Christmas Memories in My Heart is a place for me to share all things related to Christmas, which is my favorite time of the year. I plan and prepare for the holidays all year, so that I can enjoy that busy time without having to stress about shopping and all the details of the season.
I am actually able to decorate and then enjoy the spirit of the holidays and celebrate Jesus' birth and the reason for the season.
You can find links to my three favorite holiday sites in my sidebar. They are Organized Christmas, Our Home for the Holidays, and Magical Holiday Home. All three of these special places are like my home away from home. I have cyber friends there who I feel a great bond with and we share a common love of Christmas. We understand each other and support each other in our quest to have magical, wonderful holidays.
Please come back to visit often. Felecia~printersdevil
Part of the beauty and warmth of Christmas to me is attending the annual cantata at church. I have to admit that I am not a frequent church goer in recent years, but I am a very spiritual person.
Some of my fondest memories are of this event and I attend one every year. Sometimes, I go to one at another church.
In my early years, the programs were all musical, featuring a variety of Christmas carols or hymns about the birth of Christ. These Sunday evening performances and later Sunday afternoons, were so filled with the Christmas spirit. I have always wished that I had a wonderful voice, but I was left out in that department. I still enjoy singing and Christmas songs are among my favorites.
The magic of the program was made complete by hearing the message of the journey to Bethlehem and the miracle of the birth of the Christ child to Mary and Joseph. Something in me always sparked at hearing this wonderful story year after year.
In more recently years the cantata has been expanded to include the acting out of the Christmas story. I love this even more. One year, I attended three different performances of this at area churches. It is a story that is so filled with wonder and promise.
I remember one year when my daughter, Tracie, and I attended the program at another church because one of her friend's husband was in the production and their new born baby was the Christ child. We went to a Sunday afternoon program and happened to have one of my young nieces and nephews at the house that day. We took them along and young Caden was so enthralled with the story that he leaned up on the pew in front of us and rested his chin there throughout the production. The two of them are just several months apart in age and couldn't have been more than four or five. I have never seen them sit still and so quiet for that long. It was a wonderful thing to witness as they experienced this live story for the first time.
Another Christmas must for me is to visit a live nativity each year at one of our local churches. There is just something about this outdoor event that brings chills to me. One year, I was coming home from shopping in Dallas on a Saturday night and pulled off to get gas in a town along the way. There was a sign about a live nativity that night. So, my sisters, DD and I followed the signs and sat in a long line to drive by to witness this event. It was worth the wait and a perfect ending to our long day.
I love the holidays and enjoy the decor and fun of Santa as much as everyone, but the true magic of the season comes from this wonderful story of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus. After all, Jesus, IS the reason for the season.
Here is the link to my CIJ Week 1 Tablescape. I posted this on my Playing Dishes blog. Be sure to check out the weekly tables on Saturdays during July. Complete guidelines for participating in the party and entering the giveaway drawing for a tablecloth on July 25 are available by clicking on the meme in the sidebar.
I hope you have all had a wonderful July 4 and took time to honor our nation and all the brave men and women who are serving in the military in order to maintain our freedom. God bless them all.
DH and I had a quiet stay at home day. We did not even go to the town's firework show this evening. It has been a very hard week starting with the loss of our beloved dog, Blackjack. He was our late son's dog and his death this week was very hard. We lost our son six years ago Monday.
Early Friday morning, DH's only brother lost his six month battle with lung cancer. I used to love celebrating Independence Day, but have had trouble the past few years. Now, we have yet more sadness for this period of time.
A post on Cathy's Pumpkins and Reindeer blog this week made me realize that I want to refocus our holidays, especially Christmas. Although, Christmas, is a very special and magical time of year for me, I hope to make it more special and more family oriented. Our family is always together during the holidays, but even with all my advance preparation and planning and love of hosting the extended family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am wanting something different this year. I still have not decided on what to change or modify, but I do know that something is lacking. I am leaning toward a theme like Cathy discussed on her blog. I know that I want to focus on being thankful and appreciative of what we have at the moment. However, I am not sure how to pull this all together. It will be my Christmas in July ongoing project. Thanks Cathy for the inspiration.
Since this is a holiday blog, I want to share a video that I saw on Debbie at Dining with Debbie's blog today. I remember this Red Skeleton video, but had not thought about it in years. It concerns the Pledge of Allegiance and is a timely reminder for us all to not take this sacred pledge for granted. This is a similar theme to my feelings of the week. Thanks Debbie for sharing it so that I could also share it.
Wow, what a great response to my first weekly giveaway in celebration of Christmas in July. I had to find an appropriate container to hold all of the weekly entries, so I chose this adorable Santa mug. I think it is so cute.
After spending a long time reading and re-reading all the comments and looking at websites for my added meme and shoutouts, I finally had a complete list of all this week's entries. I added each one to a small piece of paper (recycled from old copies of course) for each entry. Gee, this was more involved that I thought.
Here is the little cup just waiting for the drawing. Remember that all names remain for the entire month of giveaways. But, be sure to come back and enter again each week for more chances to win.
THE WINNER OF THE FIRST WEEKLY CIJ GIVEAWAY AT CHRISTMAS MEMORIES IN MY HEART IS:
CAROL KENNON AT MY WORLD ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY!
Carol you are now the proud owner of this elf car costume.
Send me your address by email and I will get it send out to you. (printersdevil72@yahoo.com). Be sure to put 1st CIJ Giveaway in the subject line.
