Monday, December 12, 2011

Giveaway Day!

This giveaway is now closed. See winner details here!
Lucky us! It's Giveaway Day at Sew, Mama, Sew!

I'm really glad you joined me here at A Quilter's Table! This is my first time participating in Giveaway Day, and I confess, it is pretty exciting! I am a long-time quilter, but this year, joining the online quilting community has expanded my quilting horizons by leaps and bounds!

For Giveaway Day, I made a Christmas mini quilt that could be used as a table topper or wall hanging.
Using my mini-x tutorial {here}, it measures 16" square, and is quilted with some organic swirly line stitching.
The backing is a festive reindeer print, and the mini is finished off with a hand-stitched binding
(Note that no fabric has been prewashed in the making of this project.)

Giveaway Day is actually Giveaway Week, lasting from today, December 12, through Friday, December 16 at 5PM PST! To enter, leave a comment on this post, and include the answer to this question: "What is your most unusual holiday tradition?"

I will choose a random winner within 48 hours of the close of the giveaway, and am happy to ship internationally. Please make sure I have an email for you, either from your blog profile, or included in your comment. If not, I will choose a new winner.

After you comment here, do go join in the fun and visit more giveaway posts linked at Sew, Mama, Sew!

203 comments:

  1. Wow, am I first? Our most unusual tradition is probably that my mom and sisters stay up all night christmas eve, either wrapping presents (mom) or being difficult (sisters). Then my brother and my dad wake up super early, play christmas music super loudly, and everyone starts out christmas morning grumpy and complaining about how we should let them sleep longer. Sigh.

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  2. Our traditions are fairly ordinary, the most unusual is that on Christmas eve we invite everyone over who we are giving presents to and then after dinner we all open all the presents to and from whoever has come over. This allows all the children to play with gifts that evening and sleep in, so everyone starts Christmas day off in a good mood. There are stockings for everyone to open when they get up.

    That is a lovely little quilt, and would look great on my table, thank you for the give away.

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  3. I love your giveaway item! And the reindeer backing is adorable!

    I don't think any my current traditions are unusal. However, growing up, our holiday celebrations with my extended family consisted of playing poker and giving dirty Santa gifts. Pretty much anyone who was an outsider was intimidated after the gift opening because of the secrets that came out and the things that were exchanged.

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  4. Hmmm, I don't think this is unusual, but we stay in our PJs all day, including Christmas dinner. My husband had a hard time adjusting to putting his PJs back on after his shower!

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  5. Oh Debbie, wonderful giveaway! My unusual holiday tradition was begun by my father when I was a child. He was always so excited to open presents that not only did he convince my mother to move Christmas up a day to Christmas Eve, but he would also encourage her to let us children open up presents a couple of days, even a week before Christmas. Now at 83, he is still incorrigible. :)

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  6. Ouuu, that's hard one :) hehe! It's not unusual in the south, but New Years lunch is the best- collard greens (for prosperity) and black eyed peas (for health) and then you throw in some onions and corn bread for yumminess too :) Fun!

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  7. love love love - good choice!
    our most unusual tradition is that every xmas eve we read "twas the night before christmas" (normal enough right) okay, well its in german... and we're not german nor do any of us speak german! we found the book at a garage sale and had such a laugh the first year trying to read it that its become tradition :)

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  8. Oh this is so gorgeous!! I nearly peed when I saw the back too!! We don't really have many traditions although we always wait until after lunch to open presents - my husband thinks that's really odd and we don't do it when we're with his family - the kids are going to be so confused!!

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  9. My family's most unusual Christmas tradition is finding the pickle ornament that is hidden in the Christmas tree. There's a little extra gift for the person who finds it.

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  10. Love that quilt especially the back! Thanks for the giveaway.
    We are pretty normal people the only thing that we do is maybe still do all of our presents at my mom's Christmas morning even though we all have families of our own now.

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  11. Love the quilt! So cute!
    We don't have any unusual Christmas traditions!
    Amy
    abcsemartin(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  12. Super cute quilt! I don't know about unusual traditions but we have lots of great ones. Advent train, hot chocolate (homemade of course), Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve...
    lizandbryan(at)yahoo(DOT)com

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  13. Most unusual holiday tradition? Some people think it is weird that we were always allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. I know it isn't that weird, but I guess we don't have anything that unusual!

    The quilt is beautiful Debbie! Great giveaway!

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  14. Maybe this isn't unusual for some, but the past several Christmas we have spent with neighbors because we were not able to make the 1000 mile trip home. We are invited again this year. So it has become a tradition..

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  15. Unusual tradition....hmmmm....we watch Charlie Brown's Christmas and eat ice cream every Christmas Eve!

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  16. We sleep in sangee1234@gmaildotcom

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  17. How beautiful. I don't know that we really do anything unusual...so this isn't easy to answer. We do give White Elephant gifts on Christmas eve....where you just grab something old from your home, wrap it and then have a game. It's fun...but maybe not usual? =)

    Thank you.

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  18. I don't think we have any unusual holiday traditions. But, I have just started making everyone go around in a circle opening one gift at a time. This drives them crazy! But, it makes it last instead of just a frenzy of wrapping paper! Also, everyone can see what each person received and thank the giver. arkgina@hotmail.com

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  19. Our tradition is to make a giant breakfast pizza to eat after we open presents!

