Edited to add: Doug, I thought your idea of a one day thread was cool, but since there are HP events all month long, I wanted to go ahead and run it all month!!
probably better that way...
could you image what would happen to the servers w/ all of us trying to load all our entries the same day?
not sure magic could keep them up and running!
YAY!!!! This is a great compromise! I love a happy ending
Well, this sums up the whole TOTM philosophy to me!!!! Thanks, JulesM7!!!
Honeydukes-- I'm such a stupid muggle!! And I KNEW that hunky Daniel Radcliffe had already been signed for the next few movies. Hey, look at the time I posted---brain-dead time.
Doug, I could not be happier to stay away from all the been-there-done-that, cakes and cookies. That is also what TOTM is all about!!!
Thank You so much Nancy for your nice compliments! I don't get to do cookies much for it can be such back breaking work. As for being up so late....I need to have a one on one with my body, it does things like sometimes 
.
I will all ready being doing a 4th of July cake for a friend, but if my hands, eyes and body are up for it would love to try something challenging like HP.
Good call Melvira, my heart was going out to you, over what you were going to do so no feelings would be hurt or up set. It is as JulesM7 reply "A great compromise"!
God Bless,
Sharon
If you vote for somthing it get over turn then it would be just like when bush ran for president and some how He won... hum I rather see both then to just push the vote to the side.
TOTALLY AGREE, no point in having a vote if that is allowed. Can't please everybody.
glad you decided against overriding, now that would have caused a big to do.
In the dictionary patriotism is showing support for one's country. Doesn't say anything about US or 4th of July. I show support for my country every time I vote, everytime I go to a church of my choosing, everytime I read a book of my choosing (Harry Potter included), when I speak my mind, there are so many ways to show your patriotism. Don't be stuck in a box and think it's just the good ol' red white and blue and fireworks. Thats easy and the 4th of July. Think about what patriotism is to you and pick an idea. Think out side the box.
Thank you very much for making me think about it cause now I can explain it to my 5 year old grandson.
Yes, I like the compromise. I think if you had totally abandoned the vote that then there would be no point in having a vote at all and would have been no different than the reason this thread was started. As for all the votes and no comments, you don't have to comment to leave a vote, so the HP people were just more verbal this month. =) As for the holidays and such, if that is the popular choice it is the popular choice. Not everyone has been baking for years and years and may not have done that before. I thought the main reason for TOTM was to have few rules and to have fun. If more people want to abandon holidays altogether then they won't suggest them. I think if we get too absolute on the ideas then people won't be as likely to participate. I personally believe that the broader the theme is for interpretation the better. So in December instead of Christmas you could do something like family traditions. I also don't think that encompassing a broader theme to encompass more suggestions wouldn't offend anyone either. For example if you have one person suggest picnics, another suggest swimming, and another camping, etc etc then making a theme that was All things summer to encompass those would be nice, because you could have 10 different ideas that relate around that theme, but say get five votes for each of them, so none of them get chosen even though they all revolve around summer. Those are just my 2 cents.
Yes, I like the compromise. I think if you had totally abandoned the vote that then there would be no point in having a vote at all and would have been no different than the reason this thread was started. As for all the votes and no comments, you don't have to comment to leave a vote, so the HP people were just more verbal this month. =) As for the holidays and such, if that is the popular choice it is the popular choice. Not everyone has been baking for years and years and may not have done that before. I thought the main reason for TOTM was to have few rules and to have fun. If more people want to abandon holidays altogether then they won't suggest them. I think if we get too absolute on the ideas then people won't be as likely to participate. I personally believe that the broader the theme is for interpretation the better. So in December instead of Christmas you could do something like family traditions. I also don't think that encompassing a broader theme to encompass more suggestions wouldn't offend anyone either. For example if you have one person suggest picnics, another suggest swimming, and another camping, etc etc then making a theme that was All things summer to encompass those would be nice, because you could have 10 different ideas that relate around that theme, but say get five votes for each of them, so none of them get chosen even though they all revolve around summer. Those are just my 2 cents.
glad to see we agree on the need to move beyond culturally, religiously specific themes to broader, more universal themes.
As for the holidays and such, if that is the popular choice it is the popular choice. Not everyone has been baking for years and years and may not have done that before. I thought the main reason for TOTM was to have few rules and to have fun. If more people want to abandon holidays altogether then they won't suggest them. I think if we get too absolute on the ideas then people won't be as likely to participate. I personally believe that the broader the theme is for interpretation the better. So in December instead of Christmas you could do something like family traditions.
I think the point of abandoning holidays is that people tend to choose things based on them instead of coming up with something different and those ideas always seem to be based in a holiday month. I doubt you'd see Americans picking Patriotism in December for example and to me family traditions is just another way of saying the winter holidays or Christmas.
This is just my opinion of course but personally I would rather see something totally different.
