on traditions (of yore)...

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Folgers.

I've always been a girl who is slightly obsessed with the holidays, and this year will be no exception. As I sit on the couch while I wait for my first batch of pumpkin chip muffins to bake, I can't help but feel like a small part of me is back home again.

I'll admit it: I'm totally the girl who goes into Michaels in mid-October and wants to dance down the holiday aisles while throwing garland in the air and singing Christmas carols. While wearing a fancy sweater and eating fudge. (I'd bring my own fudge, obviously.) I think what I love most about this time of year is the fact that it always makes me feel young again. Even though I'm all grown up, even though I'm far away from my family, even though my husband and I are busy attempting to create traditions of our own, I can't help but get that warm, back-home-again feeling in my heart when the weather cools and the holidays are around the corner.

Here are a few of my favorite holiday traditions (of yore, because I am obviously no longer a little girl):

1. Watching holiday movies with my parents and sisters. Now, let's be honest with each other here: How many people actually wait until after Thanksgiving to start watching their favorite Christmas movies? NOT THIS GIRL. My sisters and I would hardly be out of our Halloween costumes before we were crawling around the basement looking for the boxes full of holiday decorations, books and movies. Every year we'd watch Miracle on 34th Street and Home Alone like it was the very first time we had seen them. And every Christmas Eve we'd watch Prancer, my favorite holiday movie. ("PRANCER LIVES IN THE SHED BEHIND MY HOUSE!" Seriously, everyone needs to see this movie. It's epic.)

2. Holiday treats. Between the aforementioned pumpkin chip muffins and the belgian waffles (topped with whipped cream and strawberries!) that my dad would always make on Christmas morning, there were many delicious goodies that filled our kitchen! I have no idea how I wasn't shaped like a blueberry as a child due to all the fudge, sugar cookies carefully decorated by my sisters and I and mugs of hot chocolate that filled up our holiday season. Note to self: Actually take time to make each of these treats this year. And bring most of them to work for other people to eat, so I don't have to also invest in new pants. Amen.

3. Carving pumpkins. Playing in the leaves my dad would rake into neat piles. Cutting snowflakes out of coffee filters until the actual snow fell from the sky. Driving through the city to look at houses decorated in thousands of twinkling lights.

4. Christmas Eve dinner. Now, this is going to sound silly, but I think that's why it is so endearing to me! Every Christmas Eve (for most of the years I lived at home) we would have dinner at Pizza Hut. I'm sure the people working at Pizza Hut were judging us, thinking we were some lazy family who didn't feel like cooking on a holiday. But, really? My mom would spend all of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the kitchen, and we all figured the best thing to do the day before a holiday would be to have someone else cook for you. I also loved that it was something that nobody else I knew did. It was this quirky little tradition that each of us looked forward to every year.

So, it's your turn. What are some of your favorite holiday traditions? Sweet, quirky or delicious...I want to know!

Do you have a holiday story you'd like to share? Give the rest of us the warm fuzzies by entering the Folgers "Home for the Holidays" Essay Contest! Tell Folgers about the best part of wakin' up for the holidays. Click here for all the goodness. If you would like to read 9 other bloggers' stories about their holiday traditions, please visit the BlogHer.com round-up page here: BlogHer.com exclusive offers page!