A Christmas Meme

I'm short one or 2 Christmas posts, so I thought I'd do a bit of padding with this!

1. Wrapping paper or paper bags? Wrapping paper. But I'm not opposed to bags.

2. Tree -real or artificial? We had a real one all growing up and I loved going to look for a tree with my family! It was so exciting to "help" my dad bring it in (I'm sure we were more in the way than anything, but he let us help anyway). Now, Aaron and I have a pre-lit fake tree and, I'll be honest, I love it. But pulling it out of the box isn't quite the same as scoping out the Christmas tree lots with the fam. I kinda miss that.

3. When do you put the Christmas tree up? I put ours up the weekend after Thanksgiving this year. We only just bought it last year, so we'll see what the pattern ends up being.

4. When do you take the Christmas tree down? Whenever I get around to it, I guess.

5. Like egg nog? Oh sick no.

6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup! Nikki gave us one this year as an early Christmas present and I love it!

7. Favorite gift as a child? I got an awesome pink beach cruiser bike complete with banana seat one year. It was the most awesome thing ever. And one year we got bean bag chairs and I can't even TELL you how excited we were. I got purple, Nikki got pink, and Jared got blue. We had them for years.

8. Hardest person to buy for? DAD. Stinking impossible! I feel like every year is a total cop out. "Uhh..here. I got you this tie/screwdriver set/gift card..."

9. Easiest person to buy for? Nikki. Girl my same age? Just get her something I want.

10. Worst Christmas gift? I can actually think of something that was pretty lame, but I don't remember who gave it to me so on the off chance that it was from someone in my extended family who might read this blog, I'm not going to post about it.

11. Mail or e-mail a Christmas card? I LOVE getting cards in the mail. But there's always the "keep or throw away" dilemma. Like right now we have a small pile of cards on our counter and we're like, "Yay, cards! ...ok what now?" The charm of email is that you can just stick it in a folder and forget about it and you didn't keep it OR delete it.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? Nikki mentioned Babes in Toyland, which I had totally forgotten about. People, it has Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Pat Morita in it. It is NOT creepy (how could you say such a thing Nikki??). It is awesome. And I fully intend to go dig it up at my parents house and watch it. Other than that, I really love A Muppet Christmas Carol.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As early as possible. Which usually means end of October. I'd really like to be one of those people who keeps it in mind all year long though so when I run across something awesome I can just pick it up and it'll already be there ready to wrap when December rolls around.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so, but I wouldn't be opposed.

15. Favorite food to eat on Christmas Eve? My mom usually makes a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and then we just have leftovers on Christmas. It's kind of like Thanksgiving: Take 2.

16. Clear or colored lights? Clear. I'm always really impressed by people who can do colored lights well because I struggle with them. It's hard to go wrong with clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. I'm with Nikki on not much caring for the traditional Rudolph/Santa/Frosty songs. I do like when newer bands redo them, but I can only really stand listening to Burl Ives and Bing Crosby once or twice before I start wanting to hit something. I don't mind the Elvis/Johnny Cash versions of those same songs though. Go figure.

18. Travel during Christmas or stay home? I have yet to spend a Christmas away from home. Sometimes I had to travel to get there, but I just like being with my family. I know at some point we're going to go spend a Christmas with Aaron's family though, and it will be fun to see what Christmases are like somewhere else!

19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Ya, but only because of the song.

20. Angel or star on tree top? Currently, nothing. I wouldn't mind either one, but I think a star is probably a bit more to my taste.

21. Open present on Christmas Eve or morning? One present on Christmas eve, everything else the next day.

22. Most annoying thing about Christmas? People who insist on being PC and calling it "the holidays" instead of Christmas because "some people might get offended." See a funny video about that here. But also, people who refuse to recognize the fact that there are holidays other than Christmas at this time of year (if you want to get really mad, read this article). I just want us all to be able to freely celebrate whatever it is we celebrate without fear of giving offense (or getting beaten up on the subway).

Only 12 more days!! Ya know, I thought about doing something with the 12 days of Christmas for Aaron, but trying to think of 12 days worth of stuff was really hard and I'm just not that creative (and I already spent this month's allowance on much needed maternity clothes). Did you know that doing the 12 days as a countdown is a pretty recent American tradition? The 12 days of Christmas used to start (and still do, in most parts of the world) on the evening of Christmas day and ended on the morning of January 6th. And all Christmas decorations were to be taken down and leftovers eaten by that day, called the Day of Epiphany. So if my tree is still up on the 5th I won't feel too bad because, technically, I have until the 6th.