Friday, December 13, 2013

Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop






















I love traditions, especially around Christmas time. It keeps us rooted in what is important. Reminds us that there are many who came before us and that we have a legacy to leave to those who come after. Even the silly little traditions can mean a great deal later down the road, typically triggering joyful memories.

Here are a few of my favorites Christmas traditions. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without them.
  • Every year, for the last 16 years, my mom and I have gone to Metamora, IN., a small village of shops.
  • Christmas Eve, those of us who don’t have other extended family obligations get together and go out to eat at Red Lobster. This is 40 years running. 
  • Watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 
  • Making cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. 
  • Mid-night mass. 
  • Christmas music: Silent Night, White Christmas, Drummer Boy… 
  • Sitting at night with just the Christmas tree lights on.
  • Baking
  • And most importantly, spending time with family and friends. 
Share below some of your favorite family traditions or things you love about Christmas to be entered to win a copy of my latest release, DESIRE FOR REVENGE. Please include your email address in your response.

Also, be sure to visit http://pjschnyder.com/blog/contests/ to enter to win the Grand Prize. 

43 comments:

Unknown said...

I too love watching the tree lights and mostly watching my grandchildren's faces when they open their gifts!

burbanette said...

Driving all over to see the Christmas lights!

Anonymous said...

I love looking at all the Christmas lights. There's this fancy resort in a nearby city that always puts up a ton of lights all over their property, and my family drives through there every year. It's so pretty.

Thank you so much for the giveaway!

Lindsey8907 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Maria D. said...

My mom and I always bake Christmas cookies together and as a family we always go to my youngest sister's house on Christmas Day for a breakfast/brunch. Mom, Dad and I almost always are by ourselves for dinner on Christmas Day and for the last 5 years I have been making Filet Mignon with all of the fixings.

Unknown said...

One of my favorite family traditions is a big cookie exchange all the ladies in our family and friends have. We get together eat yummy cookies, drink spiked coffee and gossip for hours. It's so much fun and we all look forward to it each year.

strawberryrose said...

When I was young it was Watching the bubble lights on the tree. and Baking Christmas Cookies for two weeks with mom. Now reading great book with my friends dogs while they are having fun out. The stories puts the dogs to sleep every time. It is magic! Happy Holiday to all.

Judy Peterson
strawberryrose@earthlink.net

Megan said...

Water pistol fights, which makes more sense when you know its summer here

lorimeehan said...

My fav is spending time with my family and the cut out frosted sugar cookies.

Tessa said...

Baking, decorating the Christmas tree. Then going to the church and the Christmas dinner. For me and my family Christmas is full of traditions. A very merry Christmas to you and your family!
tessa dot bamberg at kolumbus dot fi

Unknown said...

Making Christmas Cookies with my Mom and watching Christmas Vacation.

Maureen said...

Some of my favorite traditions are decorating the tree with ornaments given to us by our family, going to and early Christmas Eve service and then coming home and eating a family dinner.
mce1011 AT aol DOT com

Unknown said...

I love A Christmas Story - about the Red Ryder BB Gun, and baking, and Christmas music. michelle_willms(at)yahoo.com

Unknown said...

Some of my favorite Christmas traditions are:
We all sit down to watch Polar Express, The Grinch, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and The Santa Clause. Later that night we load up in my car with hot chocolate and go through a couple of local neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.

Cathy P said...

I love the Christmas lights, getting together with family, and watching kids open their presents.

kscathyATyahooDOTcom

Unknown said...

Your traditions sound perfect. So many of them are reminiscent of those that we do! A few that we do are:

*Watch the old Christmas cartoons along with Johnny Bravo's Christmas special (I don't know why but that one cracks me up. I'm old-ish and usually like the traditional stuff but that one gets me!)
*Bake chocolate chip cookies
*Have everyone over for Christmas Eve
*Listen to Christmas music around the tree with all the other lights out

There are so many more but I don't want to hog the whole page here.

Thank you for the chance to enter the giveaway and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and to all and the happiest of happy days to everyone!

