Holiday Traditions

My favorite holiday tradition is the advent chain I make for my kids. I cut twenty-four pieces of construction paper, write a holiday activity on each one, and then staple them together into a chain. Each morning the kids take turns tearing off a piece of the chain and that's our activity for the day.

Weekdays are pretty busy around here, so I keep the activities short: do a treasure hunt, read the nativity story together, or put candy canes on the Christmas tree. Weekends we can do more time-consuming activities like making Christmas cookies or having a family game day. We've been doing this since my kids were little. I figured they'd get tired of it eventually, but now they're teenagers and they're still excited to pull off the chain every morning.

What traditions do you share with your family during the holiday season - whichever holiday you celebrate?

I'm going to take the rest of the year off blogging to spend time with my kids over their break from school, so happy holidays to you all! See you in January!

Christmas Break

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

First off, some good news: I was one of ten winners of Elana Johnson's Query Letter Giveaway last week - I won a query letter critique by the fabulous Elana Johnson!

Secondly, I'll be taking a blogging break and attempting to stay off the computer (ha!) to spend the holidays with my family and enjoy my kids' winter break from school.

Merry Christmas to you all! See you in January!

Holiday Spirit

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now that Thanksgiving's come and gone, it's time for the burning question: Have you started your Christmas shopping? Other than a few small things here and there, I haven't. I haven't put up a single decoration, taken the Christmas card photo, or listened to a carol. I'm sure my holiday spirit will get here eventually, but it's a little slow coming this year.

How about you? Are you in the holiday spirit? Or how about the winter spirit? Winter is my least favorite season, but my son loves it. He watches the weather constantly, looking for snow in the forecast (none yet, thank goodness!) Have you had any snow where you live? If not, are you looking forward to it?