So lets get to Day 4!!! Today's giveaway is sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts. Thank you so much to Clint and Judi for her wonderful sponsorship of today's fantastic giveaway!!! Now you all picked a some great things that you loved from Judi and Clint's shop. Some of the favorites included . . .
Judi's Amazing Book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces
Bella Solids Pre-Cuts
Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors
But in the end, the favorite's were the Christmas Pre-Cuts and so the Mother's Day Wish List giveaway for today is . . .
I love all things BasicGrey and this line is no exception!!! So what do you have to do for a chance to win this festive Layer Cake?? Easy.
Since this week is all about Mom's, your comments will be all about your mom ;) Whether she is still with us today or not, this week will be all about pondering over her and treasuring the memories you have together.
So for today's entry, leave me a comment of a favorite Christmas Memory of your mom. For mine . . . My mother always made us a new pair of pj's that we got to open on Christmas Eve and wear on that night to bed. I loved having new pj's each Christmas Morning. I loved that they matched all of my sisters. And I really liked getting to open a present a day early, even if I already knew what it was :)
Please, one entry per person and international entries are welcome. The Giveaway will be open until Mother's Day and I will draw all the winners from the entire week on the 12th.
Be sure to pop back in tomorrow for Day 5 of the Mother's Day Giveaway Celebration for another fantastic giveaway, and just in case you missed the previous days, here is a quick reference. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!
My favorite memory of Mom and Christmas is the mandel cookies that she made every Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great giveaway
This is a recent memory, about 3 xmas's ago, My mom spent xmas with us for the first time as me being an adult and I was 46 at the time, she lives far away and now with my kids grown and grandbabies I was able to show her what a real xmas was.. and she loved it, I had made her a quilt also, it was the ornamental quilt and she says she never puts it up. It wasnt done in xmas colors, it was Vintage Modern by Moda.
ReplyDeleteI always loved the eggnog French toast my mom would make after we opened presents.
ReplyDeleteI am Dutch and my mom too, we donot celebrate Christmas with gifts. In the Netherlands we have Sinterklaas. You have to make a poem and a item what says something about the person who get the present. My mother loves this. Every room locked because of the work in progress. Christmas is for us the birth of the Lord Jesus. Thans for the chance!
ReplyDeleteShe did all the shopping, cooking, preparing. She also had to have the tree decorated just right. Somehow she did it.
ReplyDelete24Tangent "at" gmail "dot" com
At Christmas, my Mom was in her element! She went all out and was at her happiest. But, my favorite memory would be baking Christmas cookies together.
ReplyDeleteMy mom liked Sandinavian traditions. We got to open a small gift once a week before Christmas. We opened family gifts from each other on Christmas Eve before bed, then watched A Christmas Carol. Then we picked a place to stack our gifts, so that Santa could know which pile was ours and leave our gifts all together. (Instead of leaving a shoe.) my mom always stuffed our stockings full of chocolate and an orange in the toe...no toys, just treats!
ReplyDeleteAfter my divorce I found a black and white kitty that I fell in love with. I named her Spunky and she was my best friend as I healed from my divorce. I remarried but Spunky was always my cat. We had to put her to sleep because we found a lump under her chin. It was cancer. I cried for 2 days. For Christmas that year, my Mom bought me a stuffed black and white stuffed fat cat in her honor. I just thought that was the best present ever. Thank you and your sponsors for such an awesome and generous giveaways for Mother's Day. I hope you have a wonderful day yourself. You certainly deserve it.
ReplyDeleteSandi TImmons
sandit1@sbcglobal.net
One Christmas my mum cooked an ox tongue from the freezer instead of Christmas pudding They were in the same unmarked bowls!!!
ReplyDeleteHands down my best Christmas memory of my mother was my son's first Christmas. We lived far apart, but we stayed with my parents for several days at Christmas. My son was her first grandchild and she was absolutely thrilled. He was only a couple months old at the time and she hugged on him every possible minute. She died suddenly when he was just 2 so it was even more special than we realized at the time. He was her only grandchild born before she died and I am so happy she had at least a short time with him.
ReplyDeleteMy mom had two nativity sets, one fragile one and one that we could touch and play with. It was a just a cheap plastic thing but when I was a child it was such an amazing thing to move the pieces around and play the story out over and over again.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was so creative at Christmas - to ensure that the holiday was magical for us kids she made sure that Santa's presence was known each year - one time "he" even got some white fur from his suit stuck in our sliding door the year we lived in an apartment (I had been worried he couldn't get in without a chimney, but "he" found a way in just as she promised).
ReplyDeleteYesterday, my comment was in the 200's. Today it's before 10! I'm on the ball this morning... ;)
ReplyDeleteWe had homemade ornaments for our tree. Some were of wood that were bought, but still made by hand. Other were ones that my sister and I had made for and with my mother. We always had a real tree and would tramp out to the tree farm to pick out and buy our tree about a week or so after Thanksgiving. We would haul it home, put it up and decorate it. We would crank up the Christmas songs, eat complete junk for supper (something that we NEVER did, except for this night), and decorate the tree. My mother remarried when I was 9 and while our tradition changed some with my step dad around, it was only minimal (like there was no more struggling to get that tree on top of the car!).
Ha! I guess I took too long to write, for I'm not in the 10's anymore! :)
DeleteI love the Christmas my Mom dressed up as Mrs. Claus to help my Dad (who was dressed as Santa) deliver gifts to the kids at the elementary school that my Dad worked at. She looked so cute! Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI still remember the Christmas that my dad bought my mom a mink stole. How extravagant.
ReplyDeleteI have many wonderful memories of my mother at Christmas time, but probably one of the best was when she would gathered all six of her children in the kitchen for baking. We were each given a different batch of cookies to do. We helped with the making of candy, the rolling of cinnamon rolls, and the frosting of the sugar cookies. Looking back Iam sure we were much more of a hindrance then a help, but mom always included us and made us feel like our part was soo important. The house would smell heavenly for 3 days or so why we got it all done. I repeated this tradition with my own kids, and now they do it with theirs.
