Friday, December 07, 2007

Christmas my way

I don't actually read my own blog. I mean I just typed it, why would I read it? (And I think it's pretty obvious that I don't proofread.) But I DO have my comments e-mailed to me and enjoy reading them. Well something must be wrong with my spam filter because I only received ONE of the ten comments that were posted about the piano. I thought everyone had stopped reading or you were all giving me the cold shoulder. So I was thrilled to actually look at my blog today and find TEN comments. Thanks for having something to say and for sharing my excitement!

A friend e-mailed this Christmas quiz that I thought would be fun to post. Feel free to borrow the idea and share your Christmas traditions, too. (hint, hint)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper with a few gift bags tossed in, too.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake. SO fake. It's not even a nice-looking fake tree. It's the one we could afford on our student budget and I've yet to upgrade. Maybe one of these years I'll buy a nice one on post-holiday clearance. Or maybe we'll just stick with our somewhat pathetic tree. It's become part of the family now. :)

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually we do it right after Thanksgiving. This year things have been CRAZY. We have not had A SINGLE night between Thanksgiving and now when our whole family has been home without company so that we could decorate it. The kids are getting very impatient with us. Ok, so am I.

This is the state of our tree as I'm typing this. Yikes.

4. When do you take the tree down? I don't have a set day. Whenever I get around to it. It's always down by the end of January. That's a good thing, right?

5. Do you like egg nog? NO. I don't like eggs and can't bring myself to drink it. But all the other members of my family like it, so I buy it every year anyway.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I have a terrible memory for things like that! The one that comes to mind is going to sound lame, but I loved it. When I was around 10 or 12 years old, I got an electric blanket. It was THE BEST. My bedroom in the house was so very cold and that blanket kept me toasty warm.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I have several of them now.

My favorite is the Willow Tree one that we've gotten slowly over the years from Andrew's parents.

The faraway picture doesn't do it justice. It's beautiful.

Then I have this cool, colorful wooden one that Greg got for us in Sweden last year. I thought I lost it in the move, but it turned up at the very bottom of one of our boxes. Yea!

I also have this awesome one from Peru that's new this year (also from Andrew's mom).

And my mom made these CUTE wooden ones for my kids that they keep up in their rooms. Whitney already lost her baby Jesus. That's a problem.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Andrew's dad, I guess. We draw names among our siblings, so this can change from year to year.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Brandon. He wants SO much and is very vocal about it. I have lots of choices.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Andrew writes a witty Christmas letter for the family, too. That's my favorite part.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? That's a loaded question! I'm going to play the pregnancy brain card here and say I can't remember.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story--so many belly laughs. "I triple dog dare you!" "You'll shoot your eye out!" "Fra-gee-lay. That must be French."

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I guess I'll say November. In my mind, I do a little shopping throughout the year, but then I often end up giving away those gifts for birthdays, so I guess it doesn't count.

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

15. Favorite thing to eat at
Christmas? Oh....so many choices. I guess I'll go with Peppermint Ice Cream. We just finished off our first half gallon last night. Mmmmm....I wish I was eating some right now.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night, especially when performed by Nicolle. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. But I LOVE, love, love Christmas music and have several CD's that I start playing the day after Thanksgiving.

18. Travel at
Christmas or stay home? We ALWAYS travel. We have done that our entire married lives....until this year. This will be our first year that we stay home for the whole Christmas/New Year's week. Unless we end up doing something with Paul and Daneen, but that will be relatively local travel if we do.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. I think that's all of them, right?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A Star.

21. Open the presents
Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. Love the anticipation and excitement, especially with kids in the house.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Not having enough time to do everything I want to do.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Homemade, I guess. Cheezy? Yes. Practical? Also yes. We usually make an ornament every year as a family and they have started filling up the tree. Woo hoo!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Chicken penne? That's the only thing I've made on my own. I'm happy with anything when I'm at family members' homes.

25. What do you want for
Christmas this year? Sheet music and a piano light. :)

6 comments:

Sandy said...

Great list! I love your Willow Tree nativity! That is just beautiful - my MIL collects WT and has gotten pieces of that set over the years from her sister - I never get tired of looking at it! Your tree cracked me up - up until a few years ago we had a fake tree (actually a hand-me-down from my mom) that was in pretty bad shape. It started unraveling and stuff and so we quit using the bottom section. Then a few years later, the middle section had problems. After the year we just had the 18 inches at the top, we decided to forget the fake tree and just go get real ones. I'm really tempted to get one of those pre-lit ones, though...it would make life so much easier! But I love the smell of the real ones (as well as EGGNOG, haha). I'm sure you'll love staying at home this year...this year will be our first year all the way at home (last year we left for Jake's parents on Christmas afternoon), too. Even last year just spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home was nice - not as chaotic and we could do OUR traditions. It helps when you actually have enough children to make the present-opening last longer than 5 minutes, too, though:)

Anonymous said...

Great list! I'll have to copy you and do it on my blog. A lot of my answers are going to be the same as you - especially buying for my dad, that's tough.

Ang said...

What a fun list. I loved seeing all your nativities--so pretty. And the next time you see Tony, you need to do another quote from A Christmas Story: "He had yellow eyes, I tell you. Yellow eyes!!"

I have to agree with the prelit tree idea. Now that's the gift that keeps on giving. We bought one a couple of years ago, and even though it was fun to go find a real one, it's been SUCH a relief not to have to haul it in the house and wrestle it into the stand and get all the lights on it and remember to water it and vacuum up all the needles. Lets here it for fakery! (And for lights already on the tree!)

Natalie said...

I love this post. I am stealing the quiz for my blog. I hope you don't mind :). Great decorations too! Love the cute nativities.

Anonymous said...

I'm answering the list right here - is that okay? I'm in the mood - and plus I learned a new abbreviation from reading Sandy's comment - I told everyone at work today that I want to use a sentence that says "I made my MIL LOL!"

Love to you all - hope you're having fun tinkling the ivories.

Oh, never mind, I can't figure out how to see the questions and keep this post - your answers were fun to read!
Love you,
your MIL

Anonymous said...

I loved seeing your nativity scenes-I collect them--Loved the one your mom made. I may have to try something like that next year with the kid!

Robyn
www.nykazafamily.com