Christmas Meme

My folks arrive today, so my time will be limited for posting. And since school is done for three weeks, my brain is in neutral. I’m just sitting around a lot in my underwear watching reruns of Designing Women.

Enjoy this Christmas meme that comes by way of Clare’s Dad.

1. Wrapping or gift bags? Everything has always been wrapped, though I’m becoming a fan of gift bags. So much easier…and isn’t that what is the holidays are all about?

2. Real or artificial tree? Like Clare’s dad, we grew up with the bottlebrush tree. Each year, we’d stick the colored tips into a pole and PRESTO we’d have a Christmas tree. When I moved in with Larry, we had a real tree for years. Then I got all environmental and cost conscious so we bought one of those pre-lit ones. It’s like opening a patio umbrella. Love it!

3. When do you put up the tree? This year, all the Christmas decorations went up the Friday after Thanksgiving. The tree went up the next weekend. With school, I just didn’t have the time to spare.

4. When do you take down the tree? It can come down as early as New Years or as late as MLK day. This year will probably be early since school begins Jan 5.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nasty. It’s like drinking snot.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Fort Apache. My dad spent an hour setting this up and I awoke that Christmas at 4 am. My parents took turns watching me play with it while the other would catch up on sleep. I think I played with this for three hours before my little brother even got up.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? You’re kidding right? I collect these from other countries or ones that depict the holy family in non-traditional locales. I have 19 nativities. The oldest, on the right, is my grandparents from the 1930 (though a few of the people have been replaced). I usually buy 1-2 each year through eBay or specialty stores.

My favorite was made by a woman in Lancaster, PA. It shows the nativity as Amish. In tradition with the Amish culture, the people are shown without faces. The wise men are bringing gifts of pretzels, corn and bread. (That also would describe my dad’s ideal Christmas dinner.)

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can’t really think of anything I truly hated. My aunt who lived out of town would always send clothes. Finally, my mom just asked if we could stop exchanging gifts with them.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Over 100 by mail. As Ava will tell you, I actually have to force myself from not mailing them early. I always have them done by Thanksgiving. I’ve reduced it to just a Christmas letter, and frankly since I love to write, it’s easy to generate. This year, I actually started it in July since I was going to be in school.

10. Favorite Christmas movie? I really don’t get into Christmas movies. Would Die Hard count as a Christmas movie?

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? We try to shop all year long and just collect things throughout the year. Some years however (like this one), we did most it these last two weeks.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies. Seriously, I love my cookies.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? We grew up with colored lights, but since we’ve had our own tree, they are all white. The tree is pre-lit with the white lights, but there are sections that keep going out. Larry hates that, but I just think it’s like a holiday dance club.

14. Favorite Christmas song? I did a post on this last year. Here are my 10 favorite songs.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Every 4^th year we travel to Chicago, otherwise we stay here.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes.

17. Angel on the treetop or a star? We have the angel from when Larry was a little boy. Growing up, we had this pointy thing that topped the tree. I think it used to be on my dad’s tree when he was little.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Always Christmas day. When we were little, we could open a gift on Christmas Eve, but for someone reason, it could only be from people who lived out of town. That's when I got those strange clothes from my aunt.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? All the people who didn’t give a shit about you for 11 months want you to come to their house for parties. Our rule is that we will only go if we’ve seen them other times throughout the year.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Our ornaments are all red, white and gold. We didn’t set out to do that. It has just evolved that way.

21. What do you leave for Santa? Ummm, Santa visits my son at his moms’ house and they leave cookies and milk.

22. Least favorite holiday song? I’ll be Home for Christmas. Not sure why, but it’s never done anything for me.

23. Favorite ornament? The starfish Santas. Our beagle has eaten two of them and every year, we recall the story of him barfing them back up. Who can’t love a memory like that?

Growing up though, we had this one we fondly called ‘Helen’. It’s a doll’s head. She is tin and came from my dad’s tree. However, her eyes have fallen off so we named her after Helen Keller. We’d put her front & center and my mom would always move her to back of the tree. It was a constant battle, but we finally wore mom down.

Hope your Christmas is filled with memories just as special as these.