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  20. Our most unusual tradition is only giving our children 3 gifts each. Something they want, something they need, and something for the whole family to enjoy. :) Beautiful quilt!
    Carrie creativecarriet@gmail.com

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  21. Very cute wall hanging! We don't have any unusual holiday traditions. One has sprung from necessity, though. Because Christmas Day is SO busy for my husband and I, we open gifts on Christmas Eve. We need sleep before driving all over Northeast Ohio to see family the next day.

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  22. Nice to meet you, Merry Christmas!
    My husband ancestry is German so every Christmas we make Sauerbraten,potato pancakes,spatzle & red cabbage. But the best part is, that he wears his German attire Lederhosen and all on Christmas Day!
    leslie@nationalsign.com

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  23. Love the colors-so hard for me to pick colors!
    So many choices. We have been going to
    son and DIL for family party. Thanks

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  24. I'm not sure how unusual my tradition is... we all spend the night at my mom's house on Christmas Eve. Is this normal for a 27 year old adult woman? We all bring our families over and stay the night, its so much fun!

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  25. The most unusual Christmas tradition in our home is: We have told the Grand children that the day after Thanks giving a Christmas elf comes to live at their house. To make sure they are nice not naughty. Their Elfs have names and we prepare little beds for them to sleep in and a treat for the night of their arrival. The children look forward to this every year.

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  26. Our most unusual tradition is a lack of Christmas dinner. We do Christmas Eve dinner with my family, and then Christmas brunch with my hubby's, so by dinner time, we're pooped. The kids play with their new stuff and we get take out.

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  27. I think ours is that we get up and make breakfast together before gifts, pile up in
    the front room and eat and unwrap gifts in our pjs. Then we adults clean up while the kiddos play.

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  28. Wow, what a beautiful quilt, I would love to be entered into your giveaway! Our 'unusual' Christmas tradition is that our dogs (we have two right now) get a stocking and presents just like the rest of us. Actually, to be truthful, they get way MORE presents than the rest of us do!! They are very spoiled and are our 'kids' and they KNOW when it is Christmas morning and tear open their gifts with joy! Thanks so much for the opportunity to win your beautiful quilt and wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! Deb

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  29. ever since i was itty bitty I've only missed two christmases at my grandparent's farm. My dad and my siblings always sing at midnight mass at our church, then we all cram into the car and head north to my gram's house, hell or high water! the only two times we didn't make it was because of huge giant snow storms when we lived 24 hours away, thank goodness now it's only 4!

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  30. After opening presents we eat Biscuits and Gravy with homemade sausage on Christmas morning.

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  31. We have fondue as our Christmas Eve dinner. It takes awhile to eat, which means we are sitting around the table and enjoying good food and conversation for a long time! We also ski as a family on Christmas Day - we put the fast people in the back so that we're more likely to all finish at around the same time.
    blueberryblues5(at)gmail(dot)com

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  32. An unusual holiday tradition: There was nothing growing up that was unusual and there is nothing now that we are all grown. My husband and I have been talking about starting our own traditions now that we have a daughter and will not be traveling "home" for the holidays as often. We have talked about doing theme dinners (different world cuisine) on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and inviting friends. We hope to put this into practice this year!

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  33. Probably not too unusual, but we would always have holiday grasshoppers after our Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparents. I think as we got older they finally started upping the alcohol in them, because they are pretty tasty now!

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  34. Hmmmmm....our most unusual tradition is probably that we don't have a great big turkey or ham feast for Christmas dinner. Instead we have a candlelit dinner of easy to put together finger foods....crackers, summer sausage, different cheeses, olives, cheese balls, bread and butter pickles, etc. We then make our own little sandwiches by the light of the candles and the Christmas tree lights. We did this when I was a kid and now my kids love it, too. It all started because my mom didn't want to be in the kitchen all day. She wanted to play with us instead. Great idea, right?

    The quilt is beautiful! Love it. My addy is...

    erinshakespear at bresnan dot net

    Thanks!

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  35. Your table topper is very cute. Our most unusual tradition was when the kids were little, they would get a clue as one of their gifts and they had to figure out where the next clue was. Before they could read, we would draw pictures, then when they began to read , we would put just word clues , then when they were older, they would be more mysterious.

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  36. as I love in another country, maybe our Christmas traditions are very different from yours. But I consider a bit unusual to open the presents right after dinner cause the family has to many children around and they can't wait much!!

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  37. Our family is very traditional so there's nothing really untraditional about our holiday. One tradition that I don't hear as often as others is that our kids are allowed to open two gifts on Christmas eve. The first is a new pair of Christmas themed pj's. The second is a new ornament for the tree so one day when they're out on their own they'll already have a head start for their own tree.

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  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  39. OK, now I'm with it - our traditions are all pretty, well, traditional. One of my favorite things is our local NPR/classical radio station does a live broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's Cross Chapel and it is just so lovely. I guess one thing we do that isn't traditional is having a big brunch at my Mom's house instead of a formal Christmas meal. Thanks for the lovely giveaway - your mini quilt is adorable!

