Christmas Quiz

Kim and Becky did it...I'm feeling blog-peer-pressure (okay, not really, but it looked fun!)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love wrapped gifts with lots of curling ribbon - lots and lots of curling ribbon! Wrapped gifts are more fun to open, don't you think?
   
2. Real tree or artificial? We have to have artificial because I'm allergic to real trees. In 1992 I was having to see the doctor once a week and get a shot for my allergies. We couldn't figure out what was going on - until I kept his boys one night at our apartment. He walked in, took one look at our tree and said, "Well, there is the reason I'm giving you a shot in the backside every week! You're allergic to your Christmas tree." :( Though, next year we are going to go to the tree farm and get a small real tree to put on our front porch - Brad misses having a "real" tree. And I'm sure the kids will get such a kick out of choosing a tree!
   
3. When do you put up your tree? Brad usually puts the tree up on Black Friday while I'm out shopping. Then I spend the rest of the weekend decorating it. This year, though, he didn't get it put up until the Monday after Thanksgiving and then it took us over a week to decorate it!
   
4. When do you take your tree down? I want my space back...I start undecorating the tree on Christmas night. I want it down and OUT by December 27th. The only time it hasn't been down by then was in 2005...when I had a baby three days before Christmas. The tree didn't get undecorated until the first week of January.
   
5. Do you like eggnog? Not at all. I prefer hot chocolate with a splash of peppermint schnapps (though not this year)
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Barbie United Friend Ship - the airplane. I loved that thing and wish I still had it!
   
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? We have many! I have one carved from olive wood that my friend got for me when she went to Israel for many weeks on a tour. It stays out all year long. I bought the Willow Tree Nativity starter set for myself last year and want to add pieces to it. I have a white bisque porcelain nativity that hasn't seen the light of day in about four years (since I had a toddler in the house!!!). We have two of the Little People nativities - one "basic" and one "deluxe" (star lights and it plays "Away in a Manger", it has a few extra animals and pieces) They are so sweet, I have to say they are my favorite! And the girls *love* to play with them!
   
8. Hardest person to buy for? Thankfully the difficult people to buy for are no longer on my list. :)
   
9. Easiest person to buy for? Really, everyone in my family is pretty easy to buy for since Mom *requires* a list from everyone and so we've all come to expect lists from one another. My kids, obviously, are super easy to buy for because I know them so well.
   
10. Worst gift ever received? I really can't think of anything at the moment!
    
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? For the record - emailed cards, while nice, aren't REAL cards. I mail mine and have finally, in the past couple of years, trimmed my list to under 100.
    
12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story totally cracks me up. And we never miss the claymation version of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Brad loves that one. And Holiday Inn -- another of Brad's absolute favorites.
    
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually sometime in October but I get really serious about it on Black Friday and get most of it done that day.
    
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas gift? I can't remember, but I don't think so - not a Christmas gift.
    
15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses. I love those things!
    
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear - the tree is prelit. We have clear red and clear (alternating on the strand) outside. I can't wait to get a little tree for the front porch and put red and white lights on it...it'll be so cute! And the tree for our room (which we've not put up in a couple of years) is blue and white with blue and white pearlized lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I blogged about it last year. It's Kathy Mattea's song "Christ Child Lullaby" it's a beautiful song and her CD is my favorite Christmas CD. I have several other CDs that I really like. The Carpenter's Christmas Portrait, Steve Tyrell This Time of Year, Tony Bennett Snowfall, Michael Card The Life, Josh Groban Noel (if you don't have this one...GET IT...man, can this guy SING - my girls love it!), Harry Connick, Jr. When My Heart Finds Christmas, Kenny G Miracles and Faith (I like Miracles better of the two). I can't remember what other Christmas CDs I have in the van at the moment. Oh...what we lovingly in our house call Have Yourself a Murray Little Christmas it's Todd's Christmas album from several years ago and since the front of the CD jewel case has disappeared, I can't remember the name of it (Todd is our Worship Pastor).
    
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? We stay in central Arkansas. Christmas morning gifts here and then we go to my parents' for breakfast and opening gifts with my parents, siblings and their families.
    
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen...but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all...Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer...and I'll stop singing now. ;)
    
20. Angel on the tree or a star? Pressed tin, painted and distressed star at the very top of the tree that I found at Target a few years ago and love. All of my angel and nativity ornaments hang at the top of my tree, too.
    
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas morning
    
22. Most annoying thing this time of year? The traffic in certain areas of Little Rock. Thankfully since I've left the corporate world, our outside commitments are pretty much nil! I love that!
    
23. What is the "corniest" family tradition you do as a family, or miss doing? We love putting the girls in their PJs and driving around to look at lights.
    
24. Ugliest Christmas decoration ever invented? I'm sure I have an opinion of something, it's just escaping me at the moment. I *do* hate people who put a ton of junk in their yard, though (like my mom's next-door-neighbor). Even the inflatable snowglobes are okay...I can deal with those. But you don't need more than ONE. (says the woman who is going to have one in her yard next week...as soon as the rain stops)
    
25. Which looks best, themed trees or homey trees? I like both. Our tree is more on the "homey" side unless you consider "Mostly-Hallmark-Ornaments" a theme of it's own.
    
26. What does Christmas mean to you? Exactly what we put on our Christmas card every year:
    
    And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans – and all that lives and moves upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit; and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused – and to save us from our own foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself. ~~Sigrid Undset