My Favorite Holiday Traditions

on October 30, 2013
in All Posts

Can you believe that tomorrow is the kick-off of the holiday season? I love Halloween in and of itself, but I really adore it because the 31st means that it’s the start of the most wonderful time of the year.  Yay! 

 

Here’s what I’m looking forward to this year:

 

Halloween Handprint Pumpkin – Pumpkin carving… and the associated pumpkin seed roasting and eating… is the best.

IMG_2268

IMG_2282

(I guess we should carve our pumpkins today!)

 

Halloween Costumes for Runners Part I and Part II. Anyone do any costume races this weekend?  There was no way I’d wear a costume to my Half Marathon!

4043020871_9c74bc3093

4043020641_cdbc807e35

I love people who run races in costume, but I am far too concerned about chafing to dress up….

 

Onto Thanksgiving!

 

Here’s our Thanksgiving Menu from 2012 (complete with recipe links).  We are hosting again this year, and I may just copy the 2012 menu and do it all over again. Everything was so good.

IMG_2986

IMG_2988

IMG_2994

You know what Thanksgiving means…

 

The holidays are right around the corner!

IMG_3491

I cannot wait to break out our Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Fun fact: these hang in our closet all year, and I love seeing them in the middle of the summer.  I need to craft a matching sweater for Henry!

 

And Christmas also means a return of the Sweet Santa / Scary Santa photo contest, which will be back by extreme popular demand.

IMG_3347

Remember the winner of the Scary Santa category?  Hahahah.  I die.

Nina

The winner of the Sweet Santa category was super cute.  I don’t think we’ll be able to top this one this year… do you?

kaila and asher

What holiday traditions are you looking forward to?

{ 23 comments }

 

  • Laura October 30, 2013, 8:52 am

    I love decorating the tree, making peanut butter balls with my Grandma, and seeing snow in NY since we live in NC! Can’t wait for Christmas!

  • Michelle @ A Healthy Mrs October 30, 2013, 9:24 am

    Eeeeeee I’m already getting excited for Christmas! I just downloaded Kelly Clarkson’s new Christmas album, and I may have ordered hoodie/footie Christmas pyjamas for my husband & I…and my dachshund. 🙂

  • Sara @ LovingOnTheRun October 30, 2013, 10:22 am

    I love all traditions around Christmas! Of course, cooking for thanksgiving is fun as well!

    I am actually trying to find something fun and simple to start as a halloween tradition for this year. Still trying to figure it out, but better get something going since it is TOMORROW!

  • Suzy October 30, 2013, 10:46 am

    It’s our first Halloween and I was thinking about doing the handprint pumpkin that you did last year.

    We really wanted to run the NoDa Freaky 5k this year, but our plates were full with other Halloween activities. We ran it a couple years ago, I was a Halloween Superhero and my husband ran with a jetpack he made: )

  • Katie @ Peace Love & Oats October 30, 2013, 10:56 am

    Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday! No big expectations – just family and good food. Plus it’s the only time of year I get to see one set of my cousins and I LOVE them! Such a fun group.

  • Jen@PregnantDiabetic October 30, 2013, 11:07 am

    The next 2 months are what I live for during the year! I love everything about Thanksgiving and Christmas and can’t wait to break out the Christmas stations on Pandora…starting Friday 🙂

  • Gabby (Quest for Delicious) October 30, 2013, 11:08 am

    My mom’s homemade dinner rolls are without a doubt one of my favorite traditions of the holiday season. 🙂 I’m convinced they’re sent from heaven.

  • Jen Clark October 30, 2013, 11:54 am

    We have a large group of friends and have a “Friends Thanksgiving” a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving every year! That is my favorite thing!!

  • Kimberly October 30, 2013, 12:44 pm

    I’m running a color run this weekend and I’m thinking about dressing up! I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving where we always get together with our closest family friends and have a huge meal. I haven’t been home the past few years to celebrate so this year will be extra special!

  • Rebecca October 30, 2013, 1:02 pm

    I’m working tomorrow night, so we’ll see how many “happy” guests return from Halloween parties. Though Thursdays tend to be our slower days, so maybe it won’t be a problem. After I hit about 12 I stopped doing Halloween, and we rarely get trick-or-treaters anymore, so I’m not too worried about it.
    It’s harder and harder for us to do our traditions, because my sister’s at school and working, and my work schedule is so different from my parents’ most of the time. I’m not even sure we’ll have all four of us home for Thanksgiving. I might end up working that morning, actually, if no one else takes the shift. Dangit. Though we might go visit my sister…
    Normally we put up and decorate our Christmas tree on Black Friday, but it’s not the same without my sister. And I work that night. And I work Christmas night. I won’t work Christmas Eve, which is great, and we don’t usually make a big deal of Christmas day, so I’m not too worried about it. But it would be nice to have the entire day off. But I work in a hotel for the moment, and everybody needs to take at least one holiday shift, so.

  • Aja October 30, 2013, 2:09 pm

    I cannot wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas! This is the best time of the year. I look forward to it from December 26th to October 31st. I hope that you have a wonderful Halloween tomorrow!

  • Ali October 30, 2013, 2:10 pm

    I, too, like Halloween but I love Nov and Dec!! Such a fun time of year.

  • Taylor @ Single-tracked Mind October 30, 2013, 2:37 pm

    I’m so excited to visit my boyfriend’s family in NYC for Xmas. A little scared for the cold (I live in San Francisco), but excited nonetheless!

  • Sarah October 30, 2013, 2:59 pm

    We host Thanksgiving every year and this year we will have it in our new house! Excited to make new memories here.

  • Melissa October 30, 2013, 3:11 pm

    All such great traditions to see and read about! I’m looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my family and baking cookies and other yummy treats for the holidays!

  • Janelle October 30, 2013, 4:07 pm

    For some reason I never thought of Halloween as part of the holiday season… but I guess it kind of is! Haha. I’ve been trying to wait until November to listen to Christmas music… guess I have just one more day to wait – yay!

  • charitydawn October 30, 2013, 6:20 pm

    Alexander will be 17 months for christmas I look forward to creating a whole new set of traditions with him. We usually do Xmas eve at the grandparents, since we all live in different provinces each year we spend at one person’s grandparents the next will be the other grandparents. This year we’re going to PEI.
    I can’t wait to getting a xmas tree with him and decorating it, and the music ohh the christmas music

  • Amber K October 30, 2013, 7:07 pm

    I like the holiday season, but I haaaate how cold it gets! And I don’t even live somewhere that gets super cold; I’m just a wimp!

  • Sara October 31, 2013, 4:00 pm

    Yay for having a baby this year so I can enter the Santa contest! Woot woot!

  • Emily @Sinful Nutrition October 31, 2013, 7:36 pm

    Oh my gosh I want those ruby red running shoes!

    One of my favorite holiday traditions is watching the polar express with a cup of cocoa after putting up the tree. It is the epitome of the holidays for me.

  • Axel (@apkussma) November 1, 2013, 12:25 pm

    I wish I could submit my favourite Santa pic from 4 years ago. My son is in the middle of a bowel movement with his butt on Santa’s shoulder and you can tell by his face. And from the look in Santa’s eyes… he knows it too.

    • Caitlin November 1, 2013, 12:54 pm

      Haha you can definitely submit old ones!

  • Anna {Herbivore Triathlete} November 1, 2013, 6:39 pm

    OMG! That scary Santa photo is hilarious! I can’t wait to see this year’s entries.

Previous post:

Next post:

Search The Blog

Read by Month:

Read by Topic:

Healthy Tipping Point