Christmas Meme

Thanks Tess for the tag! I figured Christmas Eve would be a good time to complete it, while Marty wraps presents in the other room. Obviously, I probably won't be tagging anyone else, since that would be a bit silly.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I love egg nog. I love things flavored with egg nog... like Egg Nog frozen custard from Shakey's, or egg nog coffee creamer. But I like to drink it too, but frosty cold. Yummmm....

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Of course Santa wraps!

3. Colored Light on Tree/House or White?
I think white lights look nice. But we have colored lights. As my friend Misty says, "You probably have a tree with all that crap on it, like stuff your kids made." LMAO! Uh, yeah. And the colored lights go very well with the glittery... umm, square popsicle ornament thingy with google eyes that Colby made at daycare this year.... (see photo)

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Yes, it is fake and has a gaudy bell at the end. Marty hits his head on it a hundred times a year because I hang it from the ceiling fan in our house with the seven foot ceilings. My house is full of, *DINGDINGding ding ding* "DAMMIT!!" I usually don't remind him that he is supposed to kiss me.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
We get a real tree, and my husband is a fireman... BUT that doesn't stop us from getting our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving!! If you don't go early, you will be stuck with a crapper tree that is slanted and has a big gap in the middle. Tonight, if you touch it, one million needles fall to the carpet, and they are so dry and hard that I think you could literally stab someone to death with them.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Turkey and dressing

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
This is my favorite story to tell, but I don't know that it is my favorite memory. My dad is QUITE the jokester, and really likes to get peoples goats. His small children were not excluded from his gleeful antics.

The year ATARI came out, a lot of our friends got one. We spent the first half of the year occasionally playing with one at our friends house and being jealous because we didn't have one.

My dad comes home from work in SEPTEMER or OCTOBER and is acting all excited. "Look what I found in the highway!!" He pulls a Pitfall Atari game out of a walmart sack, unopened. "I guess it fell out of someones car!! Too bad WE don't have an Atari, because it looks so fun!!" He opens it up and pulls out the full-color instruction booklet and reads the entire thing to us. He shows us pictures of different levels in the game. He sighs heavily and laments AGAIN how much fun we could have IF we owned an Atari. He then puts it on the mantel of the fireplace and points it out to us at least once a day, until Christmas...

Ended up, he had bought us the Atari that day, and the Pitfall game was free.

Torture.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was seven. Rumors from the kids at school prompted me to ask my mom if she and dad were really deceiving me all these years. I remember it pretty vividly. She was cooking something at the counter in the kitchen and I was leaned up on the opposite side. She asked me if I really wanted to know the truth, and when I insisted that I did, she told me. I then burst into tears and asked "What about the tooth fairy? and Jesus?"

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Nope. That is cheating.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
With years and years worth of different ornaments that I have liked, some handmade from my kids, and even a few ornaments from when Marty was a kid. (my mom threw all MY ornaments away when I moved out to get married. So much for nostalgia.)

11. Snow. Love it or dread it?
Love it. If I have to suffer through the cold, then at least give me snow. And if you are going to give me snow, please make it at least a foot deep so that the schools will close and I can stay home from work.

12. Can you ice skate?
Never tried, but how hard can it be?

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I got a pink vanity and an all-metal dollhouse the same year when I was 5. I felt like I had hit the motherload, and I still wish I had that dollhouse.

14. WhatÂ’s the most important thing about Christmas to you?
The most important? Or my favorite thing? My favorite thing is the magicalness of it all. The sheer excitement in my kids eyes. The silly little things, like Elizabeth pondering how Santa can make it to all the kids houses in one night, and how Colby bellows "HOHOHO" in a deep, deep voice EVERY TIME he sees a Santa, be it at the mall or on TV.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Sweet Potatoes.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Making cookies with my kids, even though this year Colby missed it all when he fell asleep in the living room floor. He was maxed out on Christmas Eve.

17. What tops your tree?
My brother bought me an angel the first year marty and I were married. Her wings broke off about 4 years ago and we have had to glue them back on EVERY YEAR. This year, Marty convinced me to use a Santa topper that I got on clearance last year to use as a table decoration. The angel is going back up next year. I am lonely without her, especially since my brother doesn't get to come home this year.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
I like giving, but I hate shopping.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Mary Did You Know? is my favorite traditional song. I love to sing Santa Baby and All I Want For Christmas Is You.

20. Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum?
I am weird. I am not much on Candy Canes, but I love peppermint flavored things. I am LOVING Millstones Peppermint Coffee this year, and very depressed that WalMart ran out two weeks ago and that my last bag will probably only last me until mid-January.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!