Mountain Musings

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 1

Welcome to the first day of Holly Jolly Bingo, everybody! This year we have 30 participants playing along, and even if you didn't send in a list, feel free to join in on the fun of commenting and discussing all the Christmas topics as we go. :) The first 15 words are below!

I know I've written about games before, but I have a NEW Christmas-themed game to share with you! Over the weekend, my in-laws came over for an early birthday party for me (I'm turning 30 today, can you believe it?!), and one of my gifts was a board game I hadn't heard of before. It's called A Christmas Carol, and it's based on the Dickens novel.

It looks quite fun, and Eric and I will have to play it soon to see who can be the first to collect the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. :) Do you have any unique Christmas games that you enjoy playing with your family? 

~Sarah

Edit: My astute readers pointed out to me that I only posted 11 words instead of 15. Something happened in the making of the graphic...all fixed now!

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Fifth Year Running!

Hello again from Georgia, everyone!!! I may be crazy to attempt this again with how busy I am right now, but welcome to the FIFTH year of Holly Jolly Bingo!

I am going to be running a contest this month, just like the last four years. If you played last year, you already know how this works; if you're new around these parts, read the rules below and feel free to jump in!

Game Instructions & Rules:

1. Choose 25 words from the list below. Write them down to save for yourself AND email your list to my email: girottih(at)yahoo(dot)com. Include your name in your email.

2. All list submissions must be received by MIDNIGHT (EST) Sunday, December 4.

3. Beginning Monday, December 5, I will post 12-15 randomly chosen words each day (Sundays excluded). Words will be posted around 8 am EST until the first two people reach BINGO! 

4. Participants will want to check our blog each and every day to find out what words were called and cross them off your list!

5. As soon as you have crossed off all 25 words, please leave a comment posting “BINGO!” I will double check your list to make sure it is a good bingo and will announce the winners on the blog. Even if someone has called “Bingo”, please continue to post “Bingo” until a winner is announced.

6. Multiple family members are welcome to play, just send me the separate lists for each of you.

Prizes:

To be announced later!

BINGO WORDS:

Remember, choose 25 words from the list below. Write them down to save for yourself AND email your list to my email: girottih(at)yahoo(dot)com. Include your name!

Deadline to get your email with your words submitted is:
MIDNIGHT (EST) Sunday, December 4.

(click on this picture and then the magnifying glass to enlarge a bit for easier viewing)

I hope y'all enjoy this! :)

~Sarah

Boy or Girl?

Can you guess what this post means from the title? That's right, Eric and I are expecting our first baby! :) We're very happy and excited about this little blessing who is due in mid-August! We have decided to find out the gender, and next week's ultrasound should be able to tell us one way or the other. I have gone through a number of the old wives' tales about predicting the gender, and there have been mixed results - some saying girl, some saying boy. Now you get a chance to add your opinions...vote in the poll below and we'll see who wins! :)

Will our baby be a boy or a girl?

Boy!

Girl!

Personality

 

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Winners!

Yay! After 10 days of playing this little Christmas game, we have our 2 winners!

Eliza L. has won the Amazon gift card!

Kelsey D. has won the Red Letter Words gift card!

Congratulations to them both! Thank you to everybody for playing along this year, I've a lot of fun with it as always. :) There were lots of people very close to winning - you'll just have to enter again next year and try once more!

I hope you all had fun, and the rest of your Christmas preparations and celebration will go well!

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 10

Happy Day 10 of Holly Jolly Bingo! We have entered the double digits of days. :) And here are the day ten words:

Does your family send out Christmas cards each year? I am trying to get some cards ready to send out this year to both Eric's side and mine as well. Still lots to go!
And do you make Christmas cookies every year? So far this year, I've made a batch of cookies to take into Eric's coworkers, and then I just made another batch yesterday. I still need to make some more traditional cut-out cookies or something, though. The kind I made yesterday were called Orange Creamsicle Cookies, but I didn't have the white chocolate chips it called for - time to substitute semisweet chips! They still taste good, I like the combo of orange and chocolate. :)

Presents are interesting this year - suddenly my family has doubled! :) Eric and I had a wrapping party last night and got a large portion of our presents all ready for next week. Fun! There are still a few items on their way here, but I think the majority of our shopping is done as well. How about you - are your presents all set for your celebration next Friday?