ReplyDeleteAn orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking! And then note pads and scotch tape, crayons. I always looked forward to the stockings and I still do to this day.
ReplyDeleteUp until I was around 9 or 10 we never had a Christmas tree. My mum used to cut pieces from our holly tree and put them in a pot. It was always quite small and made putting the decorations on a tricky business! I swear ours was the only holly tree I have ever seen in a garden here in Australia, I don't know what Mum was thinking! I guess it kept us away from touching the tree when we were small!
ReplyDeleteTwo years in a row, when I was much younger, Mom made us matching Mommy and Me dresses.... They were a hit at the church Christmas program :)
ReplyDeleteMy mom would always curl our hair for Christmas. We'd sleep overnight in rollers and be ready and bouncy for the new day. =) Thank you for a lovely giveaway.
ReplyDeleteThis is my absolute favourite Christmas memory as well as one of my favourite mum memories of all. I was about 26 and my mum had bought all my gifts well in advance and I knew what they were. I didn't feel too badly about it, but she felt like I wouldn't have anything to 'open' on Christmas Day, so on Christmas Eve she ran into KMart while my sister was at the grocery store next door and picked up some stuff. On Christmas Day I got a ice scrapper/brush, a nail file, nail clippers and oven mitts. It was one of the best Christmas set of gifts I'd ever received. What she bought didn't matter, but that she still saw me as a little girl to have something to open on Christmas Day. That being said I still have the ice scraper and still use it every horrid Iowa winter.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom made sure there were the biggest best Naval Oranges in my stocking. I loved these beyond best. I always have a big bowl on my table at Christmas for me (and others) to enjoy, the smell as I peel them remind me of how wonderful my Mom was.
ReplyDeleteMy mom is really health conscious, so we never got candy in our stockings. Instead, we got fruit, like pomegranates, oranges, apples, etc. we all loved fruit, so missing out on candy wasn't a big deal!
ReplyDeleteHands down my momma's pies!! Not just Christmas but thanksgiving too. She makes at least 10 homemade pies with homemade crust!! Apple, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, oatmeal, raisin... Awwwww I can smell them now!
ReplyDeleteMy Mom always made lots of yummy Christmas cookies ahead of time. She had a cookie press, and even made those pretty pressed flowers with tinted dough! It amazes me that she managed all of her baking, as she was an R.N. and worked nights - the 11:30 to 8 a.m. shift!
ReplyDeleteEven though there were five kids and we didn't have a lot of money, my mom always made Christmas special. On Christmas Eve, we were allowed to open one small gift. I kept that tradition with my own kids.
ReplyDeleteMine would be the Monchhichi story. I was little and we were so poor my mom couldnt get us much. But one day in K-mart I fell in love with a Monchhichi. At the time her job was a waitress at a village inn. She worked so late on christmas eve, but had made just enough tips to afford that doll. I dont have it anymore. But my husband found one once and bought it for me because i talk about that story all the time.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's family opened presents before Christmas mass on Christmas Eve, my father's on Christmas Day. Over my father's objections we were always allowed to open one present before midnight mass. It felt delightfully guilty as my mother would insist and hand us each a present.
ReplyDeleteWe always had cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast. We always thought that was so decadent!
ReplyDeleteMy mom always made Christmas so magical! Every detail was perfect from gifts to decor and handmade goodies to eat! Everything made with love!
ReplyDeletesatterfieldfamily at sbcglobal dot net
my mom made sooo many christmas cookies during the 2 weeks before christmas.
ReplyDeletethen we would have lots of different people come to "visit" us during christmas break and eat all the cookies
my mom is 83 and still making christmas cookies -- but on a much more reasonable scale
My Mum and I usually spend Christmas eve in the kitchen making bread sauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mince pies, shortbread and a birthday cake for the 26th. Last year was particularly good because our kitchen was about 3 times the size of the previous 25 years. We were able to sit at the new island while we cooked together and everything was so much easier with the extra space.
ReplyDeletejen dot barnard at btinternet dot com
A great memory of my mom was at Christmas one year she would not put name tags on the presents for my brother and I and It would drive us crazy not knowing. Well when it came time to open the packages she kept getting them mixed up and we were getting each other presents. Not so great at the time but looking back pretty funny. Thanks for another great giveaway!
ReplyDeleteWe would make a different kind of ornament each year -- one year it was little dough mice in walnut shell beds, another was sleds, gingerbread and stained glass window cookies to hang, origami stars. It was lots of fun! She also framed each Christmas picture and hung it on the tree the next year; I loved looking at all of years of pictures. sarah@forrussia.org
ReplyDeleteI remember Mother wanting to see all of our joy Christmas morning and having to be busy in the kitchen.preparing the bird and more. She would watch us over the kitchen sink and talk to us. She always did enjoy the holidays and more.
ReplyDeleteMy mom loves christmas music, she starts playing it at Thanksgiving. We know all the songs.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was a piano teacher so she always held a Christmas concert for her students, followed by a reception with cookies and punch. She always used her best serving dishes and linens and made everything so special. Her students and their parents really enjoyed the elegant evening.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always made us all a new holiday ornament! She also as we got older make various items - one year we all got aprons! A lot of great memories.
ReplyDeleteat play school and infants school, we made mum a wide range of decorations for the tree. Some from egg boxes, others from paper, all naff. She kept them for years and put them on the tree every year until we begged her not to!
ReplyDeleteDad would take all of us out on Christmas Eve to buy the 'special' candy canes for the tree. Every year when we got back, Santa had come. Mom was very busy while we were out, I presume. LOL Thanks for the memory.
ReplyDeleteWith my mom (and often with my dad too) we would go in the woods close to our house in the mountain to find the perfect Christmas tree! :) thanks for organizing such a fun event with a lot of memories!!
