Christmas Tag

Thanks Michelle!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper. It's so much fun to wrap - It might be my favorite Christmas activity. I know I'm weird. Plus - then it's harder to peek, and you can't beat the sound of paper tearing on Christmas morning!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. I love, love, love the smell. Don't care much for the mess, but I just can't bring myself to get a fake one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving weekend if possible. We didn't get ours up until the 8th and I felt totally disjointed without it. It just isn't Christmas without one!
4. When do you take the tree down? I would leave it up until Valentine's Day if my hubby would allow it....but he's a humbug who has to have it down the day after Christmas.
5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE IT mixed with Cinnamon Milk.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I have a horrible memory - but two gifts stand out. One was a My Little Pony playset that had a rainbow in the clouds, complete with 'rain' from one of the clouds. I wore that thing out. My all time favorite 'gift' was the Christmas two weeks after my Dad left for the Desert Storm war. I was in 6th grade. We were all pretty depressed, until Dad showed up on the doorstep on Christmas Eve. His troop had been stationed within driving distance of us, and they got permission to drive home for 24 hours to spend time with us before they actually flew overseas. I will never forget how nothing else in the world could have been better.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yep. It was a gift for our wedding. It's porcelain, and a few of the pieces are broken, but it's sweet and we love it!
8. Hardest person to buy for? Joel for two reasons. If he wants something, he usually gets it for himself, and if I do manage to find something for him, he is an impossible snoop who will stop at nothing to find out what it is! Drives me crazy.
9. Easiest person to buy for? The two little girls - they can still be with me and are clueless - and will be excited to open anything regardless of what it is.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail...goes back to the tearing paper thing, and something tangible to hold in your hands. I don't think I am going to this year though.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? In hindsight it probably wasn't that bad, but I was a preteen, and my Mom gave me seersucker, rainbow colored hammer pants. I think she had made them for me...but I threw a huge fit. I'm sorry for being a snot Mom!!!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's hard to pick a favorite, but I love the comedies - National Lampoon Christmas Vacation is right up there.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Um, I should have started shopping already? Just kidding - every year I tell myself I'm going to start early so that the funds are less stretched, but every year I find myself getting key gifts the week of Christmas. Oh well. There's always next year...
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Maybe...bad memory, remember? I do like to craft things - so please forgive me if you receive something from me that has a part of something you gave me in it/on it.....:)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? ALL OF IT. I'm already enjoying the cookies too much! (Must save the fudge for the week of or I'll just get too big...)
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree ? I switch back and forth. This year it's both. It makes it more *twinkly* - I have a minimun 6 strand requirement for my tree.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I have a lot of favorites. I love them all - been listening since Halloween. (Except for that one where the old girlfriend runs into her old flame at the grocery store, and they go and drink together and talk about how she doesn't love her husband - What in the world does that one have to do with Christmas???) But I do LOVE 'A Prayer For The Children' sung by men - give's me the chills every time.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? For the first time ever - Stay home. We're excited to start our own family traditions finally. It will be bittersweet though - we'll miss the family!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes. My kids are getting tired of Mom singing them at the top of her lungs when they start to bicker in the car. But it works. They join in most every time.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? The angel caught on fire and nearly burned our house down last year - STAR - with no electricity attached.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning for the bulk of the gifts, but there's always a special package of PJ's to open the night before.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? When people say 'X-mas'. It's all about Christ, why take him out of the equation?
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red. I can't get enough of it!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham with mustard sauce. Yum.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Nothing, really. I'm a pretty lucky girl to have the family I do! What more could I ask for?