I get an email summary, it's rather generic, about how many visitors I have had on my blog every week. It doesn't give specifics about where they come from, it just gives numbers. I'm always astounded that it's more than 10. I'm so grateful that I can write and share (too much sometimes?) and have others be a part of my ridiculously boring life. The feedback to some of my posts is invaluable. I am grateful for you, my faithful readers. This is my MerryChristmasILoveYouThanksForReading gift to you!
This is what could be yours:
This is a vintage Christmas paint can made by my crafty friend, Misty. These are great as housewarming gifts filled with towels or utensils. These cans make darling baby gifts (she makes different patterns for different holidays/occasions), or put some chocolate in it and it's the perfect teacher gift! I bought this same pattern a few years ago from Misty and I use it at Christmas time for my big kitchen utensils on my countertop. The current vintage Christmas can may vary slightly from this one.
I will fill your vintage Christmas can with a jar of peppermint snow from Williams Sonoma. These are great to sprinkle onto brownies or cookies or even into hot chocolate. I suppose you could just take a spoonful and eat it and it would be heavenly but I am just taking a wild guess about that. 'Cause I've never ever ever done that before. Well, just once.
In addition to your peppermint snow, your can will have peppermint North Poles, too. If you haven't had these, you've been missing out! They are candy-coated peppermint sticks that are a Williams Sonoma exclusive. They are great for stirring hot chocolate or tying onto the top of a package or just sitting in front of the TV and eating! The kids love these.
All you need to do to enter this giveaway is:
- become a fan on our facebook page by clicking the vertical blue and white facebook banner over there to the right and then clicking "like"
AND
- leave a comment on this blog post. I would love if in your comment you'd share with me one of your most favorite family Christmas traditions.
My trusty helper, Miss Drew, will draw a name out of a hat on Thanksgiving Day. You have until then to enter. Pass this on to your friends!
Mwah! Big kisses to you, my readers.
*If you are interested in seeing more of Misty's crafty cans or want to get in touch with her, leave a message for me on the Peters Party of 5 facebook page. Thanks!
Remember, you can vote once a day. Everyday you check in and read a new blog post, please click the banner below. Big mommy hugs to all who vote.
Our favorite tradition is to watch A Christmas Story for all 24 hours (except for sleeping) that TBS runs it starting Christmas Eve.
ReplyDeleteWe also have an old, artsy movie theater in town that plays a double feature of A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life. Mike and I have only been once (that was pre-Nate) but we're going to take Nate to the theater this year to at least see ACS on the big screen.
I also only make toffee around Christmas time. Those few weeks do enough damage to my girlish (ha!) figure that I couldn't sustain that year round. It just feels like Christmas when I eat it.
Oh - and we drive through the holiday lights at the Botanical Garden. Nate loved it last year because of the lights and the even more important no seatbelt, sit on someone's lap in the car treat. This year we are going to ride the tram through - hopefully that will be a new tradition.
Ahhhh, I love Christmas.
we take the kids to look at christmas lights all around town on christmas eve. the kids and i also make jello (santa's) cookies.
ReplyDeletep.s.
im not posting to win, so keep my name out of the drawing, lol.
One of my favorites is when my mom's side of the family all get together and each person puts up his/her ginormous stocking (the bigger the better), and we fill each one to the top. Imagine 30+ stockings on the stairs railings.
ReplyDeleteWe're starting new traditions this year. It's the first year we haven't traveled in a long long time. Right now we're eyeball deep in crafts. Skyler is in heaven!
ReplyDeleteSanta leaves a trail of candy canes starting from each childs room and ending at the gifts from Santa. The first year Santa left the trail, Brennen was three and he said, "I don't think Santa came this year!" He has since caught on. Your blogs are always a good read. Thanks Ashley!
ReplyDeleteOMG Pillsbury giant cinnamon rolls Christmas morning, with lots of frosting! Can't wait! Happy Holidays Ashley!
ReplyDeleteWe're starting a new tradition this year of cutting down a real Christmas tree. We've always had an artificial one. We'll see how this goes with an almost 4 year old, a 1 1/2 year old and a 7 month old =)
ReplyDeleteaahhhh! pick me again!! :-)
ReplyDeletei think my favorite christmas tradition happens on christmas eve. we pack up and go to church and then head over to brian's grandparents' house. the girls are all dressed up in their holiday best and we get to spend time with family we literally only see on christmas eve. then we go home and read a couple of christmas books before bed (ending with "the night before christmas" of course!). and since last year was our first christmas together as our own little family where charlotte understood what was happening and opened her own gifts, we took our time opening presents, letting her play with things as she wanted. it took until lunchtime to get all of her toys opened, but i wouldn't have had it any other way.
I must say those cans are fab!!! Yay Misty! Our traditions have changed since we moved back here. We used to cut down our tree (in Escondido in 80 degree weather!)Now my favorite thing is the Christmas breakfast. Everyone comes over early in the morning to see what santa brought the kids and we eat a lot. Just so we can eat again later!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't always comment on your blogs but I have been a faithful reader(and I vote daily since you posted the link about that too)I absolutely love to read about your daily life. I am very grateful that I can read that I am not alone in many of these situations. Thank you very much for that.
ReplyDeleteNow for our Christmas tradition we have just one that is very faithful and that is that we all gather together on Christmas Eve (about 25 of us) and we get to open one present of our choosing. The kids love it and always try to open more. Then we all sit around and watch A Christmas Story on TV while drinking hot coco with marshmallows in it and eat cookies.