ReplyDeleteEvery year on Christmas Eve we would all go to church at midnight and after that, uncles and aunts would come back to our home for a special meal!
ReplyDeleteI loved Christmas Eve candlelight service with my family. She always cried during Silent Night, and now I do,too!
ReplyDeleteWaking up the middle of the night to a hot pink huffy bike with a radio on it and my mom letting me ride it at night. This was during the first desert storm and it as her with two kids and an infant. She was a rock through it all
ReplyDeleteMy mom, even though she worked full time as an accountant, would bake and cook for weeks in preparation for our big family Christmas Day. We would also do the Christmas shopping together, and she would decorate the house and tree while playing Andy Williams and Robert Goulet Christmas music.
ReplyDeleteI remember my mum visiting us 2 weeks before Christmas. She was supposed to go back to my dad after 10 days to spend Christmas with him. The day she went to Dublin airport to get her flight, there was a storm and after so much waiting, they closed the airport! She had to spend the night in a nearby B&B and she came back to our home the next morning. She had to spend Christmas with us, which was great, but we wished my dad had been here too… We had a lovely time, all improvised in the last minute and my daughter was delighted to have extra time with her Grandma.
ReplyDeleteI have to tell you, when Iw as growing up my mom was a single mom and we were pretty poor. She worked three jobs and at every single Christmas she did the best she could to make it special. So every single Christmas with her was great because she just tried so hard to make me happy and make it special and it was :)
ReplyDeleteI remember her baking cookies of all different types. Some she let me help her with. She didn't do much baking except at Christmas time.
ReplyDeletesyvisser@gmail(dot)com
My favourite memory of my mom is baking cookies with her. It was always so much fun.And she made always absolutely great table decorations for christmas.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be the baking!
ReplyDeleteI have SO many Christmas memories, but I love that mom always and always made us fresh pecan rolls on Christmas morning. She did a ton of Christmas baking, but the rolls were only for that day and that morning! Wow.
ReplyDeleteBaking Christmas cookies with my mom will always be a treasured memory!
ReplyDeleteChristmas Eve at home was always memorable...the incredible smells of the traditional Ukrainian meals mixed with the scent of the fresh cut Christmas trees...and Mom the center of it all.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory with my Mom was when she would get us all together to go to midnight mass. It was a really special mass to sit there with candles and then we got to stay up late too.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be the year she sat up the swing set we were getting in the living room! Or maybe the hot chocolate!? Tatc01@comcast.net
ReplyDeleteGrowing up my dad worked shift work and I remember one particular Christmas that he worked until 11:00 pm. She had us go to be and we got to get up when he came home and open presents. Hard to go to sleep but so fun to get up in middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteI love the memories of dressing the tree with my mum. We had special ornaments which went in the same spot each year (some of those made by us kids - not just pretty ones)
ReplyDeleteMother was worse than we kids about wanting to get at the gifts under the tree. 4 PM Christmas eve was a long as she could stand it...
ReplyDeleteI remember the Christmas when I was probably 7 or 8 and I came upstairs on Christmas Eve night because I heard lots of banging and clanging in the living room. Mom and Dad were sitting right there looking totally innocent (at least, to me) and they told me that I had JUST BARELY missed Santa and that I had to go back to bed. ;)
ReplyDeleteWe always had "cold drink" which was just juice kool aid and pop mixed! Mom always called it cold drink!! We always had family gatherings at Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMom, of course, was the great Christmas orchestrator in charge of shopping, wrapping, planning, and cooking. None of our great Christmases could have happened without her. I do remember the Christmas in the early 70's when there was a brand new, top of the line Viking Husqvarna sewing machine under the tree for her. My grandpa went out within weeks to get the same machine for my grandmother, and I have that machine today.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was not the cook for the family, my dad was. But, for Christmas, my mom would make a Japaneese Fruit Cake, and it was so yummy that it did not last a day. It was not like a traditional fruit cake, but was full of great combination of fruit, nuts, and coconut. I've never made it, but still have her recipee.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom started the tradition of singing the Twelve Days of Christmas - one person per verse, on Christmas Eve. There is often groaning, and occasionally someone is glad to get the "five gold rings" verse, yet we keep it up some 20 years after she passed.
ReplyDeleteThe best Christmas present ever from my mom was a chemistry set I got in 3rd grade. Smart lady to know I was ready for science. It was so cool, I made lotion for her using her My Sin (got in trouble as it was perfume, not toilet water and super expensive, but she used that lotion every day until it was gone! 9 year olds have no clue!) Loved doing science experiments with her. Miss her so much
ReplyDeleteI always remember my mom looking soooo darn exhausted on Christmas morn. Now that I am a mom, I understand that look. Up all night wrapping gifts. Love my mom!
ReplyDeleteMejayne
Jalalonde@aol.com
I loved doing Christmas baking with my mom. We would take a whole day and make turtles and buckeyes, banket, and of course decorated cut-out cookies.
ReplyDeleteWe had a tradition of having Christmas Eve at home with Mom and Dad. We always had to wait until 6;00 to have our dinner and start eating the treats! Mom started this tradition because Dad worked swing shift but always took off Christmas Eve.
ReplyDeleteMom was always so understanding when I woke her and Dad up waaaaaay before dawn to open presents. I know she was beat, but always put the coffee on and we had our Christmas before the sun came up! (She would take a nap later)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite memory was the "surprised" expression on my mom's face when she opened that box of Channel #5. The dog always tipped her off in advance to it, yet every year she would act surprised and did it so well! Next are the cinnamon rolls, made the night before and served fresh from the oven while we opened gifts. It's a tradition that I continued with my kids, and one of them does it with her kids!
