A Christmas Meme

I swiped this from Heidi. If you haven't played but would like to, leave me a comment so I can be sure to read it!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I like wrapped gifts under the tree because they're so puuurdy, but gift bags are cool otherwise. Very easy and nice looking. Plus, you can often reuse them! Gotta love that.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. I prefer the look and smell of a real one, but am too cheap. Plus, they're a little messy. Our artificial one is really nice though.

3. When do you put up the tree? To be honest, this is only the second year we've had a tree. I resisted it up until last year. Christmas was too depressing to celebrate much. But last year I decided to try to break out of my humbug-iocity and we bought a tree. We did it almost last minute though. This year we plan to put it up this weekend. I wanted to do it last weekend, but the opportunity did not present itself.

4. When do you take the tree down? Last year we waited a bit since we put it up so late. This year I imagine it will come down around New Years. It's a big tree and I will miss that valuable space in my living room!

5. Do you like eggnog? Uhh, *gag*

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmm, let's see. I don't remember a lot of what I received, but I loved the bike I got one year. I think my favorite of all had to be either the CD player my parents got me (I think I was a teen by then though) and the birth stone ring they gave me. The ring was awesome. Ooh, or these adorable earrings my granny gave me. They are little gold bows with mother of pearl hearts dangling from them. SO tiny but so beautiful. I loved those. I miss granny.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? I do! My parents gave it to me. It's very lovely. I don't know where it is. *LOL*

8. Hardest person to buy for? My MOM. Boy is she hard!

9. Easiest person to buy for? My dad. In fact, he's so easy I'm willing to bet he already knows what he's getting...

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Probably a dollar store toy... when I was about 15 or 16 and had long stopped playing with toys.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail mail! I'm so bad this year. We haven't taken our Christmas picture, nor have we written our Christmas letter. Oops.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? *singing* "You're a mean one... Mr. Grinch!" Aww, that reminds me of granny too. Big Grinch fan, she was.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November-ish.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think I've ever recycled any gift as a gift to someone else. A gift we gave to a coworker, however, was recycled... as a white elephant gift... at the following year's company Christmas party! Thankfully my husband and I share an awesome sense of humor and got a HUGE chuckle out of that.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Oooh... pumpkin bread, apple bread, pecan pie, cookies, gingerbread... aww, heck. If it has sugar and/or a carb, I'm THERE. BTW, if you have a great gingerbread cookie recipe (SOFT cookie recipe), please share! I'm on a hunt...

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? All clear. I'm very picky about this! Our tree has white lights and simple decorations that are all silver or red. Boring? Perhaps. But beautiful? No doubt.

17. Favorite Christmas song? When I was growing up, "O Holy Night" was my favorite carol. I'm not sure I have a favorite today, but I like the ones that make me giggle. Like "Baby It's Cold Outside" or "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". But I also like a good version of "Carol of the Bells". (FYI: you know you've been in the jewelry business too long when you CAN.NOT. type "bells" without redoing it about three times because you keep typing "belles" instead.)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home. I'm not fond of traveling.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Well there's Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do I recall the most famous reindeer of all? Umm, he's the one with the red nose, right? Shoot. What's his name? I can also name all of Snow White's Six Dwarves. Ok, show of hands: how many of you, whether in your head or out loud, frantically corrected me? "Seven! There are SE-VEN dwarves!!"

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, actually. We have a big silver bow. Boring? Yes, perhaps. But Martha would be proud!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning!!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Big crowds. My goodness, I hate the big crowds. They make me so nervous. And all the commercialism. But not all the commercialism because it helps our business make $$. So I'm just partially a hypocrite then, right?

23. What I love most about Christmas? Family and umm, see question #15.