Welcome to the first day of the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop!
Just in case you have missed it, here’s another explanation of how this works – 12 designers from across the county have teamed up to bring you 12 days of Christmas Blog Hopping. Each day a designer will be sharing a small christmas project for you to make, just in time for the holidays. In addition to the free pattern, many designers will also be sharing a chance at a prize with their readers that day. We will also have a drawing for a few grand prizes for bloggers that comment on each blog. Each day will have a topic that we will share about, such as a favorite christmas gift or recipe. It will be lots of fun for everyone, so spread the word!
Here is the list of participating designers and the day they will be featured:
November 9th: Gudrun from GE Designs
Nov 10th: Sandy from Pieces from my Heart
Nov 11th: Terry from Atkinson Designs
Nov 12th: Pat from Pat Sloan and Co
Nov 13th: ME!
Nov 14th: Pam from Pam Kitty Morning
Nov 15th: Kari from New Leaf Stitches
Nov 16th: Terri from Whimsicals
Nov 17th: Sherri from This and That Pattern Co
Nov 18th: Carrie from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co
Nov 19th: Roseann from Rosebud’s Cottage
Nov 20th: Linda Lum DeBono
Today is Gudrun’s day to be the feature designer, so be sure to stop at her blog to see what she has designed especially for the blog hop! In fact, while you are over there, be sure to thank her for all the work she had done in planning this blog hop. If you haven’t already met Gudrun, used to own a quilt shop in Iceland, but is now a fabric and pattern designer living in Minnesota. She is well known for her quilt-as-you-go and strip pattern series, so be sure to check it out!
Today is also the day that the other designers will be sharing some favorite Holiday memories.
There are so many – where do I begin?
When you are little, it’s all about the presents –
Sometimes it’s just as much fun to play in the wrapping paper, as it is to play with the presents!
It’s also about getting together as a family. I have lots of memories of us all squeezing in around the tree at Grandma Bea’s house. There were so many people, it was hard to find a place to sit (still is). We would always read the Christmas story, eat, say our Christmas pieces, eat some more, open presents, eat again, play games, and of course, eat some more. I would look forward to it every year.
As a kid, I remember that the year seemed so long. It took FOREVER for Christmas to come along again and I spent the whole year waiting for it. I think part of the reason that it felt so long was that my birthday is 5 days before Christmas. That meant twice as many presents, all at once, and nothing exciting happening the rest of the year. The year no longer drags on like it used to, though getting together for the holidays is still just as much fun.
Another favorite holiday memory of mine is that people send out holiday cards with pictures of their families. It’s so fun to receive them every year and then later, to go back and look through them and see how people have changed. It’s also a chance to keep in touch with people that you may not get a chance to see every year. We actually just took our family picture a couple weeks ago . . . which got me thinking about this. So, from our family to yours –
Happy Holidays {a little early}!
What great pictures! thanks for sharing.
I agree, Heather – the years used to be so long when I was a little girl. Now they fly by way too fast. My birthday is 4 days before Christmas, so I know what it’s like to be bombarded with celebrations at one time of year, and having nothing exciting (i.e. no presents) for the rest of the year!
Thanks for sharing your memories! I have had such a lovely morning reading yours and all the others!
Love the memories –
Holiday memories are so poignant. For me, Thanksgiving continues to be my favorite holiday. No pressure to buy, buy, buy and run, run, run! Every year I write a little letter to myself on Christmas night about the day and the season and store them in my stocking. It is both sad and lovely to read all of them each year when I get out the decorations.
Very nice to read your memories, and a great family picture!
This is so much fun… all of the sharing of memories and hopping around to the blogs.
what a beautiful family….I wish I could get mine together for a photo… Maybe I should bribe them?
This is going to be sew much fun!!
Love the pictures of the tree and all the paper and all the family. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your memory.
What a wonderful big family. I love it. Thanks for sharing your memories.
What a wonderful family picture. Love the fall leaves. Thanks for being part of the blog hop.
I am so envious of your great family photo. It is getting harder and harder to get my family together for picture taking, but it’s a tradition I’ll keep up as long as I can.