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  40. My Mum still gets out a paper mache snowman head I made about 35 years ago. Its amazing he has survived although he looks very raggedy now.

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  41. Debbie, what a great giveaway! Hmm,...unusual? We rotate presents so everyone gets a turn, we always play Christmas music while we're opening gifts. I'm not sure we do anything unusual. Oh, I do put a pickle on my tree! It's an old Victorian custom; and it's an ornament, not a real pickle!

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  42. Our most non-usual Christmas tradition is that we don't get our children any presents! I know, I know, but we are always traveling at Christmas time to grandparents and they do a great job spoiling our children silly. I'm no grinch...unless there are toys taking over our home...which we're just trying to avoid.

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  43. Not sure we have anything unusual here. we exchanged names with my family & will not exchange the gifts till new years when we get together at the cabin!

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  44. i don't know if we have anything unusual... but i do watch 'while you were sleeping' every christmas - it goes right along with 'elf' and 'a christmas story.' :)

    bess

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  45. Beautiful quilt! My favorite tradition is to watch the grinch with my daughter on Christmas eve! <3

    Thank you for the opportunity to win your giveaway! Happy Holidays to you and your family <3 xo

    krencamp (at) gmail (dot) com

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  46. Very cute mini, Debbie! Fun question, and it has made me realize that I really need to get started on creating our own traditions, since we really don't have any. Unless me waddling around a Christmas tree farm choosing a tree while massively pregnant counts as I've done that twice now...

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  47. do pierogi count as an unusual tradition?

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  48. Christmas burgers! We always have burgers on Christmas eve, I have no idea how that tradition started, but it's been that way for years.:)

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  49. wow...LOVE the little quilt!! :) Though not unusual to my family an outsider would think we were all INsane because of the amount of family and gifts that are found under the tree at my parents house Christmas day! It is like a hurricane of wrapping paper and giggles when we all gather round to unwrap gifts all at the SAME TIME!! we are totally unorganized...and definitely have to have a video camera rolling to catch everything!! :)

    Thanks for the chance, have fun with your first giveaway! :)

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  50. Christmas Eve day we watch 8 different versions of "A Christmas Carol" and we watch the "Die Hard" series of movies all day on Christmas. I don't know why it never gets old, but we do love it...LOL! Thank you for the great giveaway!

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  51. The quilt is gorgeous!!
    A few years we have opened all of the gifts on Christmas Eve, and slept in on Christmas day :)

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  52. This is a lovely giveaway. Our unique tradition is that my family still uses the same old artifical tree that my grandma got from a JC Penney store display in the 60s. It even has the big ball ornaments permanently wired on! It's really ugly, but we love it!

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  53. What a lovely little table topper!

    Unusual tradition would have to be when the granddaughters make the little hot dogs in a crescent roll appetizer. They always put a jalapeno chili slice in one of them for some unsuspecting taker.

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  54. My husband plays music for our church's Christmas Eve services and they're nice enough to provide snacks/supper for the musicians and other service volunteers so our unusual tradition is our family eating sloppy joe sandwiches at our church on Christmas Eve.

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  55. love this mini! Most unusual tradition? hmmm.... Maybe our mismatched funky Christmas ornaments, or maybe the chinese chicken salad that's a staple for Christmas dinner

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  56. we finnish the "advent calendar picture puzzle" - each day all through december you get a handful more pieces - during the nights on 24th and 25th

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  57. Your giveaway item is fabulous! I love the fabrics you selected! :) The most unusual Christmas tradition my family has, is that we stay in our pjs ALL day on Christmas. It makes for such a comfy, cozy day!

    Best,
    Michelle
    daydreambelievershop {at} gmail {dot} com

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  58. we always watch national lampoons christmas vacation on christmas eve. not very unusual but very very funny!

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  59. What a wonderful mini. Love the back too. We are pretty traditional, no nothing wonky comes to mind! Thanks for the opportunity to win.

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  60. Our most unusual tradition is probably that we label presents with giant lettering with Sharpies on white paper. It's fun to come downstairs and see your name in big letters under the tree!

    michaelacking (at) gmail (d0t) com

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  61. I don't know that it's terribly unusual, but our tradition is to always watch It's a Wonderful Life while decorating the tree. We also tend to head out to WDW each year but that's not odd, just not something most people outside of Florida can easily do!

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  62. I'm not sure if it's unusual but I do think it's something that gets forgotten too much. We read Luke chapter 2 straight from the Bible on Christmas morning. It's a good reminder for us and the kids of Jesus' birth and why we celebrate Christmas.
    lisa.otis6 at gmail dot com

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  63. since i've lived by myself in my own little cottage, i've been away on visiting rounds and have on had a tree. so now, this year i'm staying home and have no tree,but a candle in a pine spray and mini baubles. new tradition.

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  64. How beautiful!

    We always open one present on Christmas eve and it's usually new p.j.s Love them!


    Genevieve
    jenny(at)ykwc(dot)net

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  65. No unusual tradition for me I am afraid. We always have trifle for desert though on Christmas day-that could be classed as unusual?
    Would love to enter your lovely giveaway anyway
    thanks..

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  66. What an adorable quilt. I love the reindeer on the back! Unusual tradition? Getting a carton of eggnog and riding around looking at Christmas lights while we pass around the carton.

