tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post7519191494485700202..comments2024-03-28T14:33:26.011-04:00Comments on Jungle Red Writers: The Annual Holiday Madness: McKinlay-Orf Style by Jenn McKinlayJungle Red Writershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16646429819267618412noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-62623283383317721672017-11-26T20:35:22.016-05:002017-11-26T20:35:22.016-05:00You are so smart. I order them early to get a disc...You are so smart. I order them early to get a discount but that’s as savvy as I get! I love that you cry together :) Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-4409052206186867912017-11-26T20:34:24.019-05:002017-11-26T20:34:24.019-05:00I love this, David. How wonderful to have two holi...I love this, David. How wonderful to have two holidays to celebrate and I really love celebrating that the light ultimately overcomes the darkness!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-81922866855965249212017-11-26T20:33:13.631-05:002017-11-26T20:33:13.631-05:00I love the charitable donations. When we travel, o...I love the charitable donations. When we travel, our pet sitter takes care of our furry kids out of friendship and a love of animals. When I insist on paying her, she has great fun picking out the animal charity the money will go to. Win-win!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-35623312211272409652017-11-26T20:30:52.788-05:002017-11-26T20:30:52.788-05:00Ha! Our tradition is peppermint bark! It doesn’t f...Ha! Our tradition is peppermint bark! It doesn’t feel like the holidays until we’ve made a batch!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-72201886628651451982017-11-26T20:28:38.509-05:002017-11-26T20:28:38.509-05:00I love looking at Christmas lights and your open h...I love looking at Christmas lights and your open house sounds lovely.Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-71778244340947959852017-11-26T20:19:19.085-05:002017-11-26T20:19:19.085-05:00Oh, I like the newsletters, especially the well wr...Oh, I like the newsletters, especially the well written ones.Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-34349950203836433062017-11-26T20:18:00.153-05:002017-11-26T20:18:00.153-05:00Oh, I like the e-cards, Deb. Very environmentally ...Oh, I like the e-cards, Deb. Very environmentally friendly!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-75010328740187528222017-11-26T17:16:10.223-05:002017-11-26T17:16:10.223-05:00Love all these traditions!Love all these traditions!Hallie Ephronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04759439029582054503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-74770246456745161782017-11-26T16:54:14.218-05:002017-11-26T16:54:14.218-05:00I adore your cards. They sure are amazing. I alway...I adore your cards. They sure are amazing. I always get my cards made up through free coupons, lol. Everyone thinks they are wonderful and expensive, little do they know. So let's keep that between us. Tyler, my dog is always front and center and I always quote either from It's a Wonderful Life or the song I believe in Father Christmas. Don't know how that started but it has stuck. Our one tradition for the Christmas celebration is my older brother plays a loop of Christmas songs that incite us all to cry. Crying is the big thing, lol.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11806151679564881115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-30629804786619630952017-11-26T16:33:25.342-05:002017-11-26T16:33:25.342-05:00That’s a very creative idea for re-using gift card...That’s a very creative idea for re-using gift cards, Hank. I’ll have to start doing that! <br /><br />Jenn: Go for it. Some cards are so lovely I can’t bring myself to toss them into recycling. Amanda Le Rougetelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17975933690463168906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-91136606288499412362017-11-26T15:42:43.213-05:002017-11-26T15:42:43.213-05:00I celebrate Christmas with joy. I will join friend...I celebrate Christmas with joy. I will join friends at church this year, and worship on Sunday evening before the holiday. No special traditions. However, I will also celebrate Chanukah by lighting my Chanukiah on all eight nights. When I lived in New York, you could always buy packages of 45 candles in the supermarkets. Living in Bucks County, PA you can not count on that. So keeping the tradition, requires me to go online (usually in October) and purchase the candles mail-order. The candles I order are hand-crafted in Israel and are blue and white. This year, I am trying something new, having ordered a tin of wax to put on the bottom of each candle to make sure it remains stable in the menorah. I am a bachelor and live in a small apartment. I don't really have a good window to display the menorah publicly. So, in lieu of that, each night, I post my photo on Facebook and maybe this year on Instagram. Several years ago, I used an online calculator to discover I was born on the first night of the holiday. I don't think my mother noticed at the time. Nevertheless, it is a season to celebrate that light ultimately overcomes darkness.David Squireshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17144607647071920674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-1724471573648308832017-11-26T14:17:22.621-05:002017-11-26T14:17:22.621-05:00When our boys were young, we alternated holidays b...When our boys were young, we alternated holidays between my parents and my wife's: one year to mine for Thanksgiving and hers for Christmas, next year the opposite. Once in a while we would stay home from exhaustion, especially when my wife went back to gradual school. We used to do newsletters to update friends whom we didn't see often, but those went by the way with social media keeping everyone more updated. This year we went back to the newsletter since we're having so many changes. And the pictures are now of our grandkids. Our main gift tradition is for the folks in my generation to "give" each other charitable donations; this year I asked for donations for aid to Puerto Rico, and my sister asked fro help for their church in Houston. We still have great fun picking out things for the younger ones.