This little meme has been making the rounds in the Loomy World…I’ve been “group tagged” by Robin, and am the last to get her act together and put it on her blog!  I mention Jenny below, as I pasted the questions from her blog.  I hope you enjoy reading these little what-nots, and feel free to post the same on your own blog!  Let’s hear what you’ve got to say too!  😀

Well….here goes!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? 

I’m with Jenny on this one…I like to use both.   The more variety we have under the tree, the better! (as long as they all sort of coordinate with each other…have to have that color balance thing going, lol.)  😉

2. Real tree or Artificial?
We used to buy real trees every year, but switched to a set of 3 skinny artificial trees after the prices on live trees kept skyrocketing…and this way no needles to clean up!

3. When do you put up the tree?
This year we dove in head first and put everything up Thanksgiving weekend…usually we’re so busy that it doesn’t get done until about the 2nd week of December.  I’ve been really excited to spruce up our new place this year, so we got a jump on things.  🙂

4. When do you take the tree down?
We like to think of the holidays not being officially over until after the kids go back to school around the fifth of January.  Then things get slowly packed away…but I leave all the snowy-wintry things up until about March. 😉

5. Do you like eggnog?
I love eggnog!  BUT…I don’t really like the thick kind that you buy at the grocery store.  I actually have it half milk and half nog…that’s just perfect!  When I was a kid, my older brother and I used to make homemade egg nog almost everyday after school.  Mmmmm…we just loved it!  We made it nice and frothy with plenty of vanilla.  Now when I think about drinking that stuff with raw eggs, it makes me want to gag, lol!  ahhhh…sometimes ignorance is bliss!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
I’ve had lots of great Christmas gifts over the years.  My family has always been very kind to me.  🙂  But the thing that comes to mind as extraspecial was a gift I received from my grandma.  She was usually late coming to our Christmas gatherings, because she was still putting all the finishing touches on everything she had been working on for all the grandkids.  This year in particular she had been extra late, and everyone was so excited to see what she had up her sleeves!  She finally arrived and had to have help bringing everything in…for me and my cousin she had made these wonderful doll houses, all decorated with paper and carpets, and the roof opened up so that you could play with your little people inside.  When we opened up our houses, there were other goodies tucked inside, including the every year essential grandma gift: socks!  🙂

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Definitely my hubby!  He’s tricky…he either wants something we absolutely can’t afford, lol…or doesn’t really let me know exactly what he has in mind.  I just sort of guess at what I think he would enjoy most of the time, and cross my fingers.  He’s a good guy, though…he appreciates everything he’s ever received, and has loved them all.  🙂

8.  Easiest person to buy for?
Of course, this is what everyone says…my girlies are the easiest.  The hard part is stopping, lol!  I think I am all done, then I see something that I think one of them would just love and I have a hard time telling myself that they have enough already!…

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Nope…but my mom has a very interesting one made of maroon wax with silver accents, which I believe my aunt carved out for her a long time ago.  I always loved that set. 🙂

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail, or personally hand out.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Once I was at a party for work, and we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I was new to the group and didn’t know that these were really pranky gifts, lol.  I ended up bringing home a set of pink window blinds…used, of course! 😛

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I love them all!!!!!  I drive my family crazy every year with the Christmas movie marathon.  I love all those claymation movies: Rudolph, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the Little Drummer Boy, Small One (super sweet!), the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman…you name it!

And of course, I love It’s a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St Louis (which is kind of an all year movie, but we love to watch it during the holiday season especially),  The Bishop’s Wife,  …oh the list could just go on and on and on, but I won’t drive you crazy too!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Oh, I pretty much shop all year round.  I have a box which I stash presenty things that I pick up at great bargains here and there.  I think it’s better to do that, and not be stressed out during the season when life should be happy and enjoyable. 😉  This box also comes in really handy when we have a birthday party to attend, or some other such thing that requires a little giftie.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
I really don’t think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My dad’s fudge (he leaves some marshmallows umelted in there and it’s soooo goood!), and my sister’s chocolate cream cheese cupcakes!

16. Lights on the tree?
We have white lights on the trees.  When we opened them this year, we had the same trouble as Jenny…except only one little portion at the bottom of one tree was working, so the girls had to cut off all the orginal lights, and we strung on new ones. 

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I love the songs: What Child is This, Oh Come All ye Faithful, O Holy Night…many, many others…(it kind of fits in the same catagory as the Christmas movies, lol!)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Stay home, but would love to someday take a Christmas trip…that would be kind of cool.  🙂

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Yes – if I sing it. (I’ll steal Jenny’s answer, lol)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
One year, when the girls were still little, I came home from work one evening, and my hubby and the girls surprised me with a beautiful, huge Christmas tree, all decked out with brand new decorations!  At the top of the tree was a lovely angel, which my hubby had placed just so, with a single light in her hands.  This is the angel we lovingly take out of her box every year to grace the top of our tree and oversee all of our holiday cheer.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We’ve tried to make our own little traditions over the years, to keep the entire holiday season special and exciting.  We try to have the 12 days of Christmas!  Counting up to Christmas, we each get to do something special every day…whether it’s open a gift, or play a family game, or watch a special movie, go on an outing… So we really start sooner than Christmas Eve, and extend our celebrating as long as we can into New Years Day.  🙂

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Hands down: working in retail!  😛

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I love rich burgandys, greens and golds, with white lights.  But the trees tend to actually be a mix of lots of colors, due to all the handmade ornaments that the kids have created over the years, and different ones we’ve picked to mark memories.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Jenny had it right:  Honey glazed ham.  Mmmmmmm!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I saved a quote from Jenny, as it is so perfect to share how I feel about Christmas:   “As long as we are healthy, happy, have each other and can keep this roof over our head, how much more does a person need?” 

This pretty much says it all!

26. Who is most likely to blog about this?
YOU!

27.  Lights, blinking or always on?
I like them to slowly sparkle.  The new ones we put on the tree and the outside of the house are the kind that some of them stay on, while the others fade in and out…very pretty!  They look quite magical and wintery.

Well…that’s it for my meme.  If you’d like to participate, please feel free!  It’s really been fun to reminisce and to also put priorities into perspective.  I hope that this holiday season finds you happy, healthy and loved.  🙂

Bethany~