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  67. This quilt is absolutely beautiful. I am not sure that I have any unusual holiday traditions. The best I can come up with is going Black Friday shopping with my mom every year...even if we don't need anything specific!

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  68. taking a picture straight out of bed christmas morning. no grooming allowed! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  69. Hmm. We don't really have any unusual traditions, except that I always try to put something bacon-related in my husband's stocking. That green reindeer fabric is wonderful!

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  70. I don't know that we do anything all that unusual, but last year my daughter took one look at all the Christmas presents (including the Barbie Jeep that she had been dying for) and started bawling. Then Dad got mad that she was upset on Christmas morning, and I spent most of the morning going back and forth between the two grumpies trying to cheer them up...not exactly what I expected when I sat on the floor at Wal-Mart on Black Friday for four hours with my hand on that stinkin' Jeep! lol

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  71. I collect all the wrapping paper and shove it in the fireplace. It is my job, and only my job. Thanks for the giveaway! robyn(dot)geddes(at)gmail(dot)com

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  72. Our most unusual holiday tradition is drinking mimosas while we wait for the stragglers to wake up so we can open presents. LOL

    Mary
    iammaryburke(at)gmail(dot)com

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  73. Beautiful quilt. I can't think of any unusual traditions we do at Christmas. Mother would make the grandsons wait until we had finish lunch before they could open any presents.

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  74. I love the swirly stitching, so lovely!

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  75. That is a beautiful mini quilt!!! Hmmm...unusual traditions....I can't think of anything terribly unusual. Maybe it's unusual that we usually have taco soup to eat on Christmas Eve at my parents' rather than a tradition Christmas meal.

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  76. Debbie, what a pretty quilt. Thanks for the giveaway. Our kind of unusual tradition is that every year on the 24th we have a completely Slovak dinner (my husband and I are both originally from Slovakia) and our 3 American- born children insist on me preparing it every year the same way, and every year they barely eat anything but are extremely proud of having food for dinner that none of their friends even heard about.

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  77. Midnight mass is our special custom - so beautiful and so the reason for the season.

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  78. I love that deer fabric! I made my daughter a skirt in the pink color way.

    We always drive around on christmas eve looking at lights and we always keep our eyes peeled for Santa and Rudolph flying overhead.

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  79. Oh, I REALLY want this!

    We always have Mexican food on Christmas Eve. My favorite tradition!

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  80. Oh Debbie, I love it! Great choice for the giveaway! Hmm...I don't think we do anything too unusual, but one of our traditions is that everyone has to open their presents one at a time and that we start with the youngest and go to the oldest. Throughout my life, there have been times when the youngest was 6 months and the oldest was 78! It's always funny to watch the kids wait impatiently and the adults argue over who is actually younger or older!

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  81. We always wait until after Christmas dinner on Christmas day to open our gifts! The kids are always so well behaved and willing to help with prep work and clean-up!

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  82. Hmmm. What was unusual for me was spending Christmas Eve with the in-laws and eating shrimp boil instead of turkey. I love shrimp. Just not used to eating it as a main dish on Christmas.
    parthena@wollen.com

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  83. Beautiful little quilt. My unusual holiday tradition would be to go bowling on Christmas Eve day.

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  84. I know it is not required but just wanted to let you know I enjoyed looking around your blog so much you have a new follower! Unusual holiday tradition I really don't think we have one. We always go to a casino on Christmas because it is a friends birthday, but that is about as strange as we get.

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  85. I absolutely love your quilting on this mini quilt....very cute and festive!
    As for unusual traditions....wearing different hats during our Christmas card games...antlers, Santa hats...you name it:)
    jodym7@yahoo.com

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  86. we always eat cake for breakfast Christmas morning, I suppose that is a bit odd.

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  87. I guess the only unusual thing we did was leave cookies and beer for Santa!

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  88. Our most unusual holiday tradition (one we've done for the past 5yrs with my daughter) is to leave reindeer food out on Christmas eve for Santa's reindeer. We make it and she sprinkles it out on the lawn so the reindeer can have a snack while they wait on santa. *smile*

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  89. I don't think we have any real unusual holiday traditions - we do open our gifts on Christmas eve instead of Christmas day - is that unusual?

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  90. We travel out of town every year to visit family. Probably not so unusual. Thank you for the give away.

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  91. Hm. Nothing unusual here... great mini quilt!

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  92. What a sweet quilt!
    Our most unusual tradition is that we pull Christmas crackers at dinner then everyone has to wear the silly paper hats for the rest of the meal. Pictures are always taken for blackmail later ;)

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  93. Brother-in-law dresses as Santa then as the kids go to bed he strolls thru the yard with a few ho-ho-ho's before disappearing into the night.

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  94. I don't think we do anything too unusual. Maybe get the animals Christmas gifts? This is a beautiful quilt!

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  95. We exchange handmade ornaments with the family so we have something to open on Christmas Eve!
    mynadala@gmail.com

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  96. I couldn't think of anything unusual and then I remembered that my grandmother used to make octopus on Christmas eve. Her descendants have not carried on this tradition!

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  97. My brother and I always exchange the same presents every year - he gets some Hershey's chocolates from me and I get some Christmas Marshmallow Peeps from him.

