Christmas Meme

Shannon over at Other-Motherhood (a private blog) tagged me for a Christmas meme. Yes, folks, it's that time already! I don't normally do these, but I'm ready for the Christmas season and thought it sounded fun.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Primarily wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I grew up with artificial. Carie grew up not having a tree as their tradition. We opted to do a real tree and thought we’d continue that tradition. We did that for a long long time then one recent year we took the easy route and got a pre-lit artificial. I’m seriously hooked, for now.

3. When do you put up the tree? Anytime after Thanksgiving Day… quite possibly that weekend. We are thinking that outdoor lights might go up this weekend, depending on the weather... and the sickness factor. Carie is currently down for the count.

4. When do you take the tree down? After New Year's.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope. But I’m not sure I’ve even tried it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm… I don’t know.

7. Hardest person to buy for? The parents… on both sides.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Spencer, he wants one of everything!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I know we have some kid sets but I don’t recall if we have a nicer (adult) one or not. This is Carie’s mom’s thing and we’ve always enjoyed her many many many nativity scenes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I’ve done both. I like to mail them, but I’m also not good about getting them in the mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Not going to go there.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Movie? Who has time to watch movies?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This is kind of a new thing (in the past couple of years) for us, but we start collecting items as we come across them. I remember coming across a bunch of Christmas stuff in July this year. We’ve got a lot of our shopping done, most of which is for our kids (including Santa gifts!) and I’m pretty much done shopping for Carie... including the kids shopping for her. We’ve got shopping left to do for our extended families and my extended extended family where we exchange names and haven’t done so yet. Some of them are even wrapped!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Hmm… this is a tough one. We are settling into some new traditions and the food isn’t a focus like they used to be. Though last year Carie discovered a recipe for cinnamon rolls / monkey bread that was easy, delicious, and perfect for Christmas morning. I suspect that will become a tradition.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes! Absolutely!

17. Favorite Christmas song? I love singing all the traditional songs at Church on Christmas Eve. Especially Silent Night. It will be nice when the kids are older and we can resume going to the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately the family service isn’t an option for us given that we celebrate with my family that evening.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay fairly close to home. No overnights anywhere.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes

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

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both… and then some. We celebrate with my family on Christmas Eve. We don’t open any of our family gifts on Christmas Eve; those are saved for Christmas morning. We then celebrate with my Dad’s extended family the Saturday after Christmas. And we often don’t celebrate with Carie’s family until New Year’s Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The family drama. It always starts the first week of November.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Growing up my Grandmother had a tradition of gifting us an ornament every year. She would give it to us at Thanksgiving so we could put it on the tree that year. So, I’ve got a lot of Hallmark ornaments. And while my series has retired, she is now gifting ornaments to our kids. We’ve got some other favorite ornaments, but no theme or color.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Grandma’s cranberry jell-o and her stuffing. I know her stuffing recipe is a long time family recipe but I don’t know that the cranberry jell-o recipe is.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace

I tag whoever would like to have fun with it!