Holiday Meme

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. With or without marshmallows. My grandma (dad's mom) made the best hot cocoa ever.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? That Santa is so unpredictable. Sometimes he wraps, but usually he doesn't.

3. Colored lights or white? I prefer white, but since my beloved does the honors, we always have colored lights. We don't do lights on the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? If we have some we do, but it isn't necessary.

5. When do you decorate for Christmas? After we buy the tree. Usually a couple of weeks before Christmas. Never ever ever before December. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish, excluding dessert? I'm gonna say fruitcake. Since no one really likes it, it can't be considered dessert, can it? Really, it has to be chicken and dressing.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? The gifts we got every year from my great grandmother. We always got the same thing, all 3 of us girls, so we would open our presents all at once, knowing we'd have to hold them up and show them. Know what they were? Big ol' honkin' granny panties! Yeah, we hated it at the time, but looking back, it was the most hilarious thing ever. We were never able to wear them.

8. When and how, did you learn the truth about Santa? I was 9 or 10. One year in June, I decided to test a theory I had that Santa wasn't always watchin'. I wrote a letter and hid it inside the piano bench. He never found it. Why June? I didn't want to ruin Christmas. DUH!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? The kids get to open at least one. Sometimes they persuade us to let them open all of them.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Haphazardly. I always start out trying to be organized, but I always let the kids help. I do a little bit of rearranging afterwards, just to give it some balance. I like to have Mannheim Steamroller playing in the background while we decorate.

11. Snow. Love it or hate it? Love the real stuff. Hate the fake stuff.

12. Can you ice skate? As a native Arkansan, I have to say that depends on your definition of skate. If you mean glide gracefully across the ice, then no. If, on the other hand, you mean flail my arms wildly while stumbling without actually falling down, then I'm your girl.

13. Do you remember your favorite Christmas gift? Sarah was born 5 days before Christmas 1991.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Remembering the Reason for the season and being with family.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Cherry cheesecake.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Gee, the only thing we've ever done consistently is wrap presents on Christmas eve. No wait. Stuffing stockings after the kids have gone to bed. That's fun. Gathering around the TV to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" is a must. The best thing, though, and this should probably be up there with favorite childhood memory, is getting up early on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought, then going to Grandmother's (mom's mom) to watch Macy's Christmas Parade.

17. What tops your tree? A bow, I think. Or a blinking star. Whichever one we can get to stay up there.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? "...remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' " Jesus said it, and I believe it. But even if He hadn't, I think I would rather give.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love them all. The Little Drummer Boy is my all time favorite. Close behind, and in no particular order are Do You Hear What I Hear, O Holy Night, and What Child Is This.

20. Candy canes. Yuck or yum? Yum. And it's fun to suck the end to a fine point then poke your sister with it. Or so I hear. :o)