A Holiday Meme

It's been a busy season, featuring some major tooth work I wanted to get done without too much disruption in my work schedule, so I have no exciting holiday stuff to report except it's too dang hot for Christmas, even for Florida. But, having a few minutes between some cooking, I'll answer this meme I hijacked from Suna's blog.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I am lazy and prefer using the gift bags we have collected from the past. Jeremy likes wrapping and unwrapping, so I stock up at after Christmas clearance sales.

2. Real or artificial tree? We have used a real tree since Jeremy and I married 18 years ago. Before that, it was artificial.

3. When do you put up the tree? We put it up right around December 6th.

4. When do you take the tree down? Right around January 6th. Although there was one year it managed to stay up until March, but that was before we were married.

5. Do you like eggnog? Oh yes, muchly, but I have to be careful due to the sugar content. The rum content is not as big of an issue.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The Easy Bake Oven I received when I was 9. It was used, one of the original ones, in fact, but I loved it.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a small one. It sits on a table with several other holiday symbols.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Jeremy. In addition to being hard to buy *just* the right thing for, he's the breadwinner, so I always feel like I'm buying him something with his own money. This year, though, I am working full time at the school.

9. Worst Christmas present ever received? I have ended up with some really smelly obviously used stuffed animals over the years. I don't remember where they came from.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I have sent both, but have done neither this year.

11. Favorite Christmas movie? A Muppet Christmas Carol and Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy. Jeremy would like me to make sure and point out that Toy Story is pretty much a direct rip-off of The Christmas Toy.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year I started knitting and crafting in September. I started seriously shopping on Black Friday, which I have done the last couple of years.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes. Sometimes traded them, even.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pfeffernusse and gingerbread.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored LED lights.

16. Favorite Christmas song? The Twelve Days of Christmas and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. I also have a soft spot for Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.

17. Travel or stay home? I prefer to stay home. This will probably be the last year we do so for awhile, though, if we relocate "home" to Vermont.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I certainly can, and I can name all 12 days, as well.

19. Star on the top of the tree? We have a sun topper we brought from the American Atheist website several years ago.

20. Open presents on Eve or Morning? We open one on Solstice, one on Christmas Eve (or stockings, usually) and the rest throughout Christmas Day as visiting family comes for brunch.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Now that Major Shopping has sprung up all over within five miles of our house, the traffic has been noticeably heavier and weirder this year...and it's too dang hot this year, even for Florida.

22. Best thing about this time of the year? This year, it's that Aenea has gotten so much into baking, cooking and crafting. We made some really cool gift baskets. She was also awesome as the wife of Scrooge's Nephew (Sara) in the production of A Dickens of a Christmas with the Performing Arts Academy. This was her first "named" and speaking part, and she did great!