With the upcoming holiday season I thought what better time than to have a blog giveaway. I will be giving away a copy of my most recent vintage textile book to two (2) lucky receipients along with a little something extra, a vintage textile treasure.What you will get: an autographed copy of my book "Colorful Vintage Kitchen Towels" (2006) and a vintage textile treasure.
Who Can enter: Anyone with a valid email address (United States, Canada, International) and mailing address.
To Enter: All you have to do is leave a comment about your "funniest" holiday experience on my blog. I will do a random number selection and notify the winner(s) by email to get your mailing address.
Closing Date: December 2, 2008 at midnight (EST)
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37 comments:
When we came to Canada, it seemed to be a tradition to put a Christmas stocking on the end of your bed or hanging from the fireplace on Christmas Eve so Santa could fill it.
Anyhow, we didn't have a fireplace, so we hung them from the kids' bed. Of course the kids went to sleep, we filled the stockings and thought all was good. Until one of the kids got up at 3am, and of course saw that Santa had filled the stocking.
Needless to say they wouldn't go back to bed, and by mid-morning the kids were cranky, as were the adults.
Needless to say the stockings were always placed by the Christmas tree after that!!
Gill in Canada
I can't think of a good story Erin but this is a great idea. I think I will have to rack my brain to come up with something but in the meantime I wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving such a nice comment. Look forward to reading some of those funny stories. Gill's sounded pretty cute.
Hi Erin!
Let's see... How about this Christmas, when my husband was little: They were all out in the living room playing with their presents. Meanwhile, their dog, Snooper, was in the kitchen, on the table, chowing down on the Christmas turkey!
xoxo,
Mary
One year I was so bah humbug about Christmas that I didn't wrap any presents. I made sure all presents could fit in a shirt box and I'd keep using the same box to run upstairs put the present in the box, bring it downstairs and give it to the person. White box, no wrapping paper, no card and just a here you go.
This is a great giveaway!!!! Someone is going to be very lucky.
My funniest holiday experience, eh? Well, that's difficult to drag out of the recesses of my mind. So I'll go with a funny decorative memory.
As a child remember my family having a funny tree that we used for years on end. Thinking back, I realize how tacky it must have looked, but it was fun.
We had an aluminum Christmas tree, complete with a 4-color spotlight that slowly turned the tree red, then blue, then green and finally gold.
Wild.
Funniest holiday memory... oddest ok? One Thanksgiving, instead of the traditional turkey dinner with family, we went to the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day Game - and had turkey hot dogs!
We moved into a house without a fireplace and the kids were frantic that Santa would not have a chimney to come down so we put up one of those tacky cardboard fireplaces!
You know that type!
Christmas morning we found our daughter curled up next to the fireplace, she fell asleep waiting for santa!
Hugz Dolly
Hi Erin! Here's to hoping I win the lovely giveaway!
The funniest memory I have of Christmas past wasn't so funny at the time, but in retrospect, I do find it humorous. My paternal grandmother, Elsie, loved nice, higher-end costume jewelry. She was a professional woman, and dressed accordingly. One year, my mother spied a lovely brooch and earring set in an expensive luggage/jewelry shop downtown. She deliberated on it a while, before finally plunking down a payment to put it in the layaway. For several weeks, she paid on it as she could and on Christmas morning, we all watched with eager anticipation as she opened her gift on Xmas morning. To our dismay, and my mother's obvious displeasure, my grandmother (not a woman known for her tact), showed her disappointment. I think she thought it was cheap and tacky. But everytime she wore it, she got hordes of compliments! It became her most favored piece of costume jewelry!!! My mother attributed the change of heart to my grandmother's vanity, but I really think her pleasure in wearing the jewelry was genuine in the end! Vicki
P.S. I enjoyed writing about this memory so much, I will post on it with photos, in my friend and I's new blog that is coming soon!