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  98. We don't have any, but I wish we did! Lilsis_75@Hotmail.com

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  99. I married into "Norwegian Rice". It's a pot of rice simmered for hours in milk. I think I tried it once. I've always thought it was weird.

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  100. i grew up with the tradition of family coming over to grandma and granddads who i happened to live with anyway, on Christmas day and open all our gifts together and them have a massive lunch with more people calling in as the day went on. we would all swim in our poll and have a ball all christmas day long.

    Now i am married and have my own kids we depend it the South American way and Eat a massive dinner Chrissy Eve then open all our gifts at mid night. Christmas day is a lot more relax now and there is no pressure on me to cook because my husband and his bother a and dad do it, plus I can't cook hahaha

    xo Steph

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  101. Merry Christmas! This is not unusual but traditional for us. We make a stuffed french toast Christmas breakfast that I found the recipe from Good Housekeeping magazine some 15yrs ago. After the first year that was the only thing that our sons wanted for Christmas breakfast. So this year when we get toghether on Christmas eve we will be having Stuffed French Toast for dinner since we won't all be together on Christmas morning so we won't miss out on our breakfast tradition! Tracy: cecesews(at)gmail(dot)com

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  102. darling!imisswaylon@hotmail.com

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  103. My family used to watch The Walton's Christmas movie "The Homecoming" every Christmas Eve. It's a pretty obscure movie, I can't imagine that tradition is carried out in many homes! Then we spend the rest of the night giggling at some of the silly quotes from the movie.

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  104. What a lovely quilt. :) my family eats mutton (we usually butcher it) .

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  105. I don't think it unusual, but others may. We buy gifts for our pets, and Santa always comes to our dog as well! Thanks for the chance in your give away!

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  106. What a cute wall-hanging/table topper!

    I don't think we have any unusual Christmas traditions. We usually open one present on Christmas Eve, then in the morning on Christmas we open stockings and a little later on we open the rest of our gifts. We usually play cards (a game called Nine Penny). I think it's probably pretty average as far as traditions go!

    (clumsy.chord(at)gmail.com)

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  107. Santa doesn't wrap his gifts, so the kids get up and find those - then we make them stop, and come to the table and eat a good breakfast before we open any more. I have 6 kids and their friends love coming here, but think that is the weirdest rule. Still, with 9 of us (including my mom)opening gifts it takes a while (our other rule is we open them slowly, one at a time, so that the giver gets to enjoy it as much as the receiver). So a good hot breakfast prevents melt-downs and whininess later in the day

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  108. This is not a tradition that I have with my own family, but when I was growing up, we didn't get to have Christmas morning like normal people. We had to get dressed up in our church clothes and visit a couple of nursing homes and sing to them. Then we would get to go home and have breakfast (finally) and then...at long last...we would get to open gifts. That lasted until one elderly woman attacked the baby while my mom was holding him and gave him quite a few bruises. All of us kids were thrilled that the parents finally nixed the dreaded Christmas tradition (but we did still have to go to nursing homes with the church once a week--just without the baby). Sadly, it was my last Christmas at home, so I never did get to have a normal Christmas morning until I started my own family.

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  109. That is one cute mini quilt. Good luck everyone!!

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  110. Growing up. my family, including extended family, went to the Varsity ( a diner style place in Atlanta ) every Christmas Eve

    Desi
    weeshareblog@gmail.com

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  111. Does my husband getting extremely grumpy putting on the tree lights count as tradition?
    beth(dot)sebastian(at)gmail(dot)com

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  112. probably eating tamales and turkey tacos on christmas eve! tammieschafferATyahooDOTcom

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  113. My sister and I enjoy watching a video from Christmas 1994 when we lived in England with our father's job in the military. It brings back lots of laughter and fun times we shared during our childhood! Thanks for this sweet giveaway. ~courtney cthompson4(at)liberty(dot)edu

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  114. Our most unusual tradition is trying to play board games on Chrostmas eve and everyone quilts because they are poor sports...but we keep trying every year.

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  115. Seeing who gets the last Christmas present - there's usually one present that is forgotten until after all the gifts are opened. Thanks for the giveaway! Merry Christmas!

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  116. We "initiate" our Christmas tree by dancing around it and chanting to it before cutting it at the tree farm. It's something I came up with as a kid and decided to do with my kids. It's ridiculous and totally out of character for me, but if no one is looking, I go for it.
    kristie_keely(at)yahoo(d0t)com

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  117. What a cute mini quilt! I think our most unusual holiday tradition is taking turns opening presents one at a time, and spending all day at it. Also, super duper stockings for the adults as well as children.

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  118. What a gorgeous mini-quilt, thank you for the chance to win! We are in Australia, where it's hot hot hot at Christmas time. Many houses don't have fire-places - or chimneys, for Santa to come down. So probably, our most unusual Christmas tradition, is to hang a special 'Santa key' on our front-door handle, on the outside, so that Santa can quietly unlock the door to come in and deliver his presents. thanks again, Cat

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  119. What a beautiful mini-quilt! Our most unusual Christmas tradition is actually our Christmas dinner. We have a rule that Christmas presents can't be opened until after dinner (we open them Christmas eve) and all the dishes from dinner are done. My dad would get impatient and kept bugging people to hurry up. So of course we would go slower to drive him crazy. Finally, a few years ago, he talked my mom into doing something simpler for dinner...Take and bake pizza. With paper plates. Total time to cook, eat and clean up went from 2 hours to 45 minutes.

