I am having so much fun with all the comments this week, I wish I had giveaways for the whole month of May. Definitely something to consider for my next anniversary! (Actually, just thinking that Dreamland might have another anniversary is enough to excite me...since I started this blog a year ago not knowing what direction I was heading.)
The giveaway: a wood handled stamp with your family's names and sweet natural accents like bugs, leaves, and flowers. This stamp is now available at lettergirl.
To enter: leave a comment on today's post with the answer to the following question:
What is one of your favorite family traditions?
I will post the winner on Monday morning, so you have all weekend to enter. Good luck!
Yesterday's winner is Kate:
Oh, so many books! I have to say that I LOVE to re-read the Harry Potter series. Every time I read it I feel like I am a student at Hogwarts, fighting against Voldemort, and growing up with Harry and Ron and Hermione...
Kate, please email me with the quote you would like for your stamp and your mailing address: gina {at!} sekelsky {dot!} com. I agree, the HP series makes you feel like you are young again yourself.
Chuck, I have received your emails but mine are being sent back to me. I have your stamp in production!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on yesterday's post. I really enjoyed each & every comment. So many books I have already read...I think To Kill a Mockingbird is the big winner of the day (and Pride and Prejudice, my personal fave). So many books yet to read...I am embarrassed to admit I haven't read Anne of Green Gables. But it is on my must-read list now thanks to all of your endorsements. More about books next week!
My favorite family tradition is Sunday morning breakfast. We all make a huge breakfast and drink coffee and read the paper and let the kids play. So nice and so relaxing. I love it.
Posted by: Kathy | May 15, 2009 at 09:26 AM
My favorite family tradition is spending our birthdays together. We don't really do friend birthdays...just family. It is nice just to be together!
Posted by: Teresa | May 15, 2009 at 09:42 AM
There are so many!
*Reading to/with my girls at bedtime.
*Spending Mothers Day weekend planting the vegetable and flower gardens TOGETHER.
*Camping every Labor Day weekend (my birthday weekend) with my parents - the perfect relaxing getaway.
*Carrying on the Polish Christmas Eve traditions, whether we are with family or just the 5 of us. I love how this ties us to all the generations before us and all my happy childhood memories as we focus on something bigger than us.
BTW Gina - I love the stamps you made me a few months ago - using them makes me so happy, even when I am paying bills!
Posted by: MichelleJ | May 15, 2009 at 09:51 AM
{laugh} my comment above sounds so ME centered :). We do have other traditions focusing on my DH too - like going to yearly airshows. But that would be HIS favorite tradition as sometimes I stay home with the littlest child so he and the older girls can enjoy their time watching planes together without whining or constant begging for ice cream :).
Posted by: MichelleJ | May 15, 2009 at 09:53 AM
The daily bedtime ritual is always nice. I love camping with our family. Our boys will treasure those memories forever.
Posted by: Angela Myrtle | May 15, 2009 at 09:56 AM
eating dinner together during the week has become my favorite.
Posted by: kribss | May 15, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Our family tradition is to go camping on the Canada Day (July 1st) weekend. And as our family grows, so does the celebration! Great food, (hopefully) good weather, good times!
If you don't feel like reading Anne of Green Gables, at least watch the original movie!!!
Posted by: Shannon | May 15, 2009 at 10:47 AM
One of my life-long favorite traditions for our family is dinner time. We still sit together as a family, most every night, to dinner with no tv on, no phones being answered, no texting, no computers ... just all of us, conversing, sharing our days. In the summer, we carry it over with coffee on the porch.
Posted by: Nancy | May 15, 2009 at 11:03 AM
newish family tradition - dinner together (all 6 of us) on sunday afternoons.
old tradition-my mom would pack the three of us (my two brothers & I) and go camping.
:)
Posted by: Tiffany | May 15, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Two of our grown children waterskiing on either side of their dad (also waterskiing) on Father's Day.
Posted by: Luanne tenHarmsel | May 15, 2009 at 12:11 PM
My favorite is camping out in our own backyard.
Posted by: Dannetta W | May 15, 2009 at 12:14 PM
Gina,
Make sure you read the Emily books by LM Montgomery, too, if you have time. I actually think I might like them better than the Anne books though I love the Anne books, too.
