more me

Anyone on my email list or MySpace knows how much I love these things. Of course I expect to see it on your blog in one week's time.

Hot chocolate or eggnog? Mostly chocolate, but I do indulge in a glass or two of the nog at parties. It is wonderful with butterscotch schnapps, and the alcohol lets you forget that you are drinking salmonella pus.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I love, love, love to wrap gifts. Dave and I don't really exchange presents because we are spoiled rotten all through the year and we work on just being together and alone on Christmas Day, and we throw a big party every year as a gift to ourselves and our friends. But, now that Jake is here we will most likely buy him a few things and wrap them up. Next year. I know this is a subject of controversy, but I'm not buying my child gifts this year. I did buy him a little silver piggy bank ornament and am filling it with 2006 coins. He's already started to pull in the Christmas swag, and true to form he loves the paper more than the gift.

Colored lights or white? Colored on the tree and white in the garland. I bought into the white light craze of the nineties, but my tree lights finally burnt out and I went back to the colored ones on the tree this year. I like them SO much better. We had them as kids, and I get a little choked up when I sit in the dark with the tree lit. Don't you dare tell anyone I told you that I get choked up. I have a reputation to uphold. The white lights are pretty, but I don't think I'll go back.

Do you hang mistletoe? No, but my dirty Christmas joke is that I am going to buy myself a mistletoe belt buckle.

When do you put up decorations? the day after Thanksgiving. I'm afraid of the people who clamor for sales out there so I barricade myself in the house with a pot of coffee and some Christmas music.

What does your favorite Christmas meal include? cookies

Favorite Christmas memory from childhood? Brian and I trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, I think of that feeling every time I see that Disney commercial with the little boy and girl in bed on the night before their vacation. I love when the little boy says "but I'm too excited to sleep!". Christmas Eve was rough for me. I remember sitting through the church service having severe anxiety that Santa would get to the house before we got home. For some reason I believed that if you caught Santa in the act he would punish you. Twisted kid, I was.
My favorite part of Christmas morning was emptying my stocking on the floor. We always got oranges and Hershey kisses, blank tapes, pens, pencils, and whatever other little stuff was in there.

How and when did you learn the truth about Santa? I have a very vivid memory of sitting on my parent's bed and my dad telling me that what I was hearing was true, there was no Santa but I better not tell my brother. He says that never happens, and in my memory he is wearing jean shorts so maybe it was a dream. I remember it so well though, right down to staring at the picture of our boat he kept on the nightstand.
I guess I heard it from the kids at school in second or third grade.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My mom would always let us open one.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? It is different each year. This year I only have lights, it was the first year I did colored lights and I thought it was so pretty that I just ought to leave well enough alone. I may put little holes in the cut-out cookies and hang them with ribbon, all you have to do is brush them with an egg wash and they turn out nice and they don't crumble. But, I don't know if people are going to think it is gross to eat goodies off my tree. Then again, that means more cookies for me... Last year I put my grandparent's ornaments on my tree, they are very old and I remember decorating their tree as a child. I didn't want to chance them getting broken by eager little baby hands. The year before that all candy canes, before that was strings of popcorn. I loved it, but it was very labor intensive. This year I'm going to buy some shatterproof bulbs (or is it balls? I never know. Let's go with ornaments) on clearance and stick with them through the baby years.

Snow! Love it or leave it? On Christmas, I love it. I grew up in the snow belt and moved away when I was eighteen to get away from the cold (and parental authority of course). It is terribly depressing to learn that not everyone in Pennsylvania had a white Christmas. Here in Philadelphia we are lucky to have a dusting by then, and the suburbs just may have an inch or so.

Can you ice skate? I dabble.

Do you remember your favorite gift? No. I guess I should say my engagement ring, but I don't think that is the favorite. I actually asked for an engagement dog. That didn't work out so well.

What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? I love to catch up with family and friends that I don't get to see often. What is of utmost importance to me is not getting caught up in the hype. So many people focus on the gifts and the meals and everything else that they lose sight of the season. Stupid capitalist America.

What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Decorating and making cookies tops the list now. I'm sure that will change in the next few years. I also love to walk around the neighborhood while it is snowing and look at the light and into people's front windows. Truth be told, I walk around the neighborhood year-round just to look in people's windows, but it is extra nice at Christmastime.

What tops your tree? An old-fashioned hand blown pointy topper that I picked up at the supermarket for $5.99.

What is your favorite Christmas song? I love to sing There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays. Oh, and Winter Wonderland because I can change the words to "Later on, we'll perspire, as we dream by the fire". I like the pretty classics best though.