    It works okay for us! We have the big dinner the next night when there's no pressure to hurry up for gifts! :)

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  120. Our most unusual holiday tradition is the exchanging of the green olives. :P Our family didn't have much slack in the budget for gifts for Christmas, but we always got an orange, and a jar of green olives. I know it's funny, but we treated them like they were solid gold.

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  121. What a great giveaway Debbie! Hmm, not sure if we have any unusual traditions really... does obsessively icing sugar cookies count? :)

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  122. Don't think we really have any unusual ones. Well none I can think off anyway

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  123. So cute! I think a favorite tradition is decorating those prefab gingerbread houses. carrie dot hare @gmail.com

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  124. The backing is adorable! A few years ago I did away with my ultra traditional stickler decorating ways and now cover the house in a whimsy candy theme. It's becoming more trendy, but it's so fun!

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  125. I don't know how unusual it was, but my Dad would always make waffles for Christmas breakfast. My Mom never made waffles. Thanks for the great giveaway.

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  126. What a cutie patooty quilt--I have the perfect spot for that guy! At our house we always break out a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle on Thanksgiving and have to stay up on Christmas Eve until it's done--which is not so easy anymore because we are so scattered around the States.
    mscmom at hotmail dot com

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  127. A few years ago, both of my sisters were pregnant, so we made "Naughty" Tshirts for them and "Nice" Tshirts for myself and my sister-in-law. Those shirts are now passed around appropriately every year. :)

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  128. normally we eat chinese on Christmas day, our family gathering usually isn't exactly on Christmas day and not wanting to cook, we'll go and eat chinese food......love the mini quilt

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  129. Just have the usual traditions, nothing out of the ordinary. But they're all special.

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  130. Terrific giveaway! Love the quilt. I guess our most unusual xmas tradition is opnening the presents before dinner on the 24th because in Spain people usually do it on the 25th.

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  131. Going to the ZOO the day before X-mass (our X-mass is on the 24th btw.)

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  132. our family doesnt have any holiday traditions so i would say thats pretty unusual :) raineoc@yahoo.com

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  133. Growing up, our unusual tradition was going to the local Chinese buffet on Christmas day. It was a blast! Now, I guess it would have to be our Christmas Eve homemade pizza event. Thanks for the nice giveaway, and Happy Holidays!

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  134. I can tell you what I would like my unusual holiday tradition to be.... I wish I could have a chinese food and movies holiday.... but my family would be so upset with me! Thanks for a great giveaway... beautiful work!

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  135. Oh that is pretty!
    We don't have any unusual traditions that I can think of. Unless you count our kids getting only one gift from Santa. Some people think that is nuts! :)

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  136. I love this mini!! If I don't win I'm definitely making one. Thanks for the chance! We don't have any really unusual traditions, but I loved reading the comments and think putting out cookies and beer for Santa is classic!

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  137. This is really cute!! I don't think that we really do anything 'unusual'....although last year I gave all of my grown boys red unionsuits (one pc long underwear w/ the trap door) and the girls all got one pc jammies. Since they seemed like such "hick-like" gifts, I put them all in brown paper bags for the wrapping, stapled them shut and wrote their names on with Sharpie marker. It made for a lot of laughs. :)

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  138. We have little boys and are just starting to make our own traditions. I'm sure something unusual will come up this year! Thanks for the giveaway! Amy @ gasudimack(at)sbcglobal(dot)net

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  139. One of ours is to listen to the Roger Whitaker Christmas CD several times a day for the month of December: it never gets old!

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  140. We always have a quiet Christmas Day, just Hubby, me & the 2 kids But then ALL the extended family meet at the in-laws on Boxing Day (26th Dec is a public Holiday in the UK and known as Boxing Day, St Stephens day elsewhere) My parents also attend and there is always a stranger or two. (usually someone from overseas or whose family have gone away for Christmas) My MIl basically has an open house policy and people drop in all day!!!

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  141. We don't really have any traditions but the last few years I have baked excessive amounts of cookies and eaten them all to myself in the run up to Christmas!

    Katy
    x

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  142. I don't have unusual ones that I can think of but we have an advent calendar I made we always do and the kids love. We also have a santa ornament that opens it's mouth that I randomly put chocolate in. The kids love to try to be the one to find the chocolate each day. Thanks

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  143. We have the least unusual holiday traditions in the world...I'm wracking my brain and coming up empty. Maybe we need to start one:)
    Gorgeous mini! Thanks for the chance!
    beckymac1 at hotmail dot com

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  144. We leave out Coca cola for Santa and put reindeer salad on the lawn!
    I love your mini!!

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  145. The most unusual thing I can think of is that our traditional Christmas morning breakfast is biscuits with chocolate gravy. Also, my dad watches as much as he can of the 24-hour Christmas Story marathon every year. That's pretty weird if you ask me!
    mindfulhome at gmail dot com

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  146. We always have waffles with strawberries and whipped cream before we open our presents!