Shelly H.
booski24@hotmail.com

love to read said...

I love Midnight Mass other traditions we are starting to build

Unknown said...

On Christmas Eve, we host a huge family dinner with traditional Polish food.

Happy Holidays and thanks for the amazing giveaway!
elizabeth @ bookattict . com

Unknown said...

I cancelled Christmas at my house this year. :(

Unknown said...

Christmas eve with my family is the best.

Smutbooks@gmail.com

Enchanting Reviews said...

My favorite tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with the kids while singing and drinking hot chocolate. Something I used to do with my mom when I was young!

Brandi Slater said...

Favorite traditions are making cut-out sugar cookies and watching A Year Without A Santa Claus. Thanks for the giveaway! Happy Holidays!

flava_sava_chick(at)yahoo(dot)com

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I truly enjoy reading about all the traditions. Thank you for sharing.

Stormy Vixen said...

Every year we start at one house and see the Christmas Tree and sing a Christmas Carol, then we head to the next one and so on, until we have visited every one's house that lives close enough any way. It is usually the weekend before Christmas, so it doesn't interfere with any one's holiday plans. Wishing everyone a wonderful and magical holiday season. evamillien at gmail dot com

Justine said...

Twinkling lights are my favorite!

Heather said...

Super exicted!!

Angela Rose said...

Pork pies that my grandmother use to make, my mom's breakfast strata and Christmas Day spent opening gifts with the kids!

Belinda G said...

My tradition was making Sweet Potato pies and shopping late night on Christmas eve. That's when the kids were at home. They are both grown and have their own family. My new tradition is to visit each of them each holiday. No cooking! LOL

What a wonderful hop! I love it! Holiday blog temptation galore! I like that I can explore and the possibility of finding new authors to read.

Thanks for the opportunity!

Belinda G
belgre at comcast dot net

Stephanie said...

Giving Santa a hand in wrapping Christmas presents on Christmas Eve!

mk said...

I love sitting under the tree in the dark with the tree lights on too!

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite things besides being with family is wrapping presents. I love gift wrapping, so I'm the designated wrapper in the family. :-)

Thank you so much for the giveaway! I'd love the chance to read your book, so fingers crossed.

Lindsey8907 [at] yahoo [dot] com

bn100 said...

decorating the tree together

bn100candg at hotmail dot com

Natasha said...

I love decorating the house with my family.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Happy Holidays!
natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com

veRONIca said...

I love decorating gingerbread house and having Santa Clause movie marthon with the fam jam

Tina said...

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the giveaway!

Kyrulz said...

We watch Christmas Story

Kayla W. said...

Our traditions for the holidays generally starts with shopping on black friday -- well I guess Thanksgiving as we always go through ads together while dinner cooks. Also try to plan some meals together and making treats -- baked cooks, etc. It varies depending on how things are going in life (work, school, etc), but we try to spend as much time together as a family as we can :)

Michelle Bledsoe said...

We put up decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. We open one present Christmas Eve. And we always make my mother's gumbo for Christmas.
Merry Christmas!!
koonie2888 at yahoo dot com

Em and M Books said...

My favorite Christmas tradition is getting together for our Christmas Eve celebration - a time of family & friends, I love it!

Thanks for the chance!

Tina B said...

I love watching the kids open their gifts! With each one they get this look of pure joy on their faces!
:)
Have a happy holiday season!

trb0917 at gmail dot com

JanD said...

In my family, it's baking and attending midnight mass.
bituin76 at hotmail dot com

Shadow said...

Hi! My family has a bit of traditions. On Thanksgiving, we set up the tree. On christmas, we make sugar cookies, cook dinner together, play games and watch the say christmas movies. I love it!! Thanks for being apart of this great hop! Im having a blast! Thank you! Happy holidays!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

Thank you again to everyone for sharing your Christmas traditions. I hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends. I have decided to give away two copies and the winners are Book Attict and Shelly Hammond. Congratulations.