Christmas Meme

I just read this over at Seeds From My Garden and thought it looked like fun!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate with Darling Wife's homemade peppermint marshallows!
2. What is your favorite holiday dish? My mom always makes a prime rib on Christmas - YUM!!
3. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Gheesh - it's hard to choose! - Ok - the toffee squares in the See's Candy box that always appears on Christmas!
4. Candy canes? Yes - the old fashioned peppermint kind!
5. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Bag when I'm lazy - paper if I find just the right one!
6. Easiest person to buy for? Granddaughters - I have to slap my hands to make me stop!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Someone with no hobbies or interests
8. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present? I think I may have - something nice though, not junky!
9. Do you remember your favorite gift? When I was 17 I had an old Studebaker Lark -with no heater - that year my dad took the car for "service" and had a heater put in it. I cried it was so sweet!! Every cold morning after that he would start my car and turn that heater on for me so the car was warm before I went to school.
10. Do you open a gift Christmas Eve? No - I always waited as a child and the few I have opened on Christmas Eve just didn't have the same "wonder"!
11. Does Santa wrap presents? Yes - but usually in different paper from the other gifts
12. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Wait - what truth?
13. Which do you prefer… Giving or receiving? Unashamedly - Both!
14. Do you mail or email Christmas cards? Postal mail - and they have to be Nativity cards!
15. Real tree or artificial? I always loved the smell of real, but the kind and size I like got sooo expensive a few years ago we bought an artificial - it's a good one though, and you can't tell the difference without touching! I usually use real wreaths and boughs so it still smells good in the house!
16. Colored lights or white? Hubby likes colored and I have always done white on the tree - but more and more I think my next year's tree lights may be colored!
17. What tops your tree? A leaded star hubby fell in love with a long time ago.
18. How do you decorate your tree? With white lights, and loaded with lots of toys, old-looking things, colored wooden beads - very country and very happy!
19. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving
20. How do you decorate your house? Mom gives hubby a nutcracker every year - we have a large collection of them and really enjoy placing them around the house. I collect a Santa every year so we have lots of those too - they are all so festive looking! I love them! I use fresh greens for the fragrance and of course the Nativity sets get special attention.
21. When do you take your decorations down? Usually the weekend after New Year's Day
22. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I have a couple of them - and they are always special to set out
23. Do you hang a stocking? No, not for hubby and me. I have them for my kids and the grandkids I see on Christmas though.
24. Do you hang mistletoe? Sometimes - just for fun!
25. Favorite tradition? A new one for this year and last - Spending Christmas Eve with Mom and Computer guy, the granddaughters and Darling Wife's family. We go to a Christmas program at their church, then out to dinner. We spend the night then have early Christmas morning with son and his family. Then after brunch we drive back to Mom's house for the wonderful afore mentioned afternoon prime rib dinner! Mom is a collector of people, so she usually fills her table with friends who have no other family to be with. It is always an eclectic group and a lot of fun!
26. Favorite Christmas song? Oh - I love the old traditional ones, and I also love some of the newer ones - my radio station on my computer plays them for the whole month of December and I just love them all - um, except "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by the Pretenders - I know they are pros - but no one on the radio should sing that flat!!!
27. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story
28. Snow. I have not lived in it - so I love it! We've been in it when we ski - it is sooooo pretty! I know - once it is slushy it is not nice - but I still think it is beautiful!
29. Can you ice skate? Not well - I took lessons several years ago - my goal was to skate backwards - I finally accomplished it, but I don't think it was pretty.
30. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Midnight Candlelight Christmas Eve service at our Lutheran Church. Having home made eggnog in the kitchen in the morning and waiting for Gramie & Grandpop to arrive early on Christmas morning - that signaled we could finally go into the living room where the "opening" would commence! Mom would hand the gifts out 1 at a time and we would all watch it being opened - it made the gift opening last longer and everyone could ooh & aah - and you could see their reaction when they opened the one from you!!
31. Least favorite holiday memory as a child? I had peeked into packages in mom's closet and saw a beautiful robe with matching slippers. On Christmas morning I kept waiting but it wasn't there. I couldn't say anything though. Later in the day we went to my aunt's house, and there, in the display of gifts on my cousin's bed was the beautiful robe and slippers! Auntie had hidden them in mom's closet so cousin wouldn't peek and spoil her surprise. That cured me - I have never peeked or shaken since!
32. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Remembering that Christmas is celebrating the fact that God's only son, Jesus the Christ came to earth because He loves me. All the other things - no matter how fun and special - take 2nd place to that gift!