Loved the family photo. Difficult as it is to get my family together, it’s worth the effort!
I remember Christmas taking a long time, too! My sister used to say that I was “slow as Christmas”. It’s sure not that way anymore.
I’m enjoying the blog hop. I love reading about everyone’s memories. Gudrun’s project is wonderful.
You have a beautiful family.
Great photo-looks like the beautiful leaves were ‘put’ in place!
Happy Holidays to you and your family too!!! This is a great family picture!!! Everyone looks great, happy and healthy and the setting is so picturesque.
Thank you for sharing some of your Christmas memories and traditions. I agree with you on anticipating and loving the pictures that accompany Christmas cards. It’s gotten to where I feel like something is missing if someone does not include a picture ;-))
I am looking forward to your project soon. Thank you and the others for these great project patterns and ideas.
You have a very good looking bunch of relatives – thanks for sharing the new photo.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful family photo and stories.
I can certainly sympathize with your “long” year’s wait for Christmas when you were a child. My birthday is December 20th. Relatives often gave me one present and said they made it bigger to cover both my birthday and Christmas. I never bought the excuse because they often gave my cousins who had spring birthdays the same Christmas present. Bah, humbug! One nice thing about growing up is you can buy presents for yourself.
Thanks for sharing the lovely photo of your family.
Gracias por compartir su historia, he pasado rato leyendo la suya y de los otros diseñadores.
Happy Holidays to you too! Christmas memories are fun to remember and laugh over when together with your family again. Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
Great family photos!
You have a beautiful family, and thanks for sharing.
I remember counting presents. All 4 kids had the same amount.
great pictures, thanks for sharing them with us, I cant wait to come back tomorrow
I had a big family too it was always fun to be with family.
Thanks
Regena
Wow …..what a nice family picture. Great story to go along with it.
wonderful pictures. Especially that first one of the baby with a big red bow on her head… so cute!! thanks for explaining the Christmas blog hop, I look forward to seeing all the free patterns!
Sweet nemories! I LOVE the color coordinated family picture too.
Wow! Look at all the family. You are so blessed to have all those around you. My hope is that as my family grows that we will have the same thing sometime.
I remember my mom saying that she always spent the exact same amount for each of her three children, so no one would be favored.
You have a great looking family!
What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing.
Love all your designs.
What great memories and a lovely family picture at the end! I think this blog hop is wonderful….thank you for sharing!
SO true SO true. I love remembering when my now 23 year old daughter was a babe. She so loved the boxes and wrapping more than pressies!
I love the cards with pictures and letters, too! The longer the letter, the more the news. I read every word!
WOW what a nice big family. I’ve always wanted to be part of a really big family ……. keep those memories going.
Thank you for sharing your photos and your memories 🙂
Thie pictures were great! Love the color coordination in the family photo!
What a wonderful family photo and for sharing your family memories!
Laura T
I’m getting into the Christmas spirit early what with reading all the memories from Christmas’ past…thanks for sharing!
You’re so right, seeing the pictures that are sent along with Christmas cards are so much fun, realizing how big little ones have grown. I still the annual Christmas letter in a card highlighting certain “bigs” that happened throughout the year.
You have a mightly big family in your portrait – WOW! How do you ever arrange time where ALL can come for the photo shoot? Love it.
LOVE your family picture!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays to you and yours too! How lucky to be able to get everyone together for such a great photo shoot.
Wonderful family photos! Our family is too spread out to gather for a holiday every year. You are very lucky!
How AWESOME! Thanks for sharing some Holiday Cheer! ; )
What a great family picture. Thanks for sharing.
I wish our family could get together more often. I have 2 brothers, one in Ohio and the other in Washington state. I live in Alabama.
Thanks for sharing, I love the picture. It so beautiful to see so much family together.
I too have a Holiday Birthday. I’m on the 27th and many a year I got gypped! One year I got a HiFi (are you too young to remember those?) AND I didn’t get THE record until my birthday! I couldn’t even play my record player until 2 days later. How bummed was I????? LOL Now I make sure my DH and 2 grown kids/sp.s and 4 grands remember it’s my b’day. I take care of myselffor sure.