I'm going to share a Thanksgiving funny story. Coming from an Italian background, our family never had turkey on Thanksgiving we had homemade spaghetti, ravioli or gnocchi and holiday soup. So as a young bride (and I mean young)I cooked my first Thanksgiving for his family. At the dinner table, his grandmother informed me that I had cooked the turkey upside down. I was strong, I held back the tears. But you know that turkey was the best turkey that we ever ate. I have purposely cooked a turkey upside down again but never could recreate that meal.
I'd love to be entered in your first blog giveaway. I followed a link from Mary @ little red house. One of our funniest holiday memories was when our children were really little and we thought asleep in bed Christmas Eve. My husband and I had purchased an air hockey table for our son and hid it in the garage. We were dragging it into the house (around 1 am) and unbeknowing to us our children were looking down from upstairs. We heard them running into their rooms and stopped dead in our tracks. The next morning they told us that they saw "Santas big black boots downstairs" which turned out to be my hubbys wellie boots :-)
Great to hear from you Erin. I do have a holiday story to tell. When I was young on the eve before Christmas I awoke during the night, to see a bearded man entering my bedroom and leaving a pillowcase full of presents at the base of my bed. Thinking it was Santa Clause I was frightened and hid under the covers, too scared to resurface until the morning, needlesstosay I was very hot and bothered by then. Little did I know at the time it was only my Dad, creeping in thinking I was fast asleep! x
Back when music came on albums...my brothers would buy each other one to share of course...and to 'disguise' it they would wrap it and add tinsel around the edge and glue plastic reindeer on top etc.!!! So funny how they laughed at each other's job of hiding that it was an album. I remember one of them putting a jingle bell and a brick into one of my gifts to throw me off. I found you at Risa's! Glad you joined in her fun :) I did too.
Hi Erin! One yr. I (the cook) decided to go out to eat in the biggest city that was close to us. Funny thing, at that time, there was nothing open on Thanksgiving. We drove around and finally found a Home Town Buffet=ewww. It was the worse food in the World! It's kinda a 'ha ha' now, but that day I was so upset! ha ha.. ;o)
Here's a funny, but embarrassing moment. We were invited to a friend's Christmas party and she specified that it was a "dress-up" party. So we arrived in our very finest, curious why there weren't any other cars there. We rang the doorbell and she answered in her sweats and slippers. I said, "Why didn't you dress up for the party?" She said, "I will, next weekend." I had the date wrong!
You have a lovely blog!
My funniest holiday moment was when I was little and my mom bought me Alf(like the hairy, animal on tv), underwear. How nice! Thanks for the giveaway!
Hi, Erin - this looks like a great giveaway! I found your blog via Mary at Little Red House. I think my favorite holiday story is about my son's kindergarten class and their Thanksgiving cookbook. All of the kids were contributing a story about something special their family makes for the meal. I was really looking forward to it, because my husband and I are pretty good cooks and go to a lot of effort for Thanksgiving. When my son brought home the cookbook, we discovered that his contribution was the story that his parents like to watch football and are too busy to cook - and that went to every family in his kindergarten, all of whom, I'm sure, still think we are dreadful parents! Thanks for a fun giveaway. Barbara
i am with Jenna on this experience...those alf underwear where huge like granny panties and i can still see jenna holding them up for my mom to take a picture. it was really funny at the time but even more funny now that we are older and look back on the picture!
jayme[dot]bouwens@yahoo[dot]com
Not really a hilarious holiday experience, but a fun one. It was the first time I taught my little girl to put black olives on her fingers. She loved it, but quickly changed when she put them in her mouth.... she didn't seem to like them very much!
Great giveaway! Thanks!
Angie
"Nana's Box"
OOH! Fun giveaway!
I'll say it was when i was with my family in paris & it was snowing. I was so young then & i was walking when i suddenly plopped! I fell face first into the snow!
Somehow, my parents didn't see but i said my sister pushed me! It was funny in a wicked way as my sister was desperately trying to defend herself!
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
Cheers,
Melody
mel_88_88@hotmail.com
I love vintage towels! I have a small addiction... I guess the first step is to admit I have a problem?
