Happy Tuesday! It’s been a hectic weekend which carried over into Monday and thankfully I’ve had a chance to sit and rest in front of the computer. With only a few more weeks before the end of the year, that means only a few more Foodie Freebie Fridays left to close out 2009!
Before moving to Chicago, I lived up in the far north suburbs and used to work for Lambs Farm, a place that empowers an extraordinary group of more than 250 people with developmental disabilities to lead personally fulfilling lives. I worked there for quite a few years with one of my best friends, Heather, before she lost her battle against diabetes at the young age of 24. After Heather passed, I had difficulty continuing to work there because of the memories I had with Heather as we worked side by side with the residents of Lambs Farm. I still remember Heather and all the fun we had growing up. One of my favorite memories was during the holidays when we would get together and make cookies, admire her mom’s Christmas decor around the house (and her love of snowmen!) as well as help the Lambs Farm residents with their holiday parties.
Speaking of Lambs Farm, the residents of Lambs Farm worked at a nearby place called The Popcorn Factory. This company specializes in some delicious popcorn confections and I especially loved how they were able to give jobs to those who had developmental disabilities. During the holidays, The Popcorn Factory has these great food treats and for this week’s Foodie Freebie, a lucky reader will be receiving the following Popcorn Factory goodies:
It’s their exclusive 2 Gallon Candy Cane Snowman design tin filled with their best wishes. Inside you’ll find bags of their premium Cheese, White Cheddar and secret-recipe Caramel Corn along with chocolate chip cookies, honey roast peanuts, mini pretzels, foil-wrapped chocolates, candy cane twists and two snowman butter cookies. A holiday party in a tin!
– Giveaway is only for those who live in the United States – my apologies to my international readers!
– You must check back on my blog on Friday to see if you’ve won so you can claim your prize!
To enter the giveaway, leave a comment answering:
– What fond holiday memory or tradition do you enjoy doing each year?
Deadline: Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 12 midnight CST.
ONE WINNER will be randomly chosen by Random. Org’s Interger Generator based on the number of your comment and will be announced on Friday, December 11, 2009. Good luck!
Celebrating my mom's birthday every Christmas eve. Then sleeping in on Xmas morning and having pecan rolls for breakfast!
I am actually excited to start new traditions this year with my husband…it's our first Christmas together! 🙂
Yum! What a great giveaway!
My favorite holiday tradition is when my Husband and I cut down our Christmas tree every year the day after Thanksgiving. We love having a tree in the house and like to have it up for as long as possible!
Every year we spend Christmas eve at my grandmothers house. The house is packed with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc…
A tradition I have is to open gifts on christmas eve and I love it. it's just fun.
-Lauren
lauren51990 AT aol DOT com
I've started preparing a big Christmas breakfast for anyone who wants be there. It's a great new tradition that I really enjoy.
I love decorating the tree and drinking hot chocolate while listening to Christmas music!!! 🙂
I love wrapping gifts. I like to take pride in making packaging appealing and cute!
I LOVE the Popcorn Factory!
My favorite holiday family tradition is going out with my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and my husband to a fancy dinner every Christmas Eve! We go to a VERY fancy restaurant, spare no expense, eat awesome food and we each get to bring a gift to open. Then, we go to my parents' house and play board games all night. It's so much fun because all six of us get to be together for an entire evening and we all have a great time! 🙂
-Lisa
(the_boda@hotmail.com)
One of my most fond memories is of decorating cookies and giving them out to friends & family. My parents did it with my brother & I and now my husband and I do it together.
I like driving around and looking at xmas lights when I'm home with the family.
Every year we hide a tiny green pickle ornament on the tree and whoever finds it wins an extra gift! My sister always beats me 🙂
My fondest moment is waking up Christmas morning with my brothers and running downstairs to open our stockings. I loved believing in Santa.
I enjoy baking Christmas cookies for gifts and making chicken arroz caldo.
I love making cookies with my mom.
I love swedish pancakes christmas morning
I enjoy having Christmas dinner with my family. There's always a wonderful rib roast.
Me and my family do bingo every year, and I always make treats to the person to win!
We always open one present on Christmas Eve after midnight mass. It's a part of the holidays I look forward to most!
I like trimming the tree. Most of my family disliked the "chore" of decorating the tree, so I get to do almost all of it myself.
When I was little, we were allowed to open up our stockings when we first woke up before our parents woke up. Running downstairs and tearing into those treats were the best.
My favorite new tradition – appetizer dinner on Christmas Eve. We love trying new things and were always stuffed by the time we made it to the main course. So we did away with the meal and beefed up the appetizers. It's a great way to be able to spend some great time together and try lots of good food.
My family and I visit Lamb's farm often. What a wonderful place with a wonderful mission.
Great tratitions for my family include a rowdy night of game playing at my mom's house. We all spend the night, wake up to a great breakfast and open our stockings. I love waking up there on Christmas morning. It makes me feel like a kid again.
Allison
amitrick@yahoo.com
We roast a pig for the 24th, and it's one massive feast with my husband's family. My mom & sis get to enjoy it for the first time this year, so I'm pretty excited to share it with both sides of my family!!!
I love making warm rolls with homemade cranberry sauce for breakfast, we only do this from Thanksgiving to Christmas; so I look forward to it every year.
Christmas Eve at my mom's house with my entire extended family. We start out around 4 in the afternoon and usually don't wrap things up til well after midnight. Family and food, it does get much better than that!
I love baking the sweets for our family Christmas celebration!! It's usually a big production for me, but last year I had 12 different cookies, cakes and candies. This year should be no different!
There's the obvious decorating of the Christmas Tree, Christmas Eve Dinner, Opening presents around the tree…
But I think my favorite has to be the looks on my family's faces when they eat what I make to take to Christmas Dinner – it's the one day of the year I get to be a star.
