And The Winner Is.......

We loved reading each of the entries but one stood out for the boyz. I had an idea they would like this one also.

The winner is JEN! Your Daffins Chocolate Covered Pretzels will be on the way shortly. Please email me with your mailing address - mumof3boyz-at-hotmail-dot-com.

The boyz loved her tradition so much that we are going to do it tomorrow at our New Year's Dinner. And then next year we will do it at both of our Christmas's.

Here are the entries that were received.

From Jen:

Our tradition has always been to have Christmas on Christmas Eve with my side of the family. We eat chili and soup and snacky-type foods at my parent's house. Then we open presents. It is a very casual get together.

The funnest part is that we all bring a "white elephant" gift and play a game where we can steal gifts from each other. It is hilarious to see what presents we fight over. (You can't unwrap the gifts until the timer goes off.) There are some nice gifts and some really dorky ones - there are no rules on what goes in the gift pile. It almost always ends up though, that people fight over something the looks nice on the outside of the package and ends up being something goofy like a can of corn or a roll of TP.

There you have it... our redneck Christmas tradition!

From Manda:

Our tradition was as follows: back when I was little & we were really hurting for money (we didn't have a car if that gives you any idea) my mom taped a lot of Christmas movies onto one VHS tape. This was our Christmas Tape. There were grainy lines across the screen, bits missing where the VCR had cut out or where "play" hadn't been hit quickly enough after commercials, etc.

We loved our Christmas Tape, though. My brother & I played it every December, watching one movie per week to make it last until Christmas. Years and years later, when the financial difficulties were a thing of the past, we still watched our Christmas Tape.

From Jean:

We have stockings that my mother has made, starting with my brother and me. She puts little miniatures on them when something important happens in that year.. like a baby when we had kids, a diploma when we graduated, a nurse when I graduated nursing school, an orange when I moved to Florida... you get the picture.. I'm going to post about them..

We also always open one present on Christmas Eve.. now only the kids do it.. and it's always Christmas pajamas.. We have lots of traditions.. they're fun.

From Becca:

Our tradition is that we do cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate every Christmas morning. It is one of those things that we have shared ever since we had our first Christmas together.

We also do one funny Christmas card and one sentimental card. I have no idea how that started but that is something that has stuck with us.

From Vonnie:

At our house my kids have stockings that my mother made for them as babies, we have knephla soup sometime during the hoiday, ( it's a German dish with potatoes, carrots, and dough dumplings), and many other once a year goodies. This yr the kids started something new and it was a hit! All four are grown, 2 married and the younger 2 in college. They and spouses draw names for gift giving.

This year they decided that the gifts have to start with the first letter of our last name, next year the second letter, etc...What a hoot! There was alot of creativity used too! ex: a Super Small Snazzy umbrella for a daughter in law who asked for a purse sized umbrella. It was fun and added a little more thought into gift giving this year.

We had such fun learning about everyone's different traditions and we got a lot of great ideas as well as learned a little more about you.

Thank you all for participating. Although Jen is the big winner, I have a little something for the rest of you also. Please email me with you mailing address when you get a chance.

Hope you are having a wonderful New Years!

Stacy