hi. my name is karli and i'm addicted to the holidays.

i can't help it...and i know i'm not the only one, so it makes it easier to accept.

i mean, i'm that girl that put up most of her christmas decorations before thanksgiving.

but really, it's something about the decorations, the traditions, cozy clothing, delicious food and treats...but above and beyond these goodies...i'm particularly thankful that i have two daughters this holiday season to start making memories and establishing traditions with.

my farmer and i have been talking about family traditions before we even thought about having children; and now that they are both here...well...let the memory-making begin.

as a young gal, holidays were a big deal full of family, food, and fun...

several weeks before christmas my parents would crank the garth brooks christmas album in the tape player and we would decorate our tree while munching on appetizers.

every christmas eve my sister and i would put on some sort of matching holiday dress and we would head to christmas eve mass. after mass we would make our way back to the house where we were allowed to open one present.

and every christmas we enjoyed monkey bread for breakfast. then, as a family, each of us would take turns opening one gift at a time in a systematic order. stockings were always opened last.

traditions. these are traditions i'll never forget and give me the warm-fuzzies.

as i was saying...i'm beyond excited to start establishing these traditions with my two best gals and my farmer. my farmer who works so hard during the warm months for us so we can enjoy his time off during the cold ones.

have i mentioned how thankful i am for my farmer? he makes our family's world go 'round.

and now that our family of two has expanded to a family of four, we can only hope that the traditions and memories we make over the coming years stick in our girl's memories and encourage them to carry on the warmth and love the holidays bring to our lives each year.


i'm partnering with New York Life's Keep Good Going campaign in hopes that you will share a photo promoting the good things in life. are you baking something delicious for your family for the holidays? are you going to go look at christmas lights? did you have a family photo session for your christmas card? share the good in life!

we can also participate in the New York Life Keep Good Going campaign by tweeting a holiday tradition or memory. just use the hastags #KeepGoodGoing and #FeedingAMillion. each tweet with the above two hashtags will trigger a donation of 25 meals from New York Life to Feeding America! this is amazing people! spread the word!

through 1.09.2015, New York Life will donate $2.50 for each approved post, with a minimum of $25K and a maximum of $100K. see terms for details. find info about Feeding America at feedingamerica.org.

we also have the amazing chance to win not only a $50 VISA gift card, but also a $50 donation on behalf of BlogHer in the winner's name to Feeding America!

to get entered - what is your family's favorite holiday activity that you do together?

now get busy! tweet your holiday tradition or memory using #KeepGoodGoing and #FeedingAMillion. and don't forget to upload your photo to New York Life's Celebrating Good campaign!


Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 12/1/2014 – 12/31/2014.
Be sure to visit the New York Life brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!