Every year for Christmas breakfast I make a French Toast bake but use a different recipe each year. There are so many to choose from.
My favorite thing to do during the holiday season is devote one Saturday to baking Christmas cookies and then delivering them to all of our neighbors. It is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun!
I love going out with my husband and getting our tree each year and then coming home and decorating it while he puts up the lights on the house.
I love going to a movie with the family on Christmas Eve. Then we go home and read the Christmas story in the Bible followed by the opening of our matching pjs! Lots of great memories!
I know this is so shameful for a foodie to admit, but as a child every Christmas morning my grandmother would make Grands Cinnamon Rolls because they were quick and easy and she would be spending the rest of the day making everything homemade. So now as an adult, we still do the same thing and I love it. It's the tradition that makes them taste so delicious!
Christmas Eve with my family – evening mass at my Grandmother's church, then dinner at my mom's house with her side of the family. It is often the only time I see some of that family each year!
I have to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Growing up I always made my family go out and get our tree the day after Thanksgiving.
Decorating the Christmas tree. Getting out our ornaments and going through each of them. Remembering any special memories that go along with the ornaments.
As a kid, my grandfather used to put on his best Cajun accent and read The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I love cooking Christmas Eve dinner for my family.
I have so many wonderful Christmas traditions. One of my favorites is Christmas Eve service at church, especially singing Silent Night while lighting candles.
Braving the cold to see the State Street windows, then going home and baking holiday cookies with my mom- every year for a LOT of years!
I enjoy cookie baking weekend with my family – a whole weekend of yummy treats!!
I love baking cookies with my kids. They're grown now, but it's still a fun time, especially when we're decorating cutouts.
I used to love waking up early. Then our parents would make us wait at the top of the stairs until they got their coffee, then take pictures of us as we ran down the stairs and saw all the gifts under the tree. 🙂
on christmas eve i enjoy eating a feat of 7 fishes at my parent's house and then reading a night before christmas!!!!
One of my favorite holiday traditions is not putting Baby Jesus in the nativity scene until Christmas Day. Adults think it's so wierd when they come over and he's just… "missing," but growing up, my parents always said that he wasn't in the manger until Christmas Day because that's when he was born. Duh! I love this tradition and cant' wait to share it with our future children someday.
I love having Christmas Day breakfast with the whole family. I'm in charge of the eggs!
My best memory is my Mom allowing us to open 1 gift on Christmas eve before we went to midnight mass.
thanks much
Shopping for gifts and baking lots and lots of treats.
i dont have many memories for year after year because our traditions changed after moving to another state away from family. but i do have to say that being at mass will always be a fond memory.
Every year after my husband and I get the tree decorated, we turn off all the lights in the apartment – except for the lights on the tree. It's so pretty and peaceful, and a nice "us" moment.
making cut out cookies and spritz cookies with my mom and dad
We are in the process of creating our own family traditions. One of the things that my husband and I started when we were dating was selecting a night, getting coffee from our favorite coffee shop and drive around looking at Christmas lights listening to Christmas music. Its going to be so fun this year with our son who is not quite two years old.
I love going out for dinner and a movie with my family on xmas eve. You wouldn't believe how many people are out and everyone is in such good spirits too!
My brother and I always make mom breakfast on Christmas morning (and have been doing so for a long, long time). I make the eggs, he makes the bacon. We're a good team. 🙂
My mom always lets my sister and I open one gift on Christmas Eve (the rest we open on Christmas day). It is always pj's, but its always one of my favorite gifts!
Making cut out cookies because they are my mom's favorite.
My Dad would have a list of everything that everyone was getting that year for gifts. He would wrap each present and then number the gift.
I loved trying to find his secret hiding spot for the list. I know – I should have been on Santa's Naughty List! LOL
My favorite Christmas tradition is cooking for the holidays when I'm home with my mom. I miss that everyday 😉
Making homemade doughnuts with the inlaws 🙂
When I was little I would get gifts from our dog and cats! I loved opening them, and see what Blackie and Sam picked out for me! I carry on that tradition with my kids still, they are 32 and 30, and they get a big kick out it!
Putting up the Charlie Brown and Lucy cut outs in the front yard with a Santa Claus cut out….my dad also made a big green board and put a train on it and we sat the tree in the middle and the train went around the tree.
I love wrapping presents, while the tree is all lit up and watching the christmas specials.
My favorite tradition is going to visit the local zoo as they to "Lights at the Zoo" where the whole place is decorated incredibly! Although, I do think I'll be starting a new tradition as I LOVE the one above about placing baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas day, I think that would be very memorable for my daughters 🙂
Midnight mass and evergreen scent from Christmas trees.
I love going to chop down our tree. It's a fun tradition and I love to make the decision with my hubs and my almost 3 year old son.
I love the tradition of my annual cookie exchange with all my friends!
for years on Christmas Eve my family (grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins) get together at my grandfathers house. My mom and aunts and gram would be in the kitchen cooking… uncle and grandfather watching a game.. and us grandkids would run around playing. we would all sit down to eat, and then exchange gifts within the family. then everyone would go home before santa flew by. In the morning after we unwrapped gifts everyone went back over to grandpa's for left over and lunch. As us grandkids have all gotten older, its not quite the same. but those were wonderful memories!
We're a weird family. My sister and my mom and I compete to see who can wrap the prettiest presents. It's silly, but it's so much fun to see how creative we can get!
Although it's time-consuming, I always write out my holiday cards in early December. It's so nice to send hand-written notes to friends who live far away, and it's even better to hear back from them!
evitawylie at hotmail dot com
Decorating sugar cookies and making gingerbread houses!
New jammies for the kids.
I love baking cookies for the neighbors!
definitely cookie making!