Oooh! I love the holidays. I don’t know that I can pick a favorite.

In fact, I’m spilling some news here. A few months ago, I was delighted to sign a contract with The Wild Rose Press (my third!) for a story I’ve been calling #projectshowbiz. The REAL title of the novel is…..

A former child star renovates an old theater to put on a new musical for every holiday of the year in a small forgotten Wisconsin town. What could go wrong? More details to follow…but back to my favorite holiday of the year.

As a kid, Christmas was tops, hands down. It still is pretty great. I love everything: watching TV specials, cutting down and decorating our tree, reading books by the fire, drinking hot cocoa, hanging the lights on the outside of my house, wrapping gifts, mailing cards, our church Sunday School program and advent services. I love making the whole month between Thanksgiving and Christmas (extended now to New Year’s Eve) special for my family.

Taking charge of Christmas, however, I realized I could inject spirit into the other holidays too! So here are some of the traditions we love.

Valentine’s Day (a candy holiday, I decorate our big table and everyone wakes up to surprises at their seats. This year, I bought a heart waffle maker–big hit)

St. Patrick’s Day (green food which is hilarious with kids)

Easter (besides coloring eggs and participating in a local egg hunt, we do a scavenger hunt through our house for our baskets before church and then brunch)

4th of July (we live in the heart of our town and the parade goes right by our house. This is probably the holiday that has changed the most for me. Our street is blocked off in the morning so we spend the day willingly trapped. Our neighbors hold a block-party breakfast, then the parade, then we start grilling and turn on the water toys for the kids. We can walk/ride bikes to our local pool in the afternoon, and we love to ride our bikes on the trails to the fireworks at a nearby park.)

Labor Day (this is only a celebration because we try to meet up with my family up north and get the kids together. Anytime we all get together is a lot of fun.)

Halloween (We bought our house because it is in the ideal trick or treat neighborhood–seriously–and this is hands down the best. Our kids’ school hosts a costume parade and we live close enough we can walk–parking is a beast that day. Then we head out around 4. The older the kids get, the longer we trick or treat and it’s so much fun. Also–I love the movie Hocus Pocus and wholeheartedly support Freeform Channel’s month of spooky programming.)

Thanksgiving is a holiday we have to travel for so we don’t have any established traditions other than I watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I LOVE the parade. As a kid, I went in person twice and it was amazing. I’d love to take my kids one day (but to be honest, I think I’d be fine if they were older, they’ve never been to New York and it’s a big culture shock from Chicago for kids).