Thursday, December 9, 2010

OMG is Christmas here?

All right! Thanks for sharing all your holiday memories and favorites! You all Rock! Using the lovely randomizer the winner of a book is CathyM. Please email me at my website juliana at julianastone dot com and we can figure out which book you would like to get! I have a couple to offer up!

And, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!



Hey everyone out there in supernatural land! Are you freaking out yet? If you celebrate Christmas do you have your shopping done? Do I have my shopping done? Um, that would be a big fat NO! BUT, I have a list this year so that is a huge improvement over past years!



As most of you know this time of year is crazy busy and I'm sure I'm not the only one freaking out cause Christmas is 16 days away. But it's also a wonderful time for family and friends and get togethers.



Today I'm going to share some of my favorite Christmas things:



1. My favorite memory is of hiding under the covers with my brother as we tried to keep each other awake so we could try and surprise Santa. We always fell asleep of course, but had massive amounts of giggling. But more than that it was the feeling, that anticipation and excitement that I remember.



2. When I was older Christmas Eve was for visiting several friends for some "cheer". I loved this night and the travelling around (with a dd of course)



3. My favorite movie and I watch it every year is It's a Wonderful Life. Every year I watch this. Jimmy Stewart gets to me every single time.



4. Elf comes a close second. I want to adopt Buddy and let him live with me.



5. Favorite Christmas songs, Merry Little Christmas by The Pretenders, Something about Christmas time, Brian Adams



6. Fave gift I ever received....an 8 track player (you heard me 8 track player) and the 8tracks of Grease and the Bee Gees.



7. I love my mom's homemade pastries and pies. A little too much actually, but hey, she'd be insulted if we didn't finish every little scrap.



8. My son's first Christmas. He was 6 months and had no clue what the heck was going on, but man, I had fun unwrapping the mountain of prezzies under the tree. Didn't mattr that I'd wrapped them myself the night before...IT WAS HIS FIRST CHRISTMAS!



9. My kids are older now, so I love the fact that I can sleep in. No more getting up at 5:30 on Christmas morning.



10. Most of all, I love that my family and friends are nearby and we always make time for each other. That's what Christmas is about to me, family and love.



So, what are your fave things about the holidays? Let me know and I have a stash of books, I'll pick a winner and give you a choice of your prezzie.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, I LOVE LOVE LOVE ELF! That movie makes me cry I laugh so hard. Especially the burp and snowball scenes. *sigh*

I love Christmas. It's the main holiday I celebrate every year. I live out in the desert here, so we don't get the snow and such, but it's fun to drive around and see all the cactus and palm trees covered in lights! It's great fun!

Sharon S. said...

This will be the first year without a Santa Claus at our house :( My 9 year old informed me she *knows. I told her to pretend for me though .
My favorite things to do is decorate with lots of colored lights. The tackier the better. White lights don't count! I love buying presents and wrapping them. I make some of the best gingerbread men cookies you will ever have! (it is the only thing I can bake). To put it in your words "Weeeeeeeeeeee!" :)

Kathryn Packer Roberts said...

Gee, what DON'T I love about Christmas? I love turning on Mannheim Steamroller and decorating the house. There is something magical about the transformation, like elves have been there to put sparkly decorations everywhere. The music has a special meaning, too. I lived in Germany as a young teen and we would listen to it in the car as we went shopping for exchange gifts and visit the CHristmas markets in Frankfurt. Let me tell you, there is no place more magical to spend Christmas than Germany. It is Christmas central and oh-so fairytailish, like you've gone back in time hundreds of years. *boy do I miss that* But more than anything now I love living through my children and seeing the looks of excitement that used to be on my own face as a child. I don't look forward to the day when that has ended.

Unknown said...

I love a reason to have hot chocolate and Christmas eve every year we have a big get together with my family exchange presents see people you almost haven't seen in over a year, eat deviled eggs(Yummy) and just enjoy each other company by the end of the night the kids are exhausted and its time for mommy & daddy to play Santa ;)

Crystal @ RBtWBC said...

Uh...no, I am not done Christmas shopping yet. Why'd you have to remind of me of that? LoL I DO have a list though thank goodness, or I'd be running around in circles.

I love Christmas. I love decorating, seeing the fam, singing Christmas songs, seeing all the stores decorated, buying prezzies for my lil' kiddo's, crossing my fingers hopin' they don't scream their heads off on Santa's lap. Hehe.. Making cookies and setting them out for Santa with a cup of milk and of course a reindeer snack. And most of all watching my kids open their presents. I wake them up at 6am and I think I'm more excited then them!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Shiloh said...

