what's your holiday tradition?

We’ve been talking a lot about holiday traditions in our home recently. As Christmas approaches Pat and I have been thinking about the things we did growing up that we always looked forward too.

One tradition in my home growing up was that Santa always delivered a stuffed animal to our bed on Christmas Eve. He did this to make sure we were sleeping. Pat and I have decided to pass on this tradition and are looking for a unique stuffed animal for Zane this year.

We are thinking of ideas now for the traditions we want our family to have. Some we’ll start this year and others we’ll wait for until Zane’s a bit older.

So this leaves me with a question for you…what are your holiday traditions? Not only would I love to hear them but I would love to see them somehow depicted in a photo. And how about a prize for sharing your traditions?

I am honored to be in HP Photographic Memories interview series with other rocking mom bloggers. Part of being in this fine group of women is that I get to give you some HP Photo Books!

What are HP Photo Books?
Photo Books are a fun, easy way to create a customized, professional quality photo book at home with your inkjet printer. The innovative binding system – think of a big binder clip – lets you replace or rearrange pages and add mementos like ticket stubs or invitations. The included software has a variety of professionally designed layouts, or you can create your own with your favorite graphics package. If you have a MAC I suggest using INDesign or PhotoShop to put together some unique layouts. The books come in two sizes, 5x7 ($14.99) and 8.5x11 ($24.99) and in multiple colors.

You can find the book at HP Home and Home Office Store, Best Buy, QVC, Amazon.com, Staples, Office Depot and Circuit City (online only). Just in time for the holidays HP is offering a 20% discount off the purchase of a Photo Book in the HP Store. You can find the coupon for this offer here. Also, a number of retailers, including the HP Home and Home Office Store, will be offering instant rebates on printers during the upcoming holiday season, including the A626 Compact Printer.

Or you can win them here! And one lucky winner will also get a HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer. Due to a shipping error I received two printers but HP was happy to let me keep the second to give away to my readers.

Let’s recap…post a link to your blog or Flickr photo that describes your holiday tradition by Tuesday, November 20. Two judges will take a look at the entries and pick two winners. The judges will be my mother (who is a professional photographer) and my Uncle Lee (who doesn’t know that he's a judge yet but will be in town). He also has a great eye for photography.

First place will receive two Photo Books (one 5x7 and one 8.5x11) and a HP Photosmart printer. Second place will receive two Photo Books (one 5x7 and one 8.5x11).

Share your holiday traditions and get a great gift for yourself or someone else!

Contest Change: Several of you have noted that you don't have pictures of your traditions! That's okay...make sure to take some this year though to save those memories! Just go ahead and tell me about your tradition and we'll go with that, but if you have a photo please share it with us as well.