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Making Holiday Memories

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Two-year-old Emma photographs her first gingerbread house

For me, the holiday season is all about making holiday memories by spending time together as a family. All the activities we do – gift giving, sending holiday cards, decorating, and treat baking – are simply ways of expressing love and appreciation for all of the wonderful people in our lives. Some of our favorite Christmas traditions include making gingerbread houses (the above photo represents the one time I made one from scratch!), singing Christmas carols, and making ornaments for our Christmas tree. This year my kids drew names for the first time – each child got the name of one sibling who they got to select a gift for. It’s a tradition from my own childhood, and it has been so fun to see their excitement as they chose and wrapped their gifts! My kids are hoping we get lots of snow so they can paint with icicles and build a snowman; I just hope we don’t get a repeat of this winter! We’ll be spending this Christmas at home with our little family, but we’ll be connecting with grandparents and other family members via Google hangout.

This year, I’m participating in HP’s Pin the Halls program as a blog ambassador! HP was kind enough to send me an HP ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook x4, and I’m excited to use its lovely webcam for our hangouts this year! As part of the program, I’ve put together a Pinterest board full of custom gift ideas – ranging from nearly free (doll house chairs made from sticks and simple garden labels) to a bit more pricey (photo pendants). This week, the kids and I plan to play around with the HP Photo Creations App to come up with some custom gift ideas of our own! I’ll also be running a fun giveaway at the end of the week – anybody need a new printer? :)

What are your favorite holiday crafts and traditions?

This post was written as part of the HP Pin the Halls campaign. I received promotional items from HP and Snapfish in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

14 thoughts on “Making Holiday Memories”

  1. Hey, I work for HP, I think they should be including me in this program :) I am glad you like our products though, we are hungry for positive feedback :)

  2. We too decorated a gingerbread house. We also love making caramel popcorn, sending out Christmas cards, singing Christmas songs and being together. Nothing like the magic of Christmas!

  3. Congrats on being a blog ambassador for HP! So happy for you!! Im loving on touchscreen, even my techy hubby said, “It’s an amazing piece of engineering.” And I love your homemade gingerbread house, looks a lot yummier to eat than the pre-made ones. :)

    1. It is MUCH yummier – and, of course, way more work. That’s the only time I’ve done it (other than high school, when I once made six). Maybe we’ll do it again next year, when I have a toddler instead of a baby?

      My techy hubby is in love with the touchscreen on the HP laptop! I’m not sure how much I’ll get to use it!

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