ReplyDeleteMy mom never celebrated Christmas...so now I am busy making Christmas memories with my own kids. I make them PJs every year, and then we wear them all day on Christmas Day:-)
ReplyDeleteWe got to open our stockings when we woke up, which was usually at about 5:00 a.m., lol. Mom always put a mandarin orange in the toe, along with a new colouring book and crayons. I don't remember what else got tucked in, but the smell of a new box of crayons takes me back 45 years to those days, and reminds me of the absolute wonder of Santa bringing me such amazing treasures. Thanks for that, mom!
ReplyDeleteFavorite memory (which I now do with my kids) is we always made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas tradition that I have kept was on every Christmas Eve and Christmas it was a game to say "Christmas Eve Gift" or "Christmas Gift" to everyone before they could say it to you. Mom started that tradition with our family and I still do it with mine. My Mom grew up doing it also.
ReplyDeleteMy sisters and I each had a special Christmas candle that was never lit, but was only used as a decoration. Mine was in the shape of a cute little reindeer. One year when I was very young, my reindeer candle was broken off at the neck. I was very upset. My mother melted a little bit of the reindeer's neck and held it in place until the wax was cooled and hardened, and my candle was as good as new. My mom has passed away, but I still have that little candle, and I think of her whenever I see it.
ReplyDeleteMom had no self control when it came to Christmas. We almost always opened gifts - one or all - on Christmas Eve.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrated on Christmas Eve, and Mom would always put together a big spread of food. Then we'd all get dressed up, and the festivities would commence. lasting to the wee hours of the morning! Lots of fond memories, mainly because of Mom.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always hosted our family Christmas Eve, complete with homemade Chicken Noodle soup and Oyster Stew. This was her one big hosting event of the year and she always made sure to make it special. Then we got to open our immediate family gifts, while our grandparents, aunts, and uncles watched. Then we would go to Midnight Mass as a family. This was such a special time for my mom and I miss celebrating like we did just a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteYes, my mom is still with us. I don't talk with her much. There are things that have happened to make it this way.
ReplyDeleteI used to enjoy baking christmas cookies and other yummy favorite baked goods with my mom. Of course we both had to sample them to make sure they were ok to serve or give as gifts :) Whenever I bake certain things, the aroma brings back such wondrful memories of my mother.
ReplyDeletedragonfly9716 at yahoo dot com
Christmas was mom's most favorite holiday! My favorite thing was she made putting up the Christmas tree an all day event! We would play Christmas music and my sister and i would dance all around, we had yummy sweet treats, then after it was all done we would all turn out the lights and watch a movie with the Christmas lights on in the background.
ReplyDeleteI used to love making Christmas sweets with my mum.
ReplyDeleteMy mom loved holidays - she always decorated and went all out. Christmas was her favorite - she loved to set a pretty table, and had all kinds of decorations all over the house. She made it magical...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory is all the good Christmas cookies she made.
ReplyDeleteI loved getting dressed up for fancy dinner and sitting with my mom and grandmother. I loved celebrating the holiday with the two women I admired and loved most in the world.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Santa Clauses! My mom collected them and put them out each year. When she passed, my sister and I divided them up and now I put my collection across the mantle every year and remember my mom.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always worked hard to make sure Christmas was perfect. In all the years growing up I can only remember once I didn't get what I asked for, and I was about 13. She had tried everything to get it. It was a kids pottery wheel. But no one had one, and she tried ordering from Sears, and couldn't get it. When I about 25 I got on just like it for Christmas. She had been out shopping and saw it, and bought it. So it may have been late, but I always got what I wanted for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMy mum hardly ever bought sweets or chocolate but on Christmas day we were each given a Selection Box of them and could eat them all day long. x
ReplyDeleteMy mother used to bake several kinds of Christmas cookies each year. She had all of us come in the kitchen and gave us all jobs....chopping nuts, chopping dates, stirring dough, etc. It was such a fun time!
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 different Christmas memories that stick with me:)
ReplyDeleteThe first is the year my mother went from those horrible polyester pants to the jeans my dad bought her:) Loved it!!! She never went back:) yea!
Then the year she made my Barbie a whole wardrobe:) She is an amazing seamstress!
My mother, just like my grandma and great-grandma, went all out at Christmas - baking everyone's favorite cookies and breads, and making all kinds of homemade candies. I can't believe how many sweets we had around the holidays in the house. At 80, she still tries to make as many as she can!
ReplyDeleteOh, so many great Christmas memories with my mom! I'd have to say my favorite was baking cookies. We used to do the traditional sugar cookies with sprinkles, but then each of us would get to chose our favorites to make as well. I love that one so much that I've started it with my daughter now.
ReplyDeleteWith 7 kids, wrapping presents took a long time each christmas season. I spent my time devising plans to spy on my mum, peaking through windows, trying to see under the door. For some reason, I now have a reputation as a person who has to know beforehand what I am getting for Christmas! My mum had a lot of patience with me.
ReplyDeleteBaking cookies with my Mom is definitely a favorite Christmas memory, especially when we painted them with egg yolk & food coloring.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were lazy teenagers my mom would send her obnoxious little dog to bark at us to get us out of bed at the crack of dawn Christmas morning. The only thing that dog did on command...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory is decorating for Christmas, my father went out in the woods to get the tree, but my mother was in charge inside the house. She helped us kids to put all the ornaments on the tree. After we finished the decoration, we always ate some delicious Christmas cookies.
ReplyDeleteChristmas meant baking lots of cookies and making candy for gifts. It was a wonderful time. I still do it for a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a school teacher so the holidays were very busy for her leading up to those days off. She would give me a stack of boxes to wrap, and I was happy as a little clam wrapping away. Only to finally figure out that I was wrapping my own gifts too. We still laugh about it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memories about my mother all involve tree skirts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager and learning trig, she designed a octagon shaped tree skirt - and had me do the math! It made me realize that trig is actually useful.
When I got my own apartment and a very tiny (3 or maybe 4 feet?) Christmas tree, she made me a plaid tree skirt (again an octagon).