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 9

We are on Day 9 already! Wow! I know some of you said you're getting close, let's see if you can get any closer today:

On Sunday evening, Eric and I drove over to a program a church was putting on called Walk Through Bethlehem. It was quite crowded when we were there, as there were many children interested in petting the camels, goats, sheep, and donkey. :)
There were "shops" in the little town, and in several, they had samples of things you could bring as gifts to the baby Jesus in the manger later on. Farther along the path, past the town and animals, there was a star lit up over the manger scene.
As we stood there, a lady was reading out passages of Scripture pertaining to the birth of Christ. When she came to the part about the wise men, three men came up with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. There were some very cute little toddlers giving their little gifts they had gathered in the village, too. :)

On the way back to the car, we stopped for free hot chocolate and cookies. Yay! It was a fun evening and made good memories!

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 8

Good Tuesday morning! How many words do you have left now? Let's see if you can cross some more off today!

Do you have a special sweet potato dish that you make for Christmas? I have a recipe for sweet potato casserole that I found on AllRecipes.com years ago that has been our go-to dish for Thanksgiving and lots of times Christmas as well. Instead of the typical marshmallows on top, it has a pecan/brown sugar streusel. It's really yummy!

I made it for Thanksgiving this year...here I am in the kitchen whipping it up before we headed over to Eric's family's house. Eric obligingly took a photo of me so I could send it to Mom. :)

Here's the recipe if you want to try it, I do add a dash of cinnamon to it as well:

Sweet Potato Casserole II

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 7

Good morning, everybody! Did you have a good Lord's Day? :)

Here we are again, back at the ol' bingo game. Day seven, and the words are:

Here is our "mistletoe." No, it's not quite authentic, but it was labeled as a kissing ball in the store. It is hung centrally in our house, so basically you have to pass beneath it wherever you want to go. Very handy, isn't it? Not that we especially need mistletoe, much to the chagrin of certain siblings. ;)

Do you hang mistletoe at your house?

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 6

It's already the end of the week, can you believe it?! Here we are at Day 6, and I hope this first week of bingo has been enjoyable for you all!

I want to thank all the friends who have entered the game this year - you all broke the record for participation! We have a total of 31 blog readers playing along - wow! Thanks so much for making this such a fun event for me to run. 

And finally, after 1 full week of dilly dallying, I am announcing the prizes that you all are playing for. :) First player that posts a comment saying bingo and that has been confirmed to be a winner will have first choice between these two, and the second player to bingo will get the prize that is left.

Prize #1:

A $25 gift certificate to Red Letter Words, a company where we have bought several favorite prints. You can get several Christmas selections for $25 and under, or if you're a subscriber to their newsletter, wait for one of the snap sales and buy a larger print for 1/2 price! 

Prize #2:

A $20 gift card to Amazon.com - you can get just about anything you can think of on Amazon. :)

As with all the other years, I am taking off Sundays from posting new words, so I will see you back here bright and early on Monday morning!

~Sarah

 

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 5

It's already Friday, the fifth day! Today's words are:

I love to celebrate Christmas, with all the fun traditions and times with family and friends. But Christmas is primarily a celebration of Christ's birth here on earth, and I don't ever want to forget that! He was sent to save His people from their sins and came down to earth in human form, born as a little baby in the city of David. I hope this time of year is a reminder to you of the reason why Christ came - because we need a sinless Savior, who bore our sins on the cross and clothes us with His perfect righteousness when we repent and believe in Him. As one of the words yesterday said, what GLAD TIDINGS! :)

~Sarah