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-45307827262001758122017-11-26T13:55:57.870-05:002017-11-26T13:55:57.870-05:00Gigi, what a lovely memory of the time with your h...Gigi, what a lovely memory of the time with your husband. Do you have copies of all the cards or the originals? I can imagine a wonderful framed display to put out at Christmas.Kathy Reelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17004247271452356577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-61097536410253022952017-11-26T13:53:56.699-05:002017-11-26T13:53:56.699-05:00Jenn, your cards are fantastic! And what fun it m...Jenn, your cards are fantastic! And what fun it must be making them. Since our kids are grown, the Christmas traditions have slowed down, but when we had some I really enjoyed when they were growing up. We always made chocolate fudge either on Christmas Eve or a couple of days before Christmas. This was for Santa, as well as for us. On Christmas Eve, the kids would set out a few pieces of fudge and a glass of milk for Jolly Old St. Nick before they went to bed. I enjoyed eating those as I put out the presents for Christmas morning. Also on Christmas Eve, my daughter and son would receive a couple of gifts to open, a book and a pair of Christmas pajamas, which they would put on to sleep in that night. We would also read some Christmas books that evening. Then, Christmas morning would be Santa Claus and stockings filled with the traditional orange, apple, and banana plus candy and a couple of little surprises. <br /><br />I still send out Christmas cards, the snail mail kind. Last year I knew that I had ordered ahead and had Christmas cards put back, but when it came time to send them, I looked high and low and couldn't find them. I've ordered some to come this next week, since I'm not counting on finding those others until one day when I do a complete house throwing out. I have a tradition of using Lang Company cards, beautiful and well-made cards. A friend of mine, actually my first real boyfriend who is a journalist now, uses the Lang cards, too, and we laugh about it. <br /><br />Our Christmas tree, artificial, goes up Thanksgiving week, but it seems it's getting decorated later each year. It's up now, but I doubt I'll start decorating it until tomorrow. I do still have the countdown calendar shaped like a Christmas tree with the Santa that goes from pocket to pocket from Dec. 1st to the 24th. I do it even without the kids. Kathy Reelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17004247271452356577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-25676671281164169202017-11-26T13:21:46.536-05:002017-11-26T13:21:46.536-05:00Customs have changed as we have moved around. Now ...Customs have changed as we have moved around. Now we take Mom for a ride through a posh part of town to view the decorated houses and Christmas lights. Some are quite incredible. We put on an open house with all kinds of snacks Christmas afternoon to evening at Mom's apartment. Family stops in and some of us exchange gifts. We have a fun evening and eat too much. I'm afraid most Christmas traditions have fallen by the wayside as circumstances have changed.Pat Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12732230586783432052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-10302346291413934262017-11-26T12:52:56.994-05:002017-11-26T12:52:56.994-05:00Impressive creativity and fun! My flint-knapping ...Impressive creativity and fun! My flint-knapping friend often incorporates spears and atlatls into their cards. I've begun sending few and receiving fewer, but I always look forward to his . . . and a couple of newsy newsletters for catching up.Storyteller Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03807705866873141004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-3766989834145303292017-11-26T12:51:02.461-05:002017-11-26T12:51:02.461-05:00Jenn, I love your cards! We've made our own ca...Jenn, I love your cards! We've made our own cards for about 25 years, too. We started out with hand-made (the year I was on painkillers from dental surgery and hand-stamped a hundred cards with gold pears from a wood cut we'd made...) and then moved to photos. Usually something Christmasy around the house, sometimes the dogs or cats. It's always a challenge, but fun, and we wouldn't give it up. But we did switch to e-cards a few years ago, as sending folding paper cards to our 100 plus list just got too expensive. We use Paperless Post which does fabulous cards that open like real cards. For the few people who don't have email, I write some cards by hand.Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-46655719302133633802017-11-26T11:48:51.661-05:002017-11-26T11:48:51.661-05:00And I re-purpose the last years' cards as gift...And I re-purpose the last years' cards as gift tags! Do you do that? Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-17684997518802230282017-11-26T11:09:59.285-05:002017-11-26T11:09:59.285-05:00Ann - that sounds lovely. I love Xmas crackers! Hu...Ann - that sounds lovely. I love Xmas crackers! Hub and I stopped exchanging gifts except for small tokens during the recession and we’ve never gone back. We realized we can’t put a ribbon on the love and support we give each other every day and that really is the greatest gift.Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-89213285360591584612017-11-26T11:01:31.135-05:002017-11-26T11:01:31.135-05:00Ha! I love stockings! And tree presents sound love...Ha! I love stockings! And tree presents sound lovely, Rhys!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-9563870454909876412017-11-26T10:57:59.237-05:002017-11-26T10:57:59.237-05:00Wow - that’s endurance!Wow - that’s endurance!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-24434613042511042442017-11-26T10:57:36.525-05:002017-11-26T10:57:36.525-05:00Cookies rule! I bake tons of cookies - I need a de...Cookies rule! I bake tons of cookies - I need a decorating fiend.Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-1298398164156586442017-11-26T10:56:54.064-05:002017-11-26T10:56:54.064-05:00Thanks, Jenn!Thanks, Jenn!Grace Koshidahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05934603958949938617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-24126238890557536842017-11-26T10:55:31.277-05:002017-11-26T10:55:31.277-05:00Safari is weird!Safari is weird!Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-34551778227327579432017-11-26T10:55:07.404-05:002017-11-26T10:55:07.404-05:00We’ll see. I will only keep doing them while every...We’ll see. I will only keep doing them while everyone is on board or perhaps I’ll let them take over.Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03214926031147370862noreply@blogger.com