Christmas Meme

I was tagged by Alicia, who said that I should participate when -- not IF -- I got my blog back. I appreciate her optimism!! :-)


1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
For Christmas, definitely egg nog, 'cause it's only available this time of year, so that makes it special! If I had to drink one or the other all the time, though, I'd probably choose hot chocolate, 'cause egg nog's pretty rich.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
He wraps them, of course!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
While I do think that all white lights are pretty, I also think they're kinda boring. We do colored lights on both the tree and the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, but I'd like to!

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Ideally, right after Thanksgiving, but that never happens. In fact, I'm ashamed to say that they aren't up right now. :-( There's just been too much going on, especially with Stephen gone. (He's been gone the past week, and back and forth the past three weeks, which is funny, 'cause his "extended work week/long hours" were supposed to end before Thanksgiving!)

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Well, my favorite Thanksgiving dishes are my Mom's mashed potatoes, my sister's mashed potato casserole, and stuffing. Man, do I love stuffing! And it can't be sweet, either. No, no, no.
We don't tend to have turkey for Christmas, but rather a prime rib, which is definitely my favorite Christmas dish. That, and tamales, which my Mom usually makes after Christmas. YUM!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child:
I don't really have one favorite holiday memory, but I fondly remember how we used to go to Midnight Mass when I was little, and I couldn't wait to get home because I knew that we'd then open our presents. When we'd walk up to the front door of our home after Mass, usually one of my parents and one of my siblings would go in to "make sure Santa was gone". (We all know what they were really up to. ;-)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don't remember, but I think I was on the older side. I don't even remember how I found out. It didn't come as a big surprise to me, though. I certainly wasn't devastated or anything.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Sometimes Stephen & I do. I think we'll start that tradition with Emily.
As I mentioned above, that's when my family opened all our presents when I was a kid. Well, technically we opened them very early Christmas morning (like at 1:30 a.m.) but since it was right after Midnight Mass, it still felt like Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Multi-colored lights, an assortment of ornaments from all over (no expensive ones, that's for sure!), some garland (no icicles! too messy!), and a star on top. Specifically, the one that my Mom used when I was a kid (which I LOVE). Definitely a star on top, though. I'm not an "angel-on-top-of-the-tree" kind of person. (Probably 'cause my Mom always used a star when I was growing up, which is funny, 'cause now she uses an angel!)

11. Snow?
Uh, here in SoCal, the closest we get to snow is IMPORTED snow. My sister & I took Emily, our 9-year-old niece G, and my 9-year-old neighbor H to Candy Land, a function that the City of Poway puts on every Christmas. This is the first time I've been and it was fun: they had karaoke, crafts, Santa & Mrs. Claus, elves making balloons, and the (imported 45 tons of) snow. The main attraction, however, was the life-sized version of the children's game, Candy Land, which was really neat! They decorated a gymnasium with Candy Land props, and volunteers dressed up as Lord Licorice and Queen Frostine. A female announcer called out the directions: "Move three spaces while shaking your belly like a bowl full of jelly." "Move one space while tiptoeing like an elf." And every 10 spaces or so, a boy scout or a Candy Land character would hand out -- you guessed it -- candy.

Em caught on to the whole thing really quickly. She held Hannah's hand the entire time, listening for the lady to give her instructions on what to do next. And when she got to the candy spaces, she eagerly held out her little white sack. It was all just too cute.

12. Can you ice skate?
No... I've only tried a couple times. The times I tried, though, I was able to do something that at least resembled ice skating!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
No, there are too many favorites to name just one.

14. What's the most exciting thing about the holidays for you?
All the beauty. Beauty in the lights, trees, families, and children's faces. And the smells. Christmas smells wonderful.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
For Thanksgiving, it's cheesecake and pecan pie.
For Christmas, I love all the different cookies my sister Mona makes. She makes a huge variety: chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, Mexican Wedding Cakes, and more. My favorite of all these are her chocolate chip. They're Stephen's favorite, too. :-)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Just everyone getting together, eating good food together, and enjoying each other.

17. What tops your tree?
A star always tops our tree. Unfortunately, our tree is currently sitting in a garbage can full of water in the side yard of my parents' house. Stephen told me to wait to put it up 'til he gets home, and he's on his way right now (yay!). So we'll have it up tomorrow, probably.

I wouldn't be able to put it up now, anyway, 'cause I don't know where our tree stand is! Stephen's gonna have to help me look in the garage. My father-in-law gave us our tree stand, and it's a really great one. It's simple, but it works well. I remember my Mom used to have problems with different tree stands throughout the years. This one, however, is a keeper. :-)

18. Which do you prefer - giving or receiving?
I'm not gonna lie -- I like both. But if I had to only give or only receive, I'd much rather give.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
O Holy Night.

I also like Carol of the Bells, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Do They Know it's Christmas? and the entire A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. Mine doesn't look like this copy on Amazon, though. Maybe 'cause mine's from Starbucks.
By the way, here's a pretty good list of Christmas carols.

20. Candy canes?
I sometimes hang them on the tree, but my family never did when I was growing up. They aren't a big part of our Christmas tradition.