And most recently she gave me a tree skirt my grandmother made that is too small for her tastes, but perfect for my current Christmas tree tastes (about 5 feet).
jhunsberger (at) gmail (dot) com
When I was Six or Seven years old, I remember Mom sewing little Barbie clothes for Christmas...They put the recliner in front of the hallway to keep us in our rooms so it would be a surprise. crystalbluern at onlineok dot com
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get a lot of presents but I remember that my mom tried hard to get us something we would really enjoy.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite christmas memory is when my mom and two sisters and me would all pile in our car with hot cocoa and go christmas light looking.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom always filled our stocking with Oranges and Nuts and if she thought we had been good she would put in a small toy, but sometimes we found a wooden stick too!
ReplyDeleteOh man. One year, my sister and I both had jobs and we were feeling rich. We bought my mom a stand mixer and a new crock pot - both things she WANTED, not cuz we were all "Get in the kitchen, Mom; we're tired of cooking."
ReplyDeleteAnyway, we realized that the stand mixer would help out a lot for the pre-Christmas baking, so on the last day of school (she's a teacher), we put the stand mixer, unwrapped, in the front doorway and she tripped over it when she came home. She loved it.
For Christmas Day, we didn't want her guessing what we'd gotten her because she'd been pretty vocal about wanting a crock pot. So, we took the crock pot out of the box and shoved it way back under my sister's bed and wrapped the empty box. She had no idea what it was. (It was payback for putting canned green beans in the box with my teddy bear when all I wanted a few Christmases back was a big teddy bear.)
We love "disguising" presents for each other. :-)
I have any wonderful memories of baking Christmas cookies and breads with my mother. We always made sure to bake my fathers favorite cherry cookies.
ReplyDeleteMy brother's birthday is Christmas Eve, and my mom worked so hard to keep his birthday "not Christmas." No joint gifts and no Christmas gift wrap on his birthday presents. Then Christmas morning was its own giant celebration. I always admired that extra effort...which was a good thing since my oldest was born on December 27! I never worried about how to handle his birthday since I had had the perfect role model and knew exactly what to do!
ReplyDeleteThis has been the most fun giveaway. Even if my name is not picked, it has been so fun thinking about my mom all week and remembering some of the most wonderful times we've had together. THANK YOU!!!
My favorite memory of my mom at Christmas is my mom decorating the tree. She liked to have an all white and glass tree, so she had strands of pearls and baby's breath in the tree and it was just so pretty and I loved watching her put it all together.
ReplyDeleteMy mother always got us new pajamas to sleep in on Christmas Eve. We never had any presents under the tree before Christmas, so Christmas morning was always and explosion of color.
ReplyDeleteMy mother always made sweet rolls for us to eat on Christmas morning.... with the gooey caramel. Just warm out of the oven... they were the best!
ReplyDeleteSusie
For Christmas one year my mom made wedding dresses with veils for grown up dolls that stood she had bought us for our presents and worked on the dresses after we went to bed at night. I loved it so much and was really surprised on Christmas Day she had done that for us.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory of my Mom was her reading Christmas stories on Christmas Eve to myself and my brother and sister who were all bathed and bunded up in flannel pajamas. Also of her playing Christmas carols on the piano and taking requests for favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteAfter the family picked out the tree, Mom always made hot chocolate while we decorated. The kind where you heat up the milk in a pan and squirt in chocolate syrup. Then tons of mini marshmallows. Yum!!
ReplyDeleteA sweet memory is going shopping with mom and putting some things in layaway since money was tight.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory of my Mom was she was always up early on Christmas morning in her beautiful satin bathrobe with a smile on her face reflecting our excitement. She was probably up until 3am wrapping gifts and getting everything ready, but you wouldn't have known it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory of my mother is her writing me a thank you letter each Christmas Eve from "Santa" and putting it in my new house shoes. From a very early age, I recognized the hand writing as hers. One year I asked her why the hand writing looked just like hers and she was speechless!!!
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave us homemade blankets for a couple of Christmases... I wish I still had them!
ReplyDeleteMy Mom always held the "family" Christmas dinner the Sunday before Christmas, so all the family members could be free to do whatever they wanted on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A very thoughtful, caring. Mom. Miss her much!
ReplyDeleteMom always tucked tangerines or oranges into our stockings, and since we were typical bratty kids, this bugged us. One year we hid all the tangerines thinking we'd get more candy. We woke to hugely misshapen stockings, containing... grapefruits. It still makes me laugh 45 years later.
ReplyDeleteSo many memories, Christmas stockings--and always a piece for the creche in them such as a sheep or angel. Ma made my Christmas dress for many years. Cut out Christmas cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Extended family get-togethers. Always thin mints and malted milk balls and mixed nuts in the shell for the holidays.
ReplyDeleteMy mother had an artistic bend and always dressed up the house for the holidays. No one could put the tinsel on the tree but her. There was always a single candle in each window and lots of greenery.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite has to be all of us gathered around the living room, setting up the Christmas tree. It was always a fun family time and I continue the tradition with my kids to this day.
ReplyDeleteShe always told us that santa brought the tree so it would only be there on christmas morning. When I didnt believe in santa anymore I got to go with her on christmas eve to get the tree and help decorate it after my siblings had gone to sleep. It was always very cheap or sometimes even free. Never thought about it being because money was tight, I just thought it was so cool to be in on the secret.
ReplyDeleteMy mom and I would always take a little shopping spree to buy something for a family that was going through some rough times.
ReplyDeleteI loved how mum would try her best to hide our gifts for christmas. I would search the house high and low until I found them. I got caught one year LOLLL
ReplyDeleteI remember mother putting to bed real early and telling us to go to sleep or Santa wouldn't come. we would lay there and pretend so daddy could put the toys together.
