its starting...

I saw this on To Make Love Stay and, since I too, am a total sucker for these memes I am playing along.  If you decide to do this as well, please leave me the link in your comment so I can check it out too! 

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? As if there is a doubt, Hot Cocoa.  

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa simply just places it under the tree, this mom & dad duo does the wrapping in this house.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? That’s a hard one. I say white lights on a purple tree. The hubs says colored lights on a fresh tree. How are we still married?

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Haven’t but I’m not oppose to it.

5. When do you put your decorations up? We will start pulling out the festive décor this weekend. Will also start all those many holiday crafts Pinterest has inspired.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? My grandma Joan used to make the most delicious chocolate pie. I miss it, I miss her more.  

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? As a child, I remember staying at my grandparents house, laying in bed & staring out my window. The night was bright from the moon light hitting the fresh snow, and I just knew if I stayed awake long enough, I would see the big guy. Alas, sleep prevailed. I woke to a scrumptious breakfast and to find a new bike waiting for me.  

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly can’t recall. Perhaps it was so traumatizing that I blocked it out? Who knows?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We were always allowed (at my grandparents) to open gifts from the grownups only. Now I’m one of the grownups. This is still weird to me.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Randomly.
I tried to do a color theme, but once you have kids, no theme necessary. Kids make things and you want to hand em up!

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I long for the day we celebrate a white Christmas again. We are Midwestern natives, the Army positioned us coastal for almost 10 years and now we are in the Southwest. One day we will go back to the places where we feel the most at home.

12. Can you ice skate? Psh, I have. I don’t. I wouldn’t count on my abilities to skate to save my life.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I remember when my mom gave me my 1^st CD player!! I was soooo excited until I realized she failed to get a CD to go with it. Instead I got disk shaped GUM. How cruel is that? #MomFail. Yea, I still remember this, Mom.  

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with my husband and our little family. I wish we could be with our “extended” family back home, but at least my husband is home with me & the kiddos again this year. This is important. This I am thankful for.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? My Aunt Patty makes some wicked good fudge!  

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? We are still trying to find our niche on what will be OUR holiday tradition; the one we want our kids to remember and carry on.

17. What tops your tree? Only the brightest sparkling star will do.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I enjoy giving, mostly to my kids. Receiving isn’t important anymore.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yummy Yum Yum-o!   

20. Favorite Christmas show? How bout movie? “You’ll shoot your eye out” A Christmas Story & “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?” ELF!!

21. Saddest Christmas Song? HappyChristmas (war is over) by John Lennon. That being said, it is still one of my favorites. This one hit close to home. He does sing, ‘a very merry Christmas/and a happy new year/let’s hope its a good one’ and all that. However, I think he knew the idea of war wasn’t over and we would unavoidably be in another one sooner rather than later. He was right. Our war still isn’t over.

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? White Christmas by Bing Crosby. To this day, I cannot hear it without tearing up and being taken aback to memories my grandparents house again. As a child of divorced parents, my grandparents, in place of my dad, usually got me on Christmas Eve and because of this, majority of my Christmas memories revolve around their lovely home in the country. Grandma would let me have control of the record player and free run of the Christmas records. Bing was always one of the first ones I’d grab.