I love the Christmas goodies everyone bakes! My mother-in-law makes chex mix ONLY around Christmas time and its the best chex mix ever!! I also love the snow, I love cuddling under a blanket and watching movies with my kids, and curling up with a good book! (Although that last one I love everytime of year! haha)

Carmen R said...

All of my favorite thing to do with Christmas have to do with my son.

The look on his face Christmas morning.

Making cookies and other goodies together.

Drinking hot chocolate together while watching all the great movies.

Making reindeer food and putting it out side and finding it all gone the next morning.

I never really had a happy Christmas as a child but I get to see it through my son's eyes and it makes it all worth it.

Linda Henderson said...

Spending time with my family, even though we don't live that far apart and I see them frequently I still enjoy our Christmas get-together. We go to my sister's house and eat until we are stuffed and then we play board games. Since none of us likes to lose it makes it pretty interesting.

Giada M. said...

I love my mom's homemade pies, too!
My favorite movie is Fantaghirò and I love to reread Pride and Prejudice every Christmas. >_<
And in general I love to have free time!:P

fabgiada (at) gmail (dot) com

SandyG265 said...

I like driving around and looking at everyone's Christmas decorations. And Watching the Grinch on TV.

sgiden at verizon.net

Lea @ The Yearning Mermaid said...

I like that my whole family is together on that special day. That happens only a few times during the year and I can´t wait. It´s almost better than getting presents. Almost ;-)

rissatoo said...

I love Christmas! Decorations and music, beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving! No Black Friday craziness for me, though. Just want to relax & enjoy my first Christmas-y day of the season!
Even when I have *no* money to spend on presents (like this year, .<...sniffle...>.), I love to bake & decorate cookies to share.
Yup, I love this season! :)

Buffy said...

I have about a zillion things I love about Christmas. Making a hundred cut-out cookies that taste like heaven is one of them. We are baking on Sunday and then we will decorate with colored cream cheese icing! This has been a tradition in my family since I can remember. It's messy and fun.

Anonymous said...

I've always liked Christmas but now that everyone I know is having kids, it's even better. I love watching them all open gifts (a few times they liked the wrapping more than the actual gift) and they get excited over the smallest decoration. It's great. I also love holiday food. The cookies being my favorite :-)


Stephanie G
sgradel(at)gmail(dot)com

Paranormal Haven

Sara M said...

My favorites things about the holidays are the weather (you can finally wear pants in Florida!) and giving gifts. I spend money on myself all year (mostly on food and books), and I enjoy being able to spend it on everyone else.

Anonymous said...

My fav things are:

Pulling Christmas crackers druing dinner and wearing a silly paper crown.

Getting all, or at least most of my kids together under one roof for some holiday fun and games. There are eleven of them!

Christmas baking, I love making cookies, cakes, pies, the lot!!!

Adn lastly, I enjoy reading Christmas themed books!!

Valerie
in Germany

Unknown said...

I love Christmas I have three boys and love seeing there face Christmas morning. But most I love my family I have lost two this year so the family I have left I love spending time with and really that's what Christmas is really about...

Kirsten said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelly said...

Fave part of christmas...... haning with the family and watching the fireworks.... There are always fireworks with my family.. but I have learned that it can be fun just to sit back and watch everyone else stress out!!!! Give me a cup of really good coffee and a sugar cookie and I will be happy.... Love Christmas time... Having to spend time with the family....

thank you for a chance to win...
Kelly M
crazyforbooks@comcast.net

Book Chatter Cath said...

My favorite part of Christmas has always been family.
My parents, brother and I moved from England to New Zealand when I was 7 and so all of those huge fun filled, traditional family Christmases with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles became barbecue's at the beach for our little family of 4. But they were still fun :)
I have 3 girls of my own now and lots of relatives to visit and eat with over the holidays, and lots of visits to the beach and its still fun:)

felinewyvern said...

My favourite part of Christmas is the family and driving them mad singing (I can't really sing)all the Christmas songs loudly.

I also love the decorations, wrapping the presents and watching the recipients face when it's opened :D

Cylver said...

Probably one of the best presents I ever got was a pair of ice skates in 8th grade. I was taking skating lessons at the local ice rink and having to use their sweaty old rental skates. I remember literally jumping for joy when I opened the box and saw a pair of brand new, scuff-free, white skates!
As a grown-up, I used to love helping my daughter put milk and cookies on the table for Santa, and the look on her face in the morning at the sight of the empty plate and glass.
My favorite holiday TV shows have to be The Grinch and A Christmas Carol. I guess I'm just a sucker for redemption stories. Rudolph I'm not so fond of. The story of a deer who's shunned because of a birth defect who only gets accepted by society once they find a way to exploit said defect. Clearly I analyze some things way too much!