ReplyDeleteMy mom would always host our entire family on Christmas Day. I remember her making matching outfits for she and I to wear. My favorite - fuchsia velvet short sleeve waist length shirts, paired with pale pink silk capris. Never before or since have I felt so very Audrey Hepburn:)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Christmas memory is of cooking christmas dinner with my mum. I've done it for a long time and look forward to it every year I am home. We both prefer cooking on our own but for Christmas we have a little routine that we are used to, I do certain parts of the dinner, she does others. It's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteChristmas at home with Mom. She made us wait until Dad finished chores in the morning (farmer)...to open gifts!! Lol....at the tome it wasn't fun, but now it's a thought that makes me smile
ReplyDeleteMy mum always prepares a lot of food and sweets for Christmas. But on the Christmas day is my father who is cooking. We dress very nice for the dinner. Being together is the best. I´m nowdays with my own children and we are goin to see our parents for short visit.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory of my Mom was the 1st time we were able to wrap gifts together. I was raised by my Dad and was kept away from my Mom for about 10yrs (I was 5 the last time I seen her) So it was so much fun learning to wrap and just talking with her. She passed away at 43 from colon cancer so I hold precious the few years we were together and everything we done together.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always asked for a list for Christmas presents, but then when we'd open our presents, there would always be one gift that even though it wasn't on the list, was exactly what we wanted. Somehow she always knew.:)
ReplyDeleteMy mom always asked for a list for Christmas presents, but then when we'd open our presents, there would always be one gift that even though it wasn't on the list, was exactly what we wanted. Somehow she always knew.:)
ReplyDeleteWhen she was alive, she would make lasagna for Christmas - g
ReplyDeleteher own recipe, three kinds of meat, hours in preparation. Yum - always the best -
Every Thanksgiving weekend, my mom would make her fruitcake, to be stashed away until Christmas week. Everyone looked forward to it - it was a light colored cake flavored with lemon. Now I make one every year in her memory...
ReplyDeleteI am so blessed as Mom and I get along so well. In fact we talk every day, and if we don't the joke is "what are you fighting?". I love that we can still ramble on about nothing for 30 minutes and it all be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI always helped my mom make cookies at Christmas time every year when I was little
ReplyDeletecampbellamyd at gmail dot com
My Mom made Christmases Fun by hiding our main gift. I found a New Watch in the Stereo one time. When my list was too long, she chose just one thing for Christmas. I knew she would save something special for my Birthday in January. My Mother has been gone a long time, she passed away on Christmas Eve 37 years ago. I will never forget that I spent that last December- decorating her tree for her and Dad. Putting the Silvery Icicles on just right.
ReplyDeleteYou've been asking great questions and I've enjoyed walking down memory lane. I was horse crazy and always asked for a horse for Christmas. Every year I got some kind of a horse. One year it was a like a wonder horse but I last one I got really taught me an enduring lesson. I was a teenager and I got a very realistic wind up horse, about 10 ", it would bend in the middle and move across the floor. When I saw it I figured it was for my little brother 8 years younger than me. But then my Mom asked me how I liked my horse. That was when I realized how much time, effort, and thought she put into our Christmas gifts. I don't where she ever found that toy. I've never seen another one like it, but she found a perfect toy for me. I loved it. I think I had it until I went away to college. But more, I still feel her love, it warms my heart every time I think about that gift. Thanks for reminding me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 10 years old, my mother bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas! What a fantastic gift as I am still sewing 40 years later! carolann427@aol.com
ReplyDeleteHelping Gran and Mum in the kitchen getting the roast chook ready for dinner and one Christmas mum and dad did a clue trail which ended up in the garage where our new bikes were hiding.
ReplyDeleteChristmas when I was in third grade was the best, we went to my grandparents at the tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and stayed with them. My mom and I had fun making about ten miniature snowmen with apples for eyes, carrot noses, and celery arms. My grandparents lived on a bit of acreage in the middle of the woods and it was all so we could drink hot chocolate and watch the deer eat the snowmen. I laughed so much that Christmas!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in grade 12 for Christmas my Mom knitted me a peachy/orange mohair sweater. She had brushed it out and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember how old I was, maybe 5 or 6, but one Christmas my Mum gave me a pair of red shoes. I just loved them! I thought she had given me the best present ever.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite was making and decorating gingerbread cookies with my mother. They are my brother's favorites, and we made huge round ones, put everyone' names on them, wrapped them in saran wrap, and hung them on the tree for everyone to find!
ReplyDeleteShe always made sugar cookie dough for Christmas cutout cookies! Then we could decorate as we pleased! Once I convinced her we needed gingerbread men, but we did not have a cookie cutter for it. My mom had to be frugal, but she did purchase the gingerbread man cookie cutter just for me! I had so much fun decorating those cookies!
ReplyDeleteRosemary B here:
ReplyDeletemy very favorite memory with my mom at Christmas is singing Handel's Messiah.
My parents are from the Netherlands. We grew up celebrating Christmas in church and really did not have presents on Christmas. It was celebrated as a Holy day in our family, until we moved to US when I was 9 or 10.
Before then, we sometimes got a little toy on December 6th for Sinterklaas.
We lived in central Oklahoma when I was a child. Snow and blizzards weren't uncommon. remember my mom pulling me on my Radio Flyer sled that she hooked up to our four wheeler. We'd ride through the pasture and I remember being so happy!
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day! <3
My favorite Christmas memory with my Mom when I was a child is baking sugar cookies together. Years later I really enjoyed a Christmas visit when my Mom taught my youngest daughter how to make peanut butter cookies with the little fork cross hatched imprint. My parents lived 2000 miles from our young family, so those precious moments together were memorable.
ReplyDeleteI love my christmas memories with my mom- it is her favorite holiday and we always spent it with her parents in her hometown. It meant a lot to her to spend the holiday with them and have the special christmas dinner with everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were divorced. My oldest sister was off in college, I was living with my Dad. Two more girls lived with Mom. The oldest and I flew to Mom's for Christmas one year. None of us had very much money. We had a tiny table top tree. On Christmas morning, we got Mom her coffee, grabbed our stockings and all had a lovely time sitting on Moms bed, seeing what was in our stockings. Then we opened our gifts. It was a very lazy, wonderful Christmas morning together. Thanks for a fun week.
