Christmas meme

I picked this up over at Ladybug's

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? mostly wrapping paper. After being spoiled in Korea by very cheap gift bag prices (I could get 10 for a buck there!) I just can't buy them here.

2. Real tree or artificial? artificial, but I've had my oldest one for 15 years and the second tree is 8 years old...so while I may have contributed to pollution to make these, I haven't recontributed for a very long time.

3. When do you put up the tree? this is the main reason I NEED artificial trees, I put mine up the day after Thanksgiving...and don't take it down until...

4. When do you take the tree down? January 6th - Epiphany
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but I've NEVER bought it before. When I was a kid my mother & grandmother would get it and mix in even more whipping cream and then give me some with just a bit of rum in it. When I finally got to legal drinking age they gave me it with all the rum they normally have and WHOA!!! I prefer the kiddy style please.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? That's hard. I guess my favorite would have had to been my 3 speed bike...even though my brother got one just like it (but the boy's version...I bet they were a his & hers set!) The bike gave me the freedom to travel all over our small town. I rode that thing everywhere...and one year we got walkie talkies...so it was like having a cell phone. LOL

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup, a few actually...but not as many as my friend Jen...she collects them.


8. Hardest person to buy for? DH! He won't tell me what he wants. Although, this year he did say that he wants: a battery for our VHS recorder, a battery for his watch, a battery for our dog's bark collar and some new black socks. Yippee!


9. Easiest person to buy for? Darly! She makes me out a list. But the poor child keeps adding to it after I've already bought everything I plan to get her.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? It was our first Christmas and I don't know where it was that we were, but I mentioned that I wanted to get a rail to put up in our laundry room to hang clothes out to dry on. So DH gets me an over the door pop-up clothes hanging rack. It wasn't even what I wanted...blech. And guess what I still have the darned thing...and use it too. But I do have a rail in my laundry room too.


11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I mail out carts to almost 50 people.


12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? whenever I find something that would make a good gift. I like to have most of it done by Thanksgiving...I have never been done by Thanksgiving though.


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? yep


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? CHEESECAKE!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I like both...and this year there's a tree at my grocery store that has both that fade in and out...so for a bit it's colored and then it's clear. It's soooo pretty. But DH says I can't have it. But you know if they have any left on sale after Christmas this year...IT'S MINE!

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Did You Know" by Todd Agnew

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We tried that whole travel thing when we were first married and now that we have a child...we stay home. My mom used to get annoyed because she couldn't afford to come here, but this year my brother used his miles to bring her out...so she's a pretty happy gal. Although my SIL ruined mom's plans of getting to see my nephew open his Christmas gifts this year by doing their annual trek up to Snowmass. Which means I get mom for Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yup! "you know Dasher, and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid (or is it Cupit?) and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall?...the most famous Reindeer of all?... Rudolph the red nosed reindeer...

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angels. We got the first one as a wedding present and the second one was a present for when Darly was born...good thing we got a second tree! I tried that Halmark star that shines star patterns up at your ceiling, but it needed to be farther away from the ceiling to work right...so I returned it. I think a bunch of people returned it because they don't sell them anymore.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Dh's family has Santa arrive while they are at Church for Christmas Eve mass. In my family Santa comes when we are all asleep. So as a compromise I suggested that we could open some gifts from eachother on Christmas Eve, but Santa gifts don't come until we are asleep so they will be opened on Christmas day. Well since I do that and MIL is getting older and doesn't want to stay up all night she agrees to it and we can to to Christmas Eve mass at the early time. This year our services are at 4, 7 & 9pm.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? how everything is soooo crowded. I really hate to be amid all that. So I try to save my shopping for early morning mid week or get it all done before the season starts.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I love all the Christmas Cheer!