Wow what a nice looking family! Your lucky MOM and Dad! All those grand-babies! Thanks for sharing!
Paulette
Thanks for the wonderful pictures. I can sort of understand your feelings about a birthday so close to Christmas. My birthday is in January when no one wants to think about presents any more. And my son’s birthday is Dec.26! At least when he was young, he was excited to go out shopping on his birthday and spend his money at the sales!
My daughter was born on Christmas Eve, so I’ve always tried to keep very seperate from the Holiday. However, it still just runs together for her. Di
Love the first photo! She is too cute. Big family get togethers is one of my favorite memories!
Sweet memories, thanks for sharing!
I always enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for sharing the family photo.
Love your site. such memories
Thanks for the memories. Our family is HUGE too so our Christmas get together resembles yours a bunch.
what awesome memories thanks for sharing
What a beautiful family picture! I love how you all coordinated the clothing colors too…
Sheila
shecarita(at)yahoo(dot)com
I think as a child the holidays seem to take forever and now look at us…just a few short weeks away. Awesome looking bunch!
This is fun.
I must chime in with the great photo of your family, but I really really love the one the other day of all those pies, it still sticks in my mind – bet you’ll have a couple of those pies with your Christmas feast! Thanks for sharing so much that you do!
Thanks for sharing your Christmases past. You have a beautiful family!
Seems your Christmas memories are very similar to mine – family, eating, family, eating!!! Thanks for sharing.
Love reading your story! Lots of gifts,such happiness! Love this Blog Hop!
Thank you for sharing……
Heather, those of us who were born on or near Christmas were definitely shortchanged. Just as you said, our events happened all at the same time, and it did take FOREVER for it to arrive. 😀
Thanks for sharing the great family picture! I’ve recently bought several of your books and found lots of projects to put on my to do list. I’m looking forward to seeing what your CCC project is.
Linda P in IL
Oh what fun to be with the family on Christmas and share gifts, homemade as well as the other kind!!! Oh what fun to think of the loved ones as you are making the gifts….I’ve done this for many years!!!
I must say that looking at your pictures they are soooo close to looking at mine. Never enough seats for all the relatives. Food galore. But the smiles are what I remember most. And everyone was happy no matter what they got.
Very nice memories and love the photo’s.
I always thought it was cool to get Christmas pictures from other people. But we never did that. My children do it now…it sure keeps people updated on the grandkids.
Love the baby pictures!
What a nice family photo. That’s a big group to all be smiling at once, and looking at the camera!
According to me… only an excellent Christmas party idea can make your Christmas party incredible. Without trying an idea your party can’t be as interesting and exciting as you want it to be…so it’s better to try an idea if you really want to surprise the invited guests. Actually, last year when i organized a party I got to know about an excellent website that provides superlative ideas to try out… checkout the link if you want incredibly creative ideas.
http://www.coolest-party-ideas.com/christmas-party-ideas.html
Love the family pics. We try to do one every year too.
Wonderful family photos.
:o)
I remember big family Christmas gatherings like yours. It’s so much fun to be a child at Christmas isn’t it?
What a great family!
We have a picture of our DD with a bow on her head for her first Christmas too. She was way more interested in the wrapping than the presents.
Thank you for sharing your Christmas memories.
What lovely memories – thanks for sharing.
Great pictures. My hubbys family is large and we get together with all of them too. It looks just like your picture 🙂
Thanks for sharing your family with us. My family is all spread around the country now and those that are close have spouses and they can’t always come to our houlse as I would like.
So now and actually in most past years I have adopted families who like us don’t always have family members close so we get together and share our holidays at our house which is so big that I can keep inlcuding others. Just invited a fellow quilter working here in Oregon till after Christmas to come share with us too.
This makes the holidays special for me.
Peggy
WOW! great picture, how did you get everyone looking the same direction and smiling???
Love the pics of your family, and the baby with the ribbon is a c-u-t-e!
Thanks for a great time. Love all the stories, photos, & the ideas. I just need more time… Happy Holidays to You & your family.