Christmas Meme

Esther tagged me for this one. (I just love these! They're like a test you can't fail on. Or, well... You can't fail, can you?)
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Whichever one I have available. I'm not picky, just cheap.
2. Real tree or artificial? Love them both! Use artificial trees around our Nativity, but have rarely had the room for a real tree, too. Maybe someday when we get our dreamhouse.
3. When do you put up the tree? We start assembling our Nativity "forest" the first week of Advent.
4. When do you take the tree down? On the Epiphany.
5. Do you like eggnog? Love it! Anything that fattening has just got to be a favorite!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A Schwinn bike, when I was ten years old (A lot like the one below, except sparkly yellow).

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Oh, baby, do we! (Some years two or three.)
8. Hardest person to buy for? My in-laws, definitely! (What do you get for people who already have everything?)
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Now this sounds terrible, but it's true, so I might as well admit it. One year, when I was about 13, I wanted a pair of cool, adult boots to wear with my skirts to church, and my dearest Mother, with only kindness and practicality in her heart (Bless her!) got me the dorkiest pair of ankle-high snow boots I had ever seen. But, did I, mature teenager that I was, mope about it? Yep, afraid so.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail!

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? I'm with Esther: We all absolutely love A Christmas Story!Definitely more ridiculous than sublime, but I guess we tend more toward ridiculous ourselves, personally...

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The day after Christmas most years.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Um, well. Yeah. But, honestly, only back to very small children who wouldn't care even if they knew.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I'm one of those oddballs that truly loves fruitcake! In spite of this fact, or maybe because of it, we're going to be sure to make it this year to the 13th Annual Fruitcake Toss up in Manitou Springs, CO, on January 5th. The Christmas Version of the Punkin Chunkin...

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. Trying for an icicle-y effect.

16. Favorite Christmas song? Oh, goodness! All of them! But the ones that come to mind first are: Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming, Still, What Child Is This?, Silent Night on the guitar...

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Always stay at home. But, visit my parents across town on Christmas afternoon.

18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Yep. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Bitzen ... And I also recall the most famous reindeer of all.... Also know the whole poem A Visit From St. Nick by heart.

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? When we have a real tree, we have an angel on top.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open them in the morning, stockings first, and presents after brunch.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I hate how the decorations go up the day after Halloween in the stores, and I'm plum sick of Christmas music by Gaudate Sunday. This is one reason I avoid Christmas shopping in Advent (except online and as it gets closer to Christmas). I hate to feel "done" with Christmas the day after Jesus' birthday, when the party should be just beginning!

22. Best thing about this time of year? Hearing my children singing in the choir at Midnight Mass. Then Christmas morning when the whole family is together eating Daddy's special Christmas waffles. The smell of the ham baking, the children enjoying their small stocking gifts as they sit around the table waiting for their waffles...

I bequeath this Christmas Meme to anyone who has not had the pleasure yet of filling it out!