation.
Many of the traditions can’t be carried on for different reasons. Some of our grown children have moved away and not able to get home for the holidays, and with so many blended families there are more schedules to try to accommodate. A few grandparents are lucky enough to have all of your children living in the same city. Another issue is that once our children are married, they need to share the holidays with their in-laws also.
I think the only solution is to try to incorporate some of your most favorite traditions while being flexible to make new ones. I want to share with you some of the things our big family does that seems to work.
My husband and I have a blended family of 8 children along with their spouses/significant others, 13 grandchildren and a few more from their blended families. Talk about difficulty in being able to coordinate schedules!!
Bob and I have our big family Christmas party the 2nd Saturday in December. This allows the children to attend events with their in-laws and still have their own family time on Christmas. I start all of my holiday tasks the weekend after Thanksgiving.
I decorate my house with family in mind. I have a tree upstairs that is decorated with Thomas Kinkade and handmade ornaments from my friend, Linda Bibbo @ L.B. Bear Christmas Ornaments, so this one is just for looking at. The downstairs tree is kid friendly and full of things they like. I add Christmas to every room in the house and outside. I do lots of shopping and baking non stop for 2 weeks.
We are very lucky because we have 2 big rooms downstairs that we can party in. One has the tree, and is where we open presents. The other is a big empty room that I am able to set tables up in to eat. I also make 20 cookie trays for family/friends. I line the trays up on these tables to fill them.
I still do a stocking for each grandchild. They are not stuffed full like the ones Santa does at their house but everyone enjoys this. Here are mine for this year. I did 18 this time.
Little Boys.. hand held stroble light, LED flashlight,stickers
Little Girls
Big Boys
Big Girls
One of the most fun traditions we started with the grandchildren is a game we play. Even the teenagers still laugh and enjoy this. I originally started it to stretch the evening when they open their presents so quickly.
We call it “THE RACING SANTA GAME”
I have a tub that I fill up with small gifts, cash, and gift cards. The prizes have evolved over the years and change to meet what I know they like.
Here are the prizes in this year’s tub.
To play this game, everyone picks out a Santa or Snowman, we set up a short track ,and the little wind up Santas race each other 2 at a time. The winner goes to the tub and gets a prize.. the loser plays the next person. Everyone wins! The poor little wind up Santa does not go too far and the kids are laughing hysterically at them.
These are a few of the traditions we do at our house. I will share some more in another post.
Bob and I just want special memories to come from the holidays at our house.