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  147. I don't think that any of our traditions are unusual, so I'll share one from my husband's family. His father wore purple paisley trousers all day on Christmas. Didn't matter who was coming over, where they were going, those were his Christmas pants and that's what he wore every year! I saw them. They were hideous. :)

    Thank you for the chance to win the quilt! It's so cheery and bright.

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  148. I'm pretty sure our traditions aren't out of the ordinary. A Christmas morning favorite tradition is for all of the kids to run down to the basement where the stockings hang and come back up stairs for a free-for-all opening of them. We take our time with the other presents though.

    mamaisaac09(at)gmail(dot)com

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  149. Unusual? You got me there! Where I come from originally we eat salted cod for Christmas... now that is unusual in other places I guess! But really common for us.

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  150. We have a little wood ladder that leans on our tree and little elves leave goodies now and then. I suppose this is odd to some - its scandinavian.

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  151. Love the quilt. It will look lovely on my wall! As our children are now adults, we open our presents Christmas Eve after dinner.

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  152. What a lovely mini quilt! We allow the kids to open a gift on Christmas Eve. They still expect it even though they are in their 20s!

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  153. We always watch The Christmas Story each Christmas Eve. Lovely giveaway!

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  154. Our most unusual tradition has to be the jigsaw puzzle. I start one every Christmas Eve and hide the boz so it is a surprise. We have actually had houseguests get on the road late because they want to see the finished product

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  155. One thing that is a tradition for me, is that I always get a can of black olives in my stocking. I love them! I love your little quilt and would be thrilled to win it!

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  156. Can't think of any strange tradition! This year I may not decorate the tree with ornaments, just lights. The kids are moved out and doesn't feel quite as festive.
    Love the quilt. really cut fabrics!!

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  157. We don't have an unusual tradition. But we make snowcream whenever it snows.

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  158. We go to the movie theatre on Christmas day.
    Thanks for the chance to win.

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  159. All of our traditions seem pretty ordinary to me. We have to get an orange in the toe of our stockings. That's a carryover from my childhood. But I sure would love to have that adorable little quilt!

    Leslie S. in MN
    esclante at comcast dot net

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  160. My family has a candle lit clam chowder dinner. I'm not a fan of chowder or sea food. Almost every year I forget to get something amazing to eat and scramble to find something, anything. One year my mom took pity, planned ahead, and ordered chinese food for everyone to have along with the chowder.

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  161. I leave the Christmas decorations Out till February. I love them so much, can't stand to put them away so soon. The tree has to go after new years, though.

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  162. This is totally cute!

    We don't really have any traditions. I'd like to do a "run into the new year" race sometime tho - that may be my new weird tradition starting in 2012 since I can't run right now.

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  163. our traditions are ordinary stuff like giving gifts, hanging the tree, and such , nothing unusual.

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  164. I love this quilt - so cute! I guess our most unusual holiday tradition is that we started making non-traditional (for us) foods on Christmas that were experiments, and sometimes we've regretted it! We made tamales one year, and they were amazing! Another year, we decided to make 3 different ravioli fillings and 3 sauces, but our homemade pasta was awful...hard, gritty, and very disappointing! This year, my fiancé and I will continue the tradition with an attempt at Cajun sushi (I.e. sushi rolls with spicy crawfish and green peppers) and shrimp tempura rolls. Should be...interesting!

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  165. Some people might think that me giving my grown boys stockings is unusual ,but they love them! I think I love filling them as much as they like receiving them : ) thanks Debbie.

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  166. This is s o lovely and generous of you,and reversible too.Thanks for chance to win it.We don't have any unusual tradition,just to say that we celebrate Christmas on January 7th and on the evening 6th when we came back from the church we eat on floor.Our daughter love it.


    Happy holidays!!

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  167. Our unusual family tradition is new pj's for christmas eve, which we put on after being to mass and we do a Kris Kindle between ourselves and the two pets and we get to open these on Christmas Eve.

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  168. Unusual??
    Hmm...we play porker card in the Xmas eve. The person who lose need to massage the person who win.
    Thanks for the chance to win ^^v

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  169. One of our favorite traditins started with my two children playing a game while decorating the tree...they attached a hook to ball made from a wad of masking tape found in the trash...they would turn their backs to the tree and one would pitch the ball over their backs, quickly turn around and first one to find it would win....we have saved that ball of masking tape over the years and they play that game EVERY year, even though they are now 34 and 37, lol

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  170. How did I miss this? What a beautiful mini quilt! Thanks so much for the opportunity to win. One of our traditions is to play games which my dad used to organize like how many sweeties in the jar, guess the last 3 numbers on a bill, that kind of thing. It was a lot of fun!

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  171. We don't really have any unusual traditions, but I'd love to enter your giveaway please.
    Thanks.
    Peggy
    peggy_verdongibbs@att.net
    http://keepmeinstitches-peggy.blogspot.com

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  172. How did you know I need a table topper? We have sauerkraut and olives on the table at every holiday...is that unusual enough? Merry Christmas!

