Answers to Jennifer's questions from her blog:
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate! In my house and for my friends I make my "Hot Chocolate Deluxe": hot chocolate, whipped cream, sprinkled with cinnamon. Yum!
2. Colored Lights on the tree/house or white? We go back and forth on this one. We had colored lights on the house for several years. I wanted white. Marty gave in and changed them. Now the kids want colored so who knows what we will do next year. We may bring the colored back out. I am insistent on white on the tree. I had this big plan for my tree this year. The tree is my baby and my love for decorating goes nuts over the tree. I am usually googling lots of ideas until I get the tree to look in real life how it does in my head. God very much convicted me on controlling Christmas, getting caught up in the details that do not matter, and focusing on Him. Marty and the kids wanted colored so I gave in. I thought the tree ended up beautiful regardless if it was what I envisioned.
3. Do you hang mistletoe? No. If I found a pretty one I probably would though. I am a romantic and never turn down a kiss.
4. When do you hang decorations up? Day after Thanksgiving
5. Favorite holiday dessert? I am not a dessert eater anymore, but I love my Aunt Kathy's peanut butter balls. She gives me a tin of them every year.
6. Favorite holiday memory as a child. I loved Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and grandparents. There were so many happy memories of that night. We are a family that loves to laugh and we would have so much fun that night. I was so close to my Gran. It gives me great joy to take over that night for her. I always think of her on Christmas Eve. She is a special lady.
7. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We open gifts with my brother and his family and my parents.
8. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I will answer this one last so I don't have to rearrange my photos.
9. Real tree or fake: We have put up an artificial tree for as long as we have been married. This year we decided on a real tree. I was all excited about the prospect of picking one out as a family and the smell of pine. My plan was to wrap burlap around it, put some white poinsettias in it, some natural branches sticking out, and beautiful white lights. Well, my family won out on some of that (which was answered in another question) and I relinquished control which was something I was working on this Christmas. The cons to having a real tree for me was waiting to put it up. I like to decorate right after Thanksgiving but I didn't want to get the tree too early for fear it would die. My other con would be that it gave me a rash initially, but I soon found out as long as I didn't touch and fool with it the rash dissipated. Marty watered it every day so I could appreciate it from afar.
10. What is your favorite tradition? I have many! To me Christmas is all about tradition. We do an advent wreath with a reading and lighting of the candles every night at mealtime. This year Reese read the readings and scripture each night which made it even more special.
We also have an Italian seafood dinner on Christmas Eve with my family (a hosting tradition passed on from my Italian Grandmother to me before she went into a nursing home). We have oysters, shrimp, etc and it is beyond delicious. My brother asked on Christmas Eve why we don't have this meal more often. I volunteered my birthday for the next one! =)
Another tradition we have is making a cake or cupcakes, lighting birthday candles, and singing Happy Birthday Jesus on Christmas Eve with my kids and my nephews.
Marty, the kids, and I also wear matching pajamas for Christmas morning. For the preservation of my marriage I am not permitted to post those pictures on Facebook or my blog =) This is Emma's favorite tradition. Her father is humoring her so far but I'm not sure for how much longer!
I also love staying up late with Marty on Christmas Eve getting everything ready.
Finally, the tradition I love the most is going to church on Christmas Eve with my entire family, parents, brother and his family and worshipping God together. I thought the service this year was so fantastic. I loved hearing the kids sing Glory in the Highest! It brought tears to my eyes.
11. What tops your tree? I love a tree with ribbon so a bow always tops my tree! Usually I make the bow. This year I had to have a bow made because the burlap was so difficult to work with.
12. Do you prefer giving or receiving? Both!
13. What is your favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night. My kids know this and every time it comes on they say, "Mom! Its your favorite . .. " It is really sweet. I used to sing O Holy Night to Emma at bedtime. She would request it often.