Funniest Holiday Experience? We do a "white elephant" gift game every year b/c there are SO many of us to give presents to!
2 yrs ago, my mom thought she would be cheeky & put my cousin's photo in a frame. She thought she could guilt someone into picking it!
What she didn't know was my cousin had put HER photo on a tacky pillow as a gift!! She ended up with the tacky pillow, and my cousin's fiance ended up with the picture frame!
Best part? The pillow showed up last year too! I'm thinking it's going to make another appearance this year!
Wow, I am in awe that you have a book just about towels. What a dream. Oh I hope I get picked.
Typical me not to read the directions. Funny memory? Well how about odd? I was pregnant with Cerys, living in England. I had the flu, was due in 2 weeks and dh's family who came over for x-mas dinner ignored my pregnancy all together. Didn't ask me a single question. I guess it is kind of funny now that I think back on it.
About 3 years ago...our son who was 15 at the time had been begging us for an ipod/video. At that time they were $350 and we don't usually spend that kind of money on a kid for 1 gift.
Well, we did...but he didn't think we did. My husband hid it inside a pair of packaged underwear and put it in his stocking.
After all the opening of gifts...we could see he was just crushed.
We all kept urging him to open the stuff from his stocking...but he wouldn't have any of it. He was so disappointed he didn't even want to celebrate anymore.
Finally we threw his stocking stuff to him and said....you REALLY SHOULD OPEN ALL OF THIS STUFF!
He did....and when he found that ipod....he went crazy! He cried he was so excited. He still uses that thing for just about everything he does.
$350 Well spent!
We love to tease him about opening up underwear now.
:)
When I was 5, my job on Christmas Eve was to leave a snack for Santa's reindeer, usually carrots or candy canes, on a pretty, decorated Christmas dish. On Christmas morning, I noticed the dish was gone, along with the snacks...my Dad, the jokester, said the reindeer must have eaten the dish too!! I felt so bad and cried, it was Mamma's favorite Christmas dish! Later, my dear guilt-ridden Daddy brought the dish to me, said he found it on the roof! I get kidded alot about the Christmas dish, I was so serious about it!
pumpkinlady430@yahoo.com
Wow. Great giveaway! I don't have anything too funny. But I do remember a few times where my mom would have accidently written the wrong name on a gift, and we wonder why we got that gift. Then she'd tell us to switch gifts, and all was good again.
Hi,
I found you through Liz's blog.
We went out to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our fresh tree.
We took forever to pick out the right one. Got it home, put it in the stand, filled it with water. Then we noticed something on the tree. It was like an antfarm. 1000's of ants. We quick took the tree outside, and had to get rid of it.
That was the last time we cut down our own tree.
Please visit my blog sometime.
Thanks,
Rosemary
When my son was very small, I wrapped all his presents in "Santa" paper and used other paper for everyone else. As he was unwrapping his pile of Santa presents he looked up at me and asked" Mom, did you forget to get me a present? If you did that's ok, Santa brought me some great stuff." It never occurred to me that he would notice the different wrappings!!! I quickly
covered and told him Santa had loaned me some paper because I had run out and luckily the last present was what he had really wanted, so that was from us! Whew!
Never made that mistake again!
Have a wonderful holiday season!
Bramble
I'm sure I have more stories, but the one that first popped into my head is the first time I cooked a turkey. Or at least prepared one for baking. It was in the sink and I was pulling out the little bag of giblets when it growled, well, gurgled at me. It scared me, I screamed, and jumped away. Then, feeling foolish all by myself, I finished -- though I still was a bit cautious.
Now, I remember the story about the Christmas tree...oh, and the one about the lonely Santa.....
Thanks for the chance!
A fond holiday memory is going to lunch at my parents' house the first Christmas I was living alone by myself. For an Italian family is a big deal of tears and hugs!
But I went with an unbeknown companion, my doggie Grace (6 weeks old) that I adopted a few days earlier without telling anybody
I took her out of my bag and left her roaming for the flat waiting for the cooing to start!