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  173. So stinkin' cute! I would love to add that to our Holiday decor! I thing the most unusal tratdition we have is eating Gates & Sons BBQ (I live near Kansas City, MO) every Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family. It's a tradtion my Great Grandfather started over 30 years ago (almost my entire life!) when my Great Grandmother passed away. He couldn't cook everyone Christmas dinner but still wanted the family to come over so he provided BBQ :) Thanks for the chance! Smiles~Beth

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  174. We make cookies on Thanksgiving day, and we don't eat turkey! My dad used to butcher hogs every year on Thanksgiving so my mom started making cookies with us for something special to do, and we've now continued it as our families have grown. The kids really enjoy it!
    Very cute table topper...it'd look better on ours than the Thanksgiving runner I still have there!
    Shawna:)

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  175. I don't have anything unusual, at least not to me! We are from the South, but have lived in Chicagoland for about 7 years. I think we are the only folks around here who have black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's Day (for luck and $) but back home I don't know anyone who doesn't! Thanks for the sweet giveaway! Meg

    3rdmargaret at gmail dot com

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  176. our most unusual tradition is taking pictures with the Christmas trees in our church's auditorium. I know that's not very unusual but we always get some funny looks when we are down there before service taking pictures with the kids. Everything else we do is pretty traditional.

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  177. i can't really think of anything usual?? We don't allow the kids to be up before 7??

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  178. Well as little kids my brother and I would beg to open just one present on Xmas eve and the rest would be history-- one would lead to all! That's probably not unusual but it was a tradition :)

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  179. I don't know if it is unusual... but we celebrate on CHristmas Eve with a lot of Scandinavian traditions throw in. Before dinner, we all sit down to a bowl of Rice Pudding (it's different than you would typically see, but I can't recall how to spell it in Danish). As we eat it we all hope to find the almond inside, if you do there is a special gift for you! It's not very unusual, but other than opening all of our presents on Christmas Eve and only have cookies for dessert at Christmas time, it's the best I can come up with! :) I LOVE this quilt! It is beautiful!

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  180. My most unusual holiday tradition is to WORK! LOL.
    I'm a RN, so I normally end up working at some point over the holiday. Last year, I worked swing shift on the 24th, 25th, and 26th. This year, I go in to work at 10pm on Christmas Day. Kind of sucks, but that's what I signed up for when I became a nurse!! :)

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  181. Our family tries to guess how many Christmas cards we will receive each day & the winner gets boasting rights!
    Love your little piece of art from the heart!

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  182. We don't really have any unusual holiday traditions...we open our presents one at a time to make them last as long as possible.

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  183. I think the most unusual tradition is we tend to get our kids coal each year and that's their first "gift" they get to have.

    hwcutie@hotmail.com

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  184. Our most unusual Christmas tradition is that we spread out opening our gifts between about 4 days so that my son doesn't get overwhelmed and we all get to enjoy everything.

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  185. My boys are under 2, so we're just starting our new traditions, but this year we wrapped up 24 books to read one each night in December. Very fun.

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  186. I don't think any of our traditions are unusual except my young adults still want their christmas eve pajamas!
    momik97(at)aol(dot)com

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  187. It sounds funny, but we have Mexican food for Christmas...but it's sooooo good;p
    chacoyaguayo(at)yahoo(dot)com
    Thank you for the opportunity;)
    I absolutely love the reindeer on the back!!!

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  188. I think my most unusual holiday tradition is getting and decorating a christmas tree on christmas eve.

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  189. What a gorgeous mini-quilt...I am going to try your tutorial too. As it is summer in Australia...sometimes we do seafood for Christmas Day instead of the traditional lamb roast with vegies.

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  190. I would have to say that our "unusual tradition" would be that my husbands family gathers on Christmas Eve and makes a Low Country Boil for dinner.

    kaety-scott (at) att (dot) net

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  191. I so love mini quilts, I want all the walls in my sewing studio to be covered with them. Thanks for the chance to win. We don't always do the traditional huge dinner, frequently we have Italian, Chinese, or just snack, snack, snack the day away. this year i am preparing Prime Rib for the family.

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  192. What a cute little quilt. We have a tradition of making homemade pizza for our Christmas Eve meal. DH tosses and twirls the pizza dough to stretch it - to the delight of our daughter!

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  193. OOPS, sorry. Forgot to include my email: quiltlady59 at fuse dot net

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  194. That's a beautiful quilt! When I was growing up, we would have oyster stew for breakfast on Christmas morning, before opening presents. I remember waiting, not at all patiently, for my mom to finish eating. Now, the oyster stew is for dinner on Christmas Eve, and I don't mind it as much. Thank you for sharing this. (hrmaris at yahoo dot com)

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  195. Unusual holiday tradition? Hmmm ... nothing strange about our family here! Then again ... doesn't everyone do a mass shot of tequila with lemon and salt on Christmas eve?

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  196. we don't have unusual tradition. we eat pandoro and panettone. we put up the tree. hugs

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  197. Our most unusal... Probably racing through the streets (or sidewalk) Christmas Eve with lit candles. Whoever makes it home with the original flame from the starting candle gets to light the Christ candle.

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  198. we always do a crazy family Christmas card picture...makes our friends laugh
    ykatrina at hotmail dot com

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  199. Even though I'm all grown up, I still find myself the first awake Christmas morning. I can never wait for others to get up, so I unpack my stocking then repack it to wait for everyone else.

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