ReplyDeleteMy mom would always make lots and lots of wonderful Christmas cookies. Now I do the same thing :)
ReplyDeleteI remember that we were not allowed to wake up our parents early on Christmas morning which was so disappointing to kids. My mom was always trying to make things easier for us so she allowed us to come down the stairs just to where the railing started (if we went farther, we could see our gifts) and wait there for them to get up. We would sit on the steps and whisper, which eventually woke them up and we could start our Christmas Day!
ReplyDeleteOn the southern hemisphere Christmas dessert was diced fresh pineapple, and my mother ensured that! Also, she always made a new dress for me to wear on that special day.
ReplyDeleteI always remember how much fun I had with my mom making Christmas candies and cookies.
ReplyDeleteI remember decorating the tree and all the cookies and breads that we would watch her bake.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Christmas(es) that mom would make traditional Icelandic foods for us. And the Christmas that they gave my sister and I a dolls house.
ReplyDeleteI remember how much fun we had getting our Christmas tree and decorating it. I also remember my mom's fudge. The most special gift she made me and my siblings was a picture album of my life. She took pictures from all of her albums and made one for each of us. That was her last gift to us before she died.
ReplyDeleteEvery Christmas my mother makes her "family recipe" Italian Cookies. It's a full day production of gathering, mixing, waiting, shaping, baking, cooling, and icing and it's always a great day. I remember the anticipation building up to the day - especially because these cookies are only made once in the entire year! And now the day is shared with my mother, her twin sister, myself, and my two daughters
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when I read that your favorite Christmas memory involved your mom making you new PJs. That reminded me of my mother, too. Every year we four kids got new jammies for Christmas. We started to call her the Pajama Santa. Do I wish she were still here to carry on the tradition!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite and my kids favorite memories were how she would make boxes for the kids every year. They were just knick knacks that she picked up all year long. It was like a stocking in a box. :) That was the 1st thing they opened and they loved to see what kind of goodies they got.
ReplyDeletecraftyccain@gmail.com
Mine is the "our time " that we spent every Xmas morning at 3am getting the turkey ready to out in the oven. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI loved making candy with my Mother-in-law. It was a family affair with great memories. I often wonder how she would enjoy all the nice mixers and special pans we have today.
ReplyDeleteMy mom and I use to have so much fun putting up the tree decorations together all of them were either beaded or needlepoint and made my my mom and grandmother and great grandmother. It was like a grand adventure unveiling them each year because nit seemed as if they were precious treasures
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory was the year my mom made stockings for us kids. She did them all differently with pictures made of felt. My stocking was white while all the other kids' stockings were red and so I felt very special. I still hang it up every year in a special place!
ReplyDeleteMy mother is German, and many of our traditions come from her upbringing. Our stockings were not filled with traditional candies and goodies....ours were chock full of oranges and nuts! Still makes me smile....
ReplyDeletemine was mom decorating the tree with tensile -- one strand at a time -- she took great care and pride in her tree each year
ReplyDeleteWe always went out and got our tree on the 20tg and did all our decorating over the next couple of days and then everything stayed up through the New Year. Mom would pop corn and have some cranberries on hand so we could make garlands for the tree and the mantle. Always fun!!
ReplyDeleteI have 2 favorite memories with my mom - one was making spritz cookies together and the other was her giving me a little shot glass of M&Ms when the Christmas cartoon specials came on tv. Up until college, I never knew that shot glasses had another use!
ReplyDeleteA special treat for us at Christmas, was French cookies. My mother's dad was born in France and came to the United States when he was about two years old. Since this was a part of our heritage, we always looked forward to mom making these cookies, one at a time.
ReplyDeleteMom wouldn't let us open gifts on Christmas Eve until the dishes were done and the kitchen cleaned. Then we kids would stand in front of the tree and sing all the Christmas carols we knew and then open gifts. I have my grandkids sing a couple of songs before we open gifts now too.
ReplyDeleteI always loved seeing my Mom get together with her sister over the holidays. They brought out the sillies in each other :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen my brother joined the Air Force I was 10, so it was just mom and me from then on. Every Christmas Eve I got to open new PJ's (didn't everybody). We loved decorating the tree and at 16 I bought my first Christmas ornaments with my first paycheck! What I didn't learn until I was older was that my mother got a bonus every year on Christmas Eve and that was always used to buy a special gift for me. A camera with flash attachment, my first watch. Christmas Day mother cooked for my Grandfather and Aunt and I got to decorate the table. As I got older those decorations got pretty elaborate. My mother lived with us her last 12 years and we decorated every Christmas, each one a little bit more. I have so many memories with so many ornaments and the decorations have grown to the point where my husband has agreed to get them down for me in October.
ReplyDeleteMy mom loved preparing for Christmas. She would start weeks in advance decorating the entire house, baking cookies and fruit cakes and buying gifts. It was her greatest joy to deliver her home made goodies to everyone in her neighborhood and church family.
ReplyDeletemy mother was the one that had to decorate the tree. We never used garland, but tinsel. Each piece of tinsel had to go on individually. Not only that but they came off individually too and were saved until the next year.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a cake decorator, so on Christmas Eve day, she would make this beautiful, large , hand cut angel and decorate it with a light blue frosting dress, yellow hair and silver dregee on her wings. Then it would be placed on a large plate and left for Santa. It was one of the special Christmas traditions we did together.
ReplyDeleteMy mom sewed almost all of our clothes when I was growing up, and she is also the quilter who inspired me to learn how to quilt. We still sleep with a quilt she made for us on our bed. I am lucky to have a mom who inspired me to take up this wonderful hobby!
