Jaci tagged me, for which I’m thankful as I couldn’t think of anything else to blog about. :rofl:

Your Name: Shan

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I love egg nog, but only one small cup on Christmas Eve. I can—and have—made myself seriously ill with the stuff. Hot Chocolate’s yummy all season long.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps, most definitely. He even wraps the little chapsticks, toothbrushes and stuff he puts in the stocking. Stretches out the fun, plus gives the husband and I extra time to down coffee before the real unwrapping begins.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored. Driving by house after house of tiny white and/or blue lights makes me wanna cry. Bringing back those giant, multicolored bulbs would make me a very happy camper.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. Stopping and kissing people every time I walked under it would get on my nerves.

5. When do you put your decorations up? First week of December. But we added a secondary forced hot air heating system this year, so we won’t be getting a tree until closer to the big day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? These things my sister makes—peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. OMG. So good. (*makes kissy faces in the direction of Maine*)

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: One of my funniest memories is the year my stepfather decided not to get a tree. My parents taped a big snowy mountain/tree poster or something on the wall and stacked the presents around it. It still cracks me up. (In their defense, I vaguely recall something about the prices of Christmas trees, as that was—I think—our first year in England.)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I still hear the bell, thank you very much.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We usually have the big family shindig on Christmas Eve, so there is much opening of inter-family gifts. But our own are always Christmas morning. (Although, I did manage to open my engagement ring on Dec 23rd. I knew what it was and I couldn’t wait. I convinced him that I should open it early since we’d be busy on the Eve. It worked.)

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Very…eclectically. Traditional in the sense of colored lights and garland. (NO tinsel. That stuff’s just silver Easter grass.) The ornaments are all there for a reason, though. Each one has a story. We don’t do the generic glass balls and stuff. Maybe once the tree is up I’ll take some pictures and blog about the funniest ones.

We also put each year’s new school picture on the tree. I cut them in ovals and string them on yarn. Every year the last decorations to go on the tree are the pictures. Taking each one out of the box—from birth to the present—and picking the perfect place on the tree is the highlight of the whole decorating process.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it when it’s falling and fluffy and white. Hate it when it’s gray and nasty and keeping me from Dunkin Donuts.

12. Can you ice skate? *snort* No. Nor can I ski, snowboard, snowshoe or any other winter activity that doesn’t involve being indoors.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Gotta go with the diamond here. But reaching further back, my first year in England—an ocean away from my dad—he sent me a camera and a bottle of Love’s Baby Soft. I can still smell it, and the mere mention of it makes me feel warm and fuzzy again.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Honestly, the fact that there’s nothing to do. The stores, banks, are closed. No yucky mail. No errands. No work. Just us, new toys, a mound of wrapping paper, and a day of hanging out and making merry. Just us.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin pie with enough whipped cream to stock a fetish club.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? This one’s painful, so I’ll just say the childish, vindictive part of me dropped a long-standing family tradition when my mother decided to join a religion that doesn’t celebrate Christmas, or any other happy family occasion that means anything to me.

17. What tops your tree? OMG, the tackiest, cheapest star you’ve ever seen. It’s like..it’s supposed to be pearly white, but the oil-spill effect is so cheesy. We told the tall kid—this was pre-short kid—he could pick any tree topper he wanted, and he chose this .87 Walmart jobby. I’ll have to take a picture when it’s up. But, it goes with our eclectic tree, and now I’d go back for the ugly thing in a fire.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? I love getting presents. But I’m really, really bad at giving them. The second those suckers are bought, I’m DYING to give them. The husband spends the weeks before Christmas resisting my efforts to give him his gifts.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night is my all-time enduring favorite. Sung by a strong tenor who can dig deep and really belt it out, it makes me weep. Little Drummer Boy runs a close second. My Christmas CD rotation currently consists of Garth Brooks, Clay Aiken (shut up, the songs are beautiful), Harry Connick Jr, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra (which was my drug of choice while writing In the Spirit).

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I don’t really like them, but I always have at least one so I can suck it down into the Spear of Death. :rofl:

I’m tagging…everybody!