I love reading your blog too, and I enjoy talking to your mom at work about it. It gives me comfort to know that another mom has the same feelings as I do at times and cares for her family so much too.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to this Christmas this year, because it'll be our first one at home with the kiddos. The past three years we've gone out of town to families houses. I'm really looking forward to starting some of own traditions this year with our munchkins. I'm planning on sprinkling gold glitter on the gifts that Santa brings, I know it'll be a mess, but it's worth it and that's what vacuums are for. Tommy & I also love watching the movie, Christmas vacation, he laugh every time.
So cute!
ReplyDeleteWe have a few traditions. We take the boys to see lights each year with my best friend and her daughter. They love it! We do Elf on the Shelf. I love that! We buy a new ornament each year, one that represents something we did or something the boys loved this past year. We decorate our tree together. We spend every Christmas Eve with my mom. Every Christmas morning just the 4 of us, Christmas day at my grandmas, and Christmas night at his mom's. It's perfect!
I love the holiday season!
One of my favorites is when Sam the Elf (the Elf on the Shelf) comes to live with us sometime around Thanksgiving. He stays here each day and watches the girls. Each night he flies back to the North Pole to inform Santa of the good and not so good behavior. Then each morning he returns to a new location in the house. It's so fun to see them seek him out! Plus, they are extra good girlies knowing that Sanat has sent a spy :)
ReplyDeleteOur favorite tradition is to spend hours baking cookies with the kids by the time we are done the kitchen is a wreck and the kids are high on sugar...it memories like this I will never forget...The other tradition we have is to do a scavenger hunt by following the riddle Santa left for the kids to find there main present..one time the bike ended up on top of the roof next the the chimney...
ReplyDeleteyou know i love ur blog...altho i cant read daily & usually read a week at a time to catch up! You amaze me with your blunt honesty, so many moms sugar coat things as tho life is perfect and their kids are perfect and their laudry folds itself! Kudos to u for keepin it real!
ReplyDeleteWe have so many xmas traditions that mean so much to me, we always decorate the house the day after thanksgiving, and the girls actually get along, smile & help! A few weeeks before Xmas, we all work together on a gingerbread house, that usually looks like a crazy shack when its done, but i take tons of pics & enjoy every minute...even when i see aubrey eating more candy then she decorates with!
We watch "the Christmas Story" atleast 25 times during the month! We watch Charlie Brown Christmas in our bed with popcorn & m&m's...on regular tv with commercials, even tho we own the dvd!
We each pick out a new personal ornament every year so when you look at our tree it tells a story of our lives!
On Xmas Eve we all go to a Candle-Lit Church Service, when we get home the kids make "reindeer food" out of oatmeal & glitter and sprinkle it in the grass! (the glitter helps the reindeers see where to land) and the oatmeal is for them to eat....every xmas mornng the oatmeal is gone, and our lawn in a glittery wonderland...strange hu?
On xmas morning i bake cinnamon & orange danish rolls & hot cocoa with whipped cream, we open our stockings (from santa) in our pjs at the crack of dawn!
Ok..u just put me in the xmas spirit with this blog!
Sorry for the rambling on...love ya, xoxo
One of my favorite holiday past times is to bake cookies with my mom. We bake them all, from sugar to chocolate chip, peanut butter to persimmon (yeah a fruit cookie!). My daughter now also loves to bake with my mom. Its just nice filling the house with lovely smells. One year I was talking about sugar cookies and called them sugie cookers... it is now a running family joke.
ReplyDeletetradition for the holidays is simply to cook, cook and cook so more! we love to cook and the holidays are a wonderful reason!
ReplyDeleteWe don't celebrate Christmas but we do make a point to tape the 25 days of Christmas on ABC Family. We watch the classic Christmas cartoons over and over. The boys love the Miser brothers the best.
ReplyDeleteThis year we might attempt to make different cookies with the boys.
Amy
We love to decorate sugar cookies, watch the 'classic' Christmas movies, go to an awesome local neighborhood to look at lights & go to Christmas Eve church.
ReplyDeleteChristmas has always been celebrated at my parents house. Decorating the tree, baking and decorating sugar cookies and singing carols. But my favorite tradition is watching the classic reading of "The Night Before Christmas" read by my brother. 1989, I was 4 and my brother 9. My mother's shoulder length perm, my father's scruffy beard, and big brightly colored lights on the tree made this video. Being 4 years old and having a "mild" case of ADHD, I was a little fidgety but so darn cute. I love Christmas! Merry Christmas Peter's Family! From, The Cross'
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite traditions to start with my son was collecting all the change we found for the year in a jar...hiding the pickle ornament on the tree for one lucky person to find on Christmas morning. Finder of the pickle got to decide how the money would be used for something fun the family could do together. An old tradition I found on the Internet...with the story of the pickle. He loved it!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is great BTW...I love your witty sense of humor!
Mom's homemade cinnamon rolls. Drive around and look at the lights. Waiting til Christmas morning to open presents. Watch Christmas Story at least once, Grinch that stole Christmas, all the Santa Clause movies. Tis the season....
ReplyDeleteI have saved most of my kids Christmas art since they were in preschool. I have it all laminated and I hang it on the hallway walls every year.For me, the Christmas season doesn't start until it's hanging.
ReplyDeleteI hope your family has the best Christmas ever.
Terri Allan