Fun Christmas Survey of Self

Ok, so I've finally forced time for a quick post. Today is our last day at our new home for 2005. We get to go Home to LR tomorrow! But...I've just woken up and had breakfast. Now I need to get moving on all that's to be done today! I hope my body will forgive me eventually. Last night was my first time to discover what grinding lower vertebrae feel like. It's not excrutiatingly painful, but it certainly is NOT comfortable. And this morning it was quite painful to turn over and get out of bed. But I love my little Judah. I realized I've forgotten about him a lot the past few days because we've been so busy with getting ready to leave. It always makes me wonder how a pregnant woman could forget at times throughout the day that she is pregnant. It becomes second nature somehow to have a whole other human being inside of you! :-P I bet it will be weird to not have one in me anymore come March. By the way, welcome me to my final trimester!

I had this typed up previously to post as Christmas got closer. Enjoy!

You all gotta do this on your own blogs! Tracie did it first...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Homemade hot chocolate with big marshmallows when it's just Matt and I. Egg nog when it is combined with vanilla ice cream after decorating the tree. Those were the days!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Depends on what movie you watch, I guess. Neither in real life.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Oh, WHITE!!! But then, nothing would do for my parents' tree but colored. As much as I always thought our tree looked gaudy and wanted it different, I'd flip if it changed because it just wouldn't be "our" tree. It does look much better since it has been toned down over the years...and it is the perfect picture of a traditional tree now.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Where do you even find that stuff?

5. When do you put your decorations up? When we go somewhere for Thanksgiving, just before we leave so when we come back it is done. When we actually stay in our own home someday for Thanksgiving AND Christmas, we'll do it either the weekend after Thanksgiving or December 1st. Haven't decided yet. Can't wait to have a tree someday...

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Mashed potatoes by far and Nonie's "burn 'n' serves."

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? This memory is more of an across the years memory. I love how every Christmas we'd wake up in our Christmas pj's, have pancakes and a B-day party for Jesus, open gifts, then get cleaned up while Momma started cooking. Nonie and Gramps would always arrive first with gifts and pies around 10 or 11, then the rest of the family would trickle in. Dinner was always around 1:30 with the kids at their table and the adults all around the big table with the china and crystal. We'd feast, then laze around the rest of the day. Pie usually around 5 I think. So I guess my favorite memory as a child, and still today, is just the whole day itself and being with family.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I remember it was in the apartments in LR. I think I was about 4. Momma sat Autumn and I down and told us there was no Santa Clause. I remember not caring one bit, but if memory serves, Autumn cried.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Are we talking Little Rock's few inches that last only a few days or Evansville's few FEET that sticks around for forever? I love seeing snow. I even love to play in lots of it. But I don't love it when it shuts down civilization as we know it. And I don't like it when it gets all dirty and slushy looking.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, but not especially well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't remember a favorite but here are a few I remember well...my snow queen porcelan doll, my first Petra cd and MWS tapes, my first eye shadow, my bean bag (that we had to leave in Tyler, TX one year...no I'm not bitter), an "adopted" dolphin, and more recently the Swarovski crystal Christmas ornaments and my Pampered Chef soup pot.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? It's hard for me to say celebrating Christ's birth above what my first thought is. Each passing year I try to focus on the "reason for the season" more and more because I am older and wiser and know better. But to me, the first thought of what is most important aside from the spiritual aspect is being with family. I cherish every moment!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Cream Pie...and Starbucks' egg nog and peppermint flavored drinks.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting new Christmas pj's every year, having a pancake B-day party for Jesus, driving around to look at lights, decorating the tree to Christmas music followed with egg nog shakes.

17. What tops your tree? Tree? Well, when I HAVE one maybe we'll look for another Crown of Thorns like I gave my mom last year.

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? GIVING! Especially for the name I draw for extended family...since it's usually Nonie. I love to make things and give them rather than just buying something.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? Secular - "I'll be Home for Christmas" by Amy Grant Spritiual - "Mary Did You Know" by Jubilant Sykes and O Come O Come Emanuel

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Doable, but usually only 1 or 2 for the holiday's sake.