Thanks to everyone for posting comments, adding my meme to your blog, giving me a shout out and the other things that you did to announce this giveaway. Ginger at Magical Holiday Home even added me to the front page of that wonderful site for this first day of Christmas in July. She is featuring a new Christmas blog daily during CIJ. Be sure to check out her site and the others listed in my sidebar for some great Christmas inspiration year round.
I'm sorry that I am so late in posting this winner. I have had a little trouble focusing since I had to put my beloved Blackjack to sleep on Tuesday. Then I had 10 for dinner last night and I had to be sociable. At midnight, it hit me that it was a little more time consuming than I anticipated in compiling all the entries. Then, I crashed and slept way late this morning. I will do better next week.
The giveaway for the 2nd weekly giveaway from Christmas Memories in My Heart will be this cute little silver Santa's sleigh. It includes several body pamper products and is wrapped in plastic with a ribbon and a gift tag. After using the products, the sleigh will make a cute addition to your holiday decor. Sign-ups for the second weekly giveaway end at midnight on Wednesday, July 8. Winner will be announced the next morning.
Don't forget to check back and see what is happening all month. Also, there is a list of other holiday blogs in my sidebar. I am spending way too much time reading! I am even neglecting my Playing Dishes blog! Be sure to also stop by my favorite Christmas webpages also listed there.
Leigh at Tales from Bloggeritaville is about to celebrate her 200th post, so she is having a fantastic giveaway. It is true to Leigh's love of thrifty shopping and we know how much she loves thriftiness!!!!
She is giving away a $25 gift certificate to Marshall's!!!!!! How great is that? So jump on over and sign up. The deadline is tomorrow, so hurry over. The button is in the sidebar.
This would be a great gift for someone for Christmas or a nice reward for yourself for Christmas in July.
I am going to celebrate Christmas in July all month by giving away a holiday item a week each Wednesday. The first one will be TOMORROW at midnight. This is a short turnaround time, but it is only fitting to kick off the month with something from the elves. They work so hard all year at Santa's workshop and don't seem to get much of the glory of Christmas.
No, it is not a car! This is blogland, not The Price is Right. It is a car costume for the holidays that includes two elf ears and an elf hat. This in new in the package and comes with instructions for mounting on your vehicle.
Since there is only a little more than 24 hours to sign up for this one, your chances are good to win this cute little prize. If you are not adventurous enough to drive around with this on your vehicle, you could dress your car up every Rudy Day so the elves could work away on their preparations for Christmas. (some might even be tempted to do this ONLY in the privacy of their closed garage. Not everyone reading this is daring enough for this item. Thus, the quick sign-up time. I am also posting this one on my holiday boards where all the Christmas nuts like myself hangout 24/365.
In order to add your name to this giveaway, leave me a comment here before midnight on Wednesday, July 1. To have two chances to win, also add my Christmas in July meme to your blog. For a third chance in this drawing, give this blog and the weekly giveaways here a shoutout post on your blog. A fourth entry can be added to this drawing by adding your name as a follower of Christmas Memories in My Heart. Refer someone new to my Christmas blog and have them mention your name/blogname for a fifth chance in the drawing.
If you don't have a blog and are entering the drawings for the giveaways, be sure to leave me an email address to contact you. You can just post in the comments that you are sending me the email address. That way you don't have to post yours on the web.
Remember, I will be posting something every day during CIJ. Be sure to stop by often and leave me comments. After each random drawing for the weekly giveaway, all entries will remain in the pool for the following week.
I love Christmas in July. It is so great to be able to spend the entire month thinking about Christmas and to have thoughts of cooler weather! It has been in the triple digit here this week and the humidity is horrible. My central air doesn't seem to ever shut off.
But, despite the heat, I spent Saturday morning on my usual rounds of garage and estate sales. Well, to be honest, I didn't go to a lot of them, but I did find some cool Christmas items.
In honor of my CIJ celebration that officially kicks off tomorrow, I am showing you three of my Saturday finds. Tam at Gypsy's Corner hosts this Three or More Tuesday event on her blog. So, this week, I am giving it a Christmas flair. Click on her link to see her weekly items and a list of all the participants.
First is this adorable Christmas throw. I paid $3 for it.
Next is a wooden sleigh. I don't know where I will use it, but it is so pretty. It was also $3.
My third Christmas find for the week was a set of dishes featuring snowmen. They can be used even after Christmas for awhile. I got four each of dinner plates, small bowls, larger bowls, salad plates and a salt and pepper shaker. The entire set was $5.
Thanks for visiting me today. Don't forget to stop by Tam's and the other participants this week.
Be sure to come back during July and read my daily posts devoted to all things Christmas. I will have information up tomorrow about a giveaway and the way to enter to receive some exciting Christmas stuff. My Playing Dishes blog will also feature a holiday event this month.
I love the holidays and decorating for them. I have always been a Christmas nut and have enjoyed the fall and Halloween, but never to an extreme. This year, I decided to host our first Boo Bash, Halloween Cosume Party and have found a new love!
I named this blog Haven Haunt as a contridiction of the term haven, which is where the name of where I live. Since it is for Halloween, I decided on Haven Haunt.
I have been married for 36 years and have one adult daughter and one son, who is in Heaven. We have a Mini Pin dog, named Duke and a Daushund, who just crossed over the Rainbow Bridge this past summer.