ReplyDeleteMy mom made some unique traditional foods at Christmas time. Mostly sweets, they included Peanut Butter Balls, Divinity Fudge, and Watergate Salad. Plus, it was most celebrated because living in Florida, the new crop of citrus had just been picked so it was a 'fruit salad'. Mostly oranges of any shape and size, free from the groves we lived near. It also included coconut, pecans, green and red grapes,one green apple and maraschino cherries. When I think about it now, it seems like that's closer to Ambrosia.
ReplyDeleteMy first year in college, I hadn't been home since late August. So when I came home for Christmas, my Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas dinner. I said Chinese (this was many decades before that movie). So she fixed a fantastic Chinese-American meal from scratch & it was so wonderful it became our traditional Christmas dinner. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI remember one Christmas, my sister was chosen to be a reindeer in the school play. Well, my mom decided that she wasn't going to just wear a headband with antlers on it. My mom sewed her an entire reindeer costume from head to toe with a zipper in the back. My sister wore that reindeer costume everywhere she could that Christmas and photobombed every picture LOL
ReplyDeleteLike you, my mom always made sure we had new pjs to open Christmas Eve. I have always bought my grandchildren new pjs every year for Christmas and when I do, reminds me so much of my mom.
ReplyDeleteMother loved to make a fresh coconut cake each Christmas and it was delicious!
ReplyDeleteMy "real" mother (I now have a stepmother too, and she's just as real as my own mother!) has been gone now for over 32 years. She died when I was 16, so all the Christmas memories I have of her are childhood memories. This will come out funny, probably, but it's one of the consistent memories I have of her at Christmas: she always gave me a box of fruit and nuts. No candy in it. Just fruit and nuts. I don't know why, and as a kid, I hated that there was no candy. But now it's one of my fondest memories. No matter what else was under the tree, my box of fruit and nuts was always there!
ReplyDeleteMy mom was in the church choir, and as young children, we were privileged to sit in the balcony at the back of the church watching the mass and all the people. I loved that!!
ReplyDeleteMy mom always got me a piece of jewelry each year. A Christmas tradition. They were rarely expensive, often costume (esp. when I was little), but it was a fun tradition.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made done pretty special handmade gifts when I was a kid. My favorite was a fairy tale that she wrote about me. I still have it.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Christmas tradition with my mam is eating a slice of cherry cake with her right before bed on Christmas eve
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory with my mom is having homemade cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. We would wake up early, open a few presents before going to church, and eat fresh hot cinnamon rolls. Yum, yum, I think I need to make some :)
ReplyDeleteOne year my mum organised a huge lesson to teach us the true meaning of christmas. I will always remember it
ReplyDeleteEvery year since I was born, my mom gives me a Christmas Ornament. For the last 25+ years it has been a Mary's Angel Hallmark ornament. That collection is one of my most precious possessions because their from her
ReplyDeleteMy mom always gave me at least one book for Christmas. When we were little, we were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve and somehow, to my surprise year after year, the gift I would open was always a book. She died unexpectedly, right before Christmas, when I was 36 and in her home I found one last book for me, on a subject I love.
ReplyDeleteNow I give books to my nieces and nephews every year as their Christmas gifts, carrying on one of my favorite traditions, given to me by my mom, who loved to read.
My mom was always so excited for Christmas she'd wake us up to open presents. Fun question!
ReplyDeleteI loved that Mom would wrap every single little gift, even a candy bar! I miss her very much, she has been gone for 2 years. On a happier note, my daughter is pregnant with my first grandchild. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe did not celebrate Christmas when I was growing up and I felt like I missed so much. So there's nothing to tell there, but I make sure that my kids have wonderful Christmases every year.
ReplyDeleteMy parents divorced when I was ten and my mother took care of three children by herself. To make matters I was born with a rare disability that added more stress to her having to raise us. At about the age of 17 I wanted to give her something very special to let her know how much she meant to us. I couldn't work due to my disability and had no money for Christmas gifts but was creative and had a talent for writing. My gift to her that year was a short article I wrote about how much I cherished her and what her hard work and love meant to me and my siblings. I submitted it to the Kansas City Star and they published it in their Christmas edition. Christmas morning she started reading her paper and I held my breath while I waited for her to get to my story. I watched her face as first surprise then disbelief and finally tears appeared. Best Christmas memory of my mother ever.
ReplyDeleteShe always made so many sweets for Christmas, chocolate pies, peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge with and without pecans, divinity, date candy, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies...you name it she made. Yes she's skinny and I'm not.
ReplyDeleteMy best memory of my Mother was the last Christmas, as she passed away when I was 9 yrs. old. She asked if we would like to make Swedish Sugar Cookies. Boy did we have fun making a mess of the kitchen, flour everywhere, cookie dough squishing through our fingers and trays of cookies with colored sugar. But my Mom was not a great cook, she always forgot something, like the time she made pumpkin pies with no pumpkin, anyway after cooling down the cookies and Dad had come home we got to taste them. But they were hard as a rock!!! Dad saved the day by making some frosting and we built a house out of them...So when Christmas time came when I had a young family, I would ask my girls if they wanted to make some sugar cookies, my Dad would get the bowls out to start making the frosting......
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory was how my Mom would tune the radio station to find the report of where Santa was as we drove to our Christmas celebration.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always sewed my sisters and I matching Christmas dresses! She even saved them so my little girl can wear them :)
ReplyDeleteI want this fabric so much!
ReplyDeleteMy mum would let me open a present on Christmas Eve. It was always exciting to get to open presents early!!
riddleandwhimsy [at] yahoo [dot] com
One of my favorite Christmas traditions was when my Mom and her best friend Pat would get the families together on Christmas eve to sing carols. Pat's mom would play the piano. We would sing until it was time to go to midnight mass. I always loved filing past the beautiful manger scene and seeing that the baby Jesus was there at last.
ReplyDelete