Anyway, my favourites are the small traditions as well. Coffee time with my husband and son (soon to be upset by his starting school!) in the morning. Meals together. Church on Sunday morning. Just small things that build a happy life. Family water skiing weekends are pretty great too.
Kelly
ps...I love your lettering!
Posted by: Kelly in Canada | May 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Soon after the snow melts in the spring, we go out for a walk and pick up garbage around the neighborhood. My family did this when I was a kid and I swore I would never make my children pick up garbage (so not cool), but here I am as a mom of two girls, drawn back to this spring ritual. We make contests out of it, like who can find the biggest piece of garbage, the smelliest, the most unusual.
Posted by: Nancy Weldon | May 15, 2009 at 12:53 PM
We have started having a family gme/movie night on Saturdays. It is either playing games together or renting a movie from the redbox and having popcorn and snacks. Just making time for us together is so special to me.
Posted by: Melinda | May 15, 2009 at 01:03 PM
Our new family tradition is buying our plants on Mother's Day and then spending the next several days planting our gardens. It's a lasting tradition as it makes me look forward to fresh ripe vegetables all summer, and I always enjoy the classic purple petunias in our window boxes.
Thank you for all the lovely giveaways you've done this week! :-)
Posted by: Christene | May 15, 2009 at 01:04 PM
A family tradition of ours is to see the Macy's Holiday display every year, getting cookies and eat lunch at the Skyroom. Love it and the girls actually liked it last year too. I have been doing it since I was child, Todd & I did it when we had no kids and still are doing it.
Thanks Gina!
Have a great weekend.
Posted by: Melissa Gruber | May 15, 2009 at 01:45 PM
"Breakfast walks" in the summer...my husband has a more relaxed work schedule, we pop the girls in the stroller with some Cheerios in hand and head out around the neighborhood, always sneaking in a stop at the park before going home. It's a great way to start the day!
Posted by: Alana | May 15, 2009 at 02:10 PM
At Advent every year we grab whatever purple candles we can find along with the a pink one for the third Sunday and set up our Advent wreath. In the center I plant a bowl of paper white narcissus bulbs. Over the four weeks we watch and wait for the bulbs to sprout, grow, and finally bloom. It is a peaceful way to add calm to the lovely Advent season of waiting. For me, it helps take some of the commercial edge off of Christmas and my kids (12, 9, 9 & 5) love it.
Posted by: Mary Kate | May 15, 2009 at 05:14 PM
well, this is a hard one to pick-I think my favorite is one I started with my niece on her 14th birthday in celebration of her start of highschool. We have now moved the tradition to Christmas:
We go for manicures and lunch together right before the holidays, my treat as her Christmas gift.
She is looking forward to my daughters' "coming of age" when they will join us, her treat for their Christmas gift!
Posted by: Marnie | May 15, 2009 at 05:19 PM
Pancakes for breakfast on Sundays! We don't do it every week, but I love it when we do.
Posted by: Cass | May 15, 2009 at 05:19 PM
My favorite family tradition is Strawberry Shortcake for dinner! My mom's aunt and uncle lived on a farm that had strawberries, and one day every summer they would go pick them, and then have a shortcake feast for dinner. It's definitely a tradition I will carry on when I start my own family!
Posted by: Courtney | May 15, 2009 at 05:20 PM
Love family traditions!!! We do "candle compliments" on birthdays...everyone says a compliment about the birthday person: 10 years old equals 10 compliments!
Amy in CA
Posted by: Amy | May 15, 2009 at 06:49 PM
My favorite tradition surrounds Christmas. Each member of the family gets a plain Christmas ball ornament and a silver sharpie. We write the year, then our favorite memories from the year. We all have different things, but that's what makes it so fun! Our memory ornaments hang on the tree every year. When we decorate the tree, we always read each one. Such a simple way to look back at our family memories. Looks great on the tree, too!
Posted by: Jenna Blair | May 15, 2009 at 08:58 PM
My sister and I woke up every Christmas morning in our home. Not at a relatives or a friends house or a hotel. Our parents house- our house. So we promised that when we have kids that we would make sure they have the same tradition...and now that we both have children we are carrying on that tradition. Its special to wake up in your own home on Christmas and see what Santa brought!!
Posted by: Erin | May 15, 2009 at 09:31 PM
my favorite tradition is having christmas day breakfast at my sister's house.
thank you.
Posted by: idette | May 15, 2009 at 10:51 PM