Sorry for the delay in picking the last winner (it’s been crazy here–more so than usual–is my only excuse). It was also really hard to pick one winner from the stories that were submitted. After a lot of dawdling and thinking I picked the following story by Wrighty:

I have so many Christmas traditions and memories that I cherish. We became engaged on Christmas Eve, my oldest son was born on Dec. 22nd, my brother became engaged on Christmas Eve, the list goes on and on. But one of my favorite memories was when my two oldest children outsmarted us.

My husband and I stay up late every year putting together gifts and watching A Christmas Story marathon (”you’ll shoot your eye out!”) until the wee hours of the morning. When my kids were 9 mths. 3 1/2 yrs. and 5 yrs. we got them a electric powered jeep to ride on. We were up until 3:00 a.m. putting it together and charging the battery. We put a huge red ribbon on the top, checked all of the presents and headed to bed. As a precaution, we locked the door with the hook and eye latch that’s up at the top of the door. Since they wouldn’t be unwrapping the jeep we wanted to make sure we went into the room with them in the morning to see their excited little faces when they saw their big gift. We went to sleep knowing they would be up and in our room in just a few hours.

We woke up later than expected with no kids in our faces and it was too quiet upstairs. We checked their rooms and they were empty, even the baby’s room. We hurried down the stairs just knowing we would have very anxious kids. The door was shut but it wasn’t locked. We opened it and all three of them, even the baby, were sitting in their jeep! We had no idea how they did it. They were so proud because they helped the baby out of his crib and down the stairs. Then they took the broom and raised it up to the lock and popped the hook out of the eye! They had been riding back and forth for almost an hour. They only had about 15 feet of space in that room and it was too narrow to turn around so they were just going forward and then reverse, over and over again. But they took turns! We were so shocked but it was the funniest thing to see.

It’s only one of many stories we tell our now teenagers but it’s one of the best. Sorry I rambled but thanks for letting me relive that one. Happy Holidays!

I’ve e-mailed Wrighty to let her know. You can read all the memories/traditions in the comments of the original contest thread. If I get a moment I’ll do a post of some of the other entries. They were all interesting especially the different traditions that everyone has. Have a happy holiday season whatever you celebrate! (And that reminds me that I have Festivus and Holidays on Ice to review yet).

I’m off to the land of dial-up Internet access and intermittent power outages for a litttle bit, so blog updates will be intermittent. I have a backlog of reviews to write, which I hope to get done at the airport so I can post them later this week. More giveaways next year as well as a Health & Fitness Book Reading Challenge (the challenge part is actually putting into practice what you read about!). And book reviews, which have been sparse this month due to general holiday and end of term madness, will be more regular in the New Year (I tell myself).

Related posts:

1. Dexter Season 3 Preview
2. Advent Calendar: December 23, 2009
3. Advent Calendar: December 18, 2009
4. Advent Calendars Aren’t Just for Kids: Give a Homemade Advent Calendar as a Gift
5. Advent Calendar: December 14, 2009