In the dictionary patriotism is showing support for one's country. Doesn't say anything about US or 4th of July. I show support for my country every time I vote, everytime I go to a church of my choosing, everytime I read a book of my choosing (Harry Potter included), when I speak my mind, there are so many ways to show your patriotism. Don't be stuck in a box and think it's just the good ol' red white and blue and fireworks. Thats easy and the 4th of July. Think about what patriotism is to you and pick an idea. Think out side the box.
I agree 
Hope I did the quote thing right, I have not try it before now.
God Bless,
Sharon
Edited to redo a type-o
Potter is cool, but I don't know I think the biggest thing in July is the 4th so I'm going to vote patriotic
Well , I voted for Harry ( have no idea of design yet ! ) - not into 4th July stuff ( no offense meant but how many of you would be into 26th January ?!)
Something more global or generic would be better
Hey Jules! I love the Anzac cookies associated with 26th of January! Mmmm...
Rachel
Can I just correct you Rachel, the Anzac cookies are for the 25th April which is Anzac Day here (but we eat them any time of the year ). The 26th January is Australia Day.
Oops! LOL - I just know I love Anzacs. LOL
Rachel
I think the point of abandoning holidays is that people tend to choose things based on them instead of coming up with something different and those ideas always seem to be based in a holiday month. I doubt you'd see Americans picking Patriotism in December for example and to me family traditions is just another way of saying the winter holidays or Christmas.
This is just my opinion of course but personally I would rather see something totally different.
Family traditions could encompass all religions that have holidays that they celebrate in December it could also embrace the family that has eggs and toast for breakfast every saturday or say goes to a Denny's once a week, or lots of different variations that would allow for thinking outside of the box.
Can I just correct you Rachel, the Anzac cookies are for the 25th April which is Anzac Day here (but we eat them any time of the year
). The 26th January is Australia Day.
Took the words right out of my mouth !!!
Rachel - you are right, they are yummy !!
a vital point I was trying to make and obviously was missed....
is to divorce the theme from a specific time of year.
Patriotism in February -- not july as is traditional in USA
Family Traditions in July -- not december
etc.
otherwise we will tend to fall into preconceived notions still.
Family traditions could encompass all religions that have holidays that they celebrate in December it could also embrace the family that has eggs and toast for breakfast every saturday or say goes to a Denny's once a week, or lots of different variations that would allow for thinking outside of the box.
While this is true, putting the family traditions in December, when the dominant traditions for Christians would be related to Christmas, pretty much guarantees that the theme will be heavily pushed in that direction. While people can stretch it, the vast majority of submissions will be Christmas-y. What might be more interesting is to do the family traditions theme in a month other than December, April (where it would just be Easter), or July.
I may be wrong, but I have a prediction regarding the Patriotism/4th of July theme. I am predicting that well over 90% of the posts will be 4th of July-related (or at least US-centric), and that the thread will be pretty dormant by the third week of July.
C'mon everyone--keep the creative juices flowing and prove my prediction wrong on this one.
My son, who has been reading over my shoulder a lot this week, wants to do a cookie or cake combining the two themes. So far, he has come up with the idea of Harry on a broomstick with red, white, and blue streamers coming off the back of the broom and a Quiddich field with red, white, and blue goals. He was kind of disappointed when I pointed out that the themes would be on separate threads.
Edited to say--I should have finished reading this thread, in which case I would have seen that Doug addressed this better than I did.
well wish ever way you go or if you do both just have a great time !!
Family traditions could encompass all religions that have holidays that they celebrate in December it could also embrace the family that has eggs and toast for breakfast every saturday or say goes to a Denny's once a week, or lots of different variations that would allow for thinking outside of the box.
While this is true, putting the family traditions in December, when the dominant traditions for Christians would be related to Christmas, pretty much guarantees that the theme will be heavily pushed in that direction. While people can stretch it, the vast majority of submissions will be Christmas-y. What might be more interesting is to do the family traditions theme in a month other than December, April (where it would just be Easter), or July.
I may be wrong, but I have a prediction regarding the Patriotism/4th of July theme. I am predicting that well over 90% of the posts will be 4th of July-related (or at least US-centric), and that the thread will be pretty dormant by the third week of July.
Edited to say--I should have finished reading this thread, in which case I would have seen that Doug addressed this better than I did.
Okay you CAN do something totally not related to any winter holiday with a family traditions theme in December but honestly how many people would?
It's like patriotism, I'll be making something decorated for the 4th that could easily fit in whether that's the theme or not. Do this theme in April and I'll have to make something I normally wouldn't that month to fit the theme if I want to participate and I think that should be the point of this.
It's just like having Love as a theme during Feb, there will be a few people who do something really off the wall with it but most will make something related to Valentine's Day.
And Doug did say what I'm trying to best.
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