14. Candy canes? I could take them or leave them . ; . .
15. Favorite Christmas movie: Christmas Vacation hands down!! My brother, Jaime, parents, Marty and I can almost say every line in the movie verbatim. Probably at least 5 lines of the movie came up at dinner Monday night!! And I tried to covince Zac to dress up like Cousin Eddie . .. . Fun times . . . .
16. Christmas morning tradition: One year I constructed a scavenger hunt for the presents that "Santa" left. Santa only brings 1-2 at our house. Mom and Dad do the rest. Well . . . imagine my surprise when Reese writes this note at about 10 o clock Monday night! I think this might be our new tradition. Don't know how I feel about that . ;. . . The kids have a ball though!
17. Shop online or at the mall? I do most of my shopping online but one night in December Marty and I take the kids. Reese helps me pick a few little things out for Marty and Emma helps Marty pick a few things out for me. I always helped my Dad shop for my Mom and it was a good memory. Emma also wrapped my gifts from Marty this year. Of course she felt obliged to throw her name on there too. LOL
18. Christmas wish list: I never ask for anything big. Marty and I feel like we buy things for ourselves and each other throughout the year that we don't feel the need to throw down a bunch a money at Christmas time for things we don't need. I did want a shirt from the Gap this year called the Boyfriend Shirt. I have one and its so comfortable. I wanted another color. Emma couldn't get over that it was called the Boyfriend shirt when she helped pick it out! She picked out purple of course!
19. Snow: Love it or hate it? I love it. I love it especially when I'm holed up in the house with nowhere to go. I don't particularly like to drive in it. I also don't like four straight months of it. I'm usually ready for it to go away by March. I do like to ski though so a couple good storms would be good.
20. Favorite holiday food: Oysters. My brother and I even tuck some away and eat them for breakfast Christmas morning!
21. When/how did you find out the truth about Santa? I really don't remember at all. I obviously wasn't traumatized and have pleasant memories of believing so I'm hoping my kids won't be traumatized by learning the truth later on as well.
22. Favorite holiday tradition as a child? My mom and dad would always get me an ornament every year that would be special to me. We do this with our kids too. Usually it revolves around an interest of theirs. My mom also continues to get the kids one too. This year she got Reese a Miami Heat ornament and Emma a "Brave" ornament. Also growing up, Mom did a lot of the shopping but there would be one gift that would be just from Dad. He would pick it out by himself. I'm 36 and my Dad still does this with me. When I got married he left a slate angel in my apartment in Memphis. On the back it said, "You'll always be my little angel. Love, Dad" Since then he has left angels in each house that I've moved into, whether it be an angel magnet, figurine etc. A lot of times there will be an angel in my Christmas gift too. This year there was a Harvest angel to decorate with in fall. My dad is sentimental. I love that about him.
8. Our tree is decorated with ornaments that are special to us in some way. Instead of souvenirs we buy ornaments to remember special trips, milestones, etc. I wanted to share some of our favorites:
My sister in law made this one for us. It is a picture of our wedding.
My brother, parents and I all have this ornament for reasons listed above!! We love this movie!
I reconnected with an old friend from high school through Facebook. We both found that we share a love of coffee. She bought and sent me this ornament last year.
Souvenir from one of our trips to the Greenbriar.
Our 2008 trip to Disney with Reese
I love these WV handmade blown glass ornament. Marty bought me one when we spent a weekend at Stonewall Jackson resort.
2003 trip to Hawaii
We love to ski!
I got this one for Marty. When Reese was a baby we could only get him to quiet in the car when we would play an audio recording of this book. The narrator's voice would put him right to sleep. Marty and I could then recite the whole book ourselves from listening to it so much. Good memory.
Mom got this one for Emma when she was in her "dress-up" phase
Ornament from our honeymoom in Sedona, AZ
My tree
Ornament from the Peabody hotel in Memphis famous for the Peabody ducks that ride the elevator. We dreamed of staying in this hotel when we lived in Memphis. We got the opportunity years later when Marty and I went back for CEs and my MOSD reunion.
I loved reading your answers, too! Thanks for posting them!
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