CrystalGB said...

My favorite things about Christmas are the decorations, the music, the children's excitement, and time spent with family.

Jessica @ a GREAT read said...

My fave fave fave things are watching the 24 hours of a Christmas Story! I always have that on from the moment it starts to the moment it ends. It's my #1 Christmas movie followed by Elf of course!

I love baking Xmas cookies too! We have a few varieties that we make and my fave is our cutout cookies which are always a pain to make because you have to roll the dough out but they taste sooooo good!

I love decorating our tree too! We have too many ornaments but I love picking my faves and putting them on the tree. From Disney to Barbies to Scooby Doo and few other miscellaneous characters, it's my fave decoration of Christmas!

I also love Xmas shopping, I do mine early and I love buying gifts for people especially when the gift comes as a surprise! And while I'm not good at wrapping, I do like to wrap my gifts. I choose from a variety of paper and want the perfect paper to go with the present/person! And I always make my older sister "work" for her gift by boxing and wrapping at least twice! This year it's three wrapped boxes!

Cathy M said...

I loved Christmas mornings when my kids were little. They would sneak into our room and just stand there until we woke up (yes a wee bit creepy), lol. Then they would have to wait at the top of the stairs until I had all the tree lights turned on and my video camera ready to go. Then it would be a race to see who made it first (I had twins btw), and those first moments of awe and wonder made for some fabulous memory days.

Thanks for sharing your magic moments with us.


caity_mack at yahoo dot com

throuthehaze said...

I love the decorations, spending time with my family, wrapping presents, giving presents, the movie A Christmas Story, and all the baked goodies I get to eat :)

RFTC Blog said...

I love Christimas. Everything about this time of the year. spending time with my family and not fighting, the cold weather, the lights and tree decorations, the food, the music, and I love the movies. Especially A Christmas Story. I love, love, love that movie! I will watch it everytime that it comes on during the Xmas season. Then when it comes on for 24 hours I will sit there and watch it over and over again. It just isn't Christmas without Ralphie shooting his eye out.

Van Pham said...

My favorite this about holidays/Christmas is spending time with family and vacation break (no school) :)


Van

Patricia JL said...

My favorite thing about Christmas is no matter how old I get or know what I'm getting or that Santa is really my parents I still get excited the night before. I'm always laying awake, unable to fall asleep because of the excitement. It's like I never grew up in that aspect.

elaing8 said...

I only have my parents left to shop for..all the siblings and nieces and nephews are done.

My favorite things about Christmas..my nieces and nephews coming over and helping me bake all the xmas goodies,which I end up making double batches because they eat more than they help.lol.
I love the Christmas music..I find myself only listening to it for weeks before xmas.Love I want A Hippopotamus for Christmas and Whiter Christmas.
My favorite movie is A Christmas Story.I even got my niece loving it.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!

heatwave16 said...

My favorite part is getting to to go home & spend time with all my friends and family. I only get to see them at Christmas, so we laugh...and eat of course. :)

Stephanie M said...

My favorite part is being able to relax with my family. There is no school and no other stress. I love shopping for all of my loved ones. Happy Holidays!

Sheree said...

Part of Christmas for me is watching "A Christmas Story" and the Yule Log on the television. My other favorite is the original Grinch with Boris Karloff. Chuck Jones did such a wonderful job with the animation; the Grinch's smile used to make me cringe when I was young.

I also love the after-Christmas sales!

ironss[at]gmail.com

Casey H said...

Elf is my absolute FAVORITE Christmas movie ever!! My favorite thing about December though, is that my birthday is also in this
month so I get lots of presents!!

c4casey(at)comcast(dot)net

Sweet Rachel! said...

I love getting a gift for someone you Know they are going to love!
I also always participate in Operation Christmas Child.

mariska said...

Holiday means No works :) and (maybe) there'll be a package of books from Secret santa *grins*

but with this new born baby, i guess i will still awake all nights !

uniquas at ymail dot com

Claire Dawn said...

I love A MOM FOR CHRISTMAS :) HOME ALONE isn't bad either :)

I love love love Chritsmas music. All I want for Christmas is you, Santa Baby, Santa got run over by a reindeer, etc.

I'm in Jpana now, so I'm missing out, but I go home next week. YAY!

Jackie Uhrmacher said...

Toying with my son is the best part of Christmas. He's in that horrible toddler phase where if he gets in trouble, he acts like it's no big deal. Now that it's Christmas time, I can use Santa as a threat. Horrible, I know, but it works!
Me: Pick up your toys.
Him: Um, probably not.
Me: Santa is watching...
I swear, the boy can FLY when you bring up Santa. hehe