Antonella in Italy
My brother ate all of the buckeye (peanut butter candy/cookies) that we made. He threw up everywhere. Still cannot make those buckeyes for the Holidays!!!
I have just come to your blog as a result of you visiting my My World Tuesday post on the Dismal Swamp, Erin....You have a lovely blog! Incidently, if you want to see my Part 1 and Part 2 on the Swamp, scroll down on my blog...I did the cold facts first, then the history, and ended with the romantic stuff. :-)
I would love to be entered in your blog giveaway! How wonderful that you have written these books! I would love to have one! My funniest holiday story--
Well, when we moved to California when I was almost 14, my family rented a house that had a huge second floor shared by all of the children. So, Christmas eve, my three siblings and I were "put to bed" to dream of sugarplums, etc. I of course was too old to still believe, and I had a sister who was 9 and a brother 8, who I'm sure also knew the truth, but we also had a 4 year old baby sister who was VERY excited that Santa was coming! We were very much enjoying her innocent excitement as well! We all gathered at the windowsill, and helped her look for Rudolf's red nose pulling the sleigh. There was such a huge build-up that she became overly excited. My mother was supposed to stay upstairs until she was fast asleep, but baby sis never would go to bed. We all kept talking about how excited we were, and imagining every noise to be the reindeer on the roof, and Santa downstairs putting the toys under the tree...each child feeding on the other. Everyone was finally tucked in, but still, there was no rest to be had. Finally, at 4 am, my poor exhausted mother gave up and let everyone come downstairs where Santa had put the toys under the tree. In the dark we opened our presents, winding slowly down as the minutes ticked off toward dawn....by six we had succumbed to the inevitable and were all fast asleep! :-)
My email is bluelotustile@gmail.com
Thanks! This was fun....
Marie
One year, we were decorating the Christmas tree. My mother thought my father had secured the tree, and went to add a final ornament.
She climbed onto a chair and tried to bend the top down to put the star on top, and ended up pulling the tree and all of the glass ornaments onto herself.
It was funny only after we determined she was okay, and we'd cleaned everything up.
Funniest thing to embarrass teenagers is to buy a whopping Santa climbing up a ladder laden with a sack and drape him at the front of the house and hoot with laughter and delight everytime you arrive home. Watch their cross little faces as you wipe away your tears.
Hmmm...funniest? We really aren't that funny! ;)
I would say we all got a good laugh last year when my 3 year old was opening gifts. He unwrapped a box and pulled out a Thomas the Train outfit and cash.
His response "Money and clothes? Who wants money on Christmas?"
My husband said "some day that's what you'll be begging us for."
-Catherine
catherineh_78@yahoo.com
Hi!
Hmm I remember one Christmas in my late teens, now I had found a pretty sweater at the store and my Mom said she'd give it to me for Christmas, well by that time she had forgotten and accidently wrapped it and gave it to my sister, haha! I said Hey that was my sweater! Then Mom remembered, we all cracked up about Mom forgetting whose presents were whose and still tease her about it today!
Oh, and yes, I did get my sweater! ;O)
That book looks awesome! :O)
~ Erin ( yes another erin!)
e.doemling@verizon.net
Love and collect vintage kitchen linens, so this book would be a great addition.
Funniest story: My youngest sister is 18 years younger than me. At the age of 2, I took her to the local church Christmas service, which was broadcast over the radio. It was her first time to not be in the daycare area of the church. The first carol ended and it came time for the minister to make his entrance, so you could hear a pin drop. Little Sister stood up on the pew to watch, and then announced in a VERY loud voice "THAT'S NOT GOD!"
On Christmas Eve (Wigilia) after dinner it was time to open presents. We, the children, were very excited, one catch, we each had to recite a poem or sing a carol when it was our turn. Cousin Daniel sang Silent Night solemnly, untunefully through to the bitter end. Everyone burst out laughing & in riotous applause when he was done. He took a bow.
Tess
girl_y_girl99@yahoo.com
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