Well, I've had a pretty crappy day. Sometimes being a teacher can just suck. And it's not necessarily because the kids drive you nuts. That's a given. It's other things. But I won't go there. I'm just trying to shake things off and think of the next two days being the last before CHRISTMAS VACATION and 2 weeks off! Ahhhhhhhhh.......
I have plenty of things to do, but part of my shaking things off is copying from two blogs and just "wasting time". Lol
The first is a questionnaire from my friend Brit's blog (hi Brit!)
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Both, but I would choose the Hot Chocolate first. Made with MILK and with marshmellows.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I thought it was okay for Santa to sit them under the tree and wrap a couple, but some can be unwrapped. But Holy Moses...when I said that, Chris about died. He wants Santa to wrap them all. Alrighty then...I guess we're wrapping them all.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We had the white icicle lights for awhile. That got boring. Now we have a string of blue. Chris insisted on the LED ones though, and the shade is more Ultramarine Blue than a cool aqua blue that the "old school" ones have. But the blue is nice on the house. I like it.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. My Halloween Spider Skeleton is still up. Hey, that's the only Halloween thing still up. The rest is put away!
5. When do you put up your decorations? Weekend after Thanksgiving or very shortly after.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Used to be my grandmother's tapioca pudding, but she's no longer with us.
:-(
This year we're going to do a Honey Ham. YUM!!!!!
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Going to my grandma's in North Phoenix on Christmas Eve. Looking back, it only felt like Christmas when we would go there on Christmas Eve. It just hasn't been the same since. :-( But I love building new memories with my kids. Last year we went to the central Oregon coast for Christmas. Now that was cool. Hey, it was no "christmas eve at grandma's" like when I was a child, but it was definitely one of my favorite Christmases.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My mom yelled at me and made me feel stupid for still believing. I think it could have been a little more delicate. I think I was 9 or 10.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When going to my grandmother's on Christmas Eve, we would open her gifts. Now, I think we wait. It kind of changes year to year depending on what we're doing.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? That leads me to my next "blog copy cat" I'll get into the answer to this question below!
11. What is another favorite Christmas tradition memory? This shouldn't be a "good" memory, but it gives warm fuzzies. We told Chris's family on Christmas Eve 1999 that we were preggers with Mikelle (well, we didn't know her name would be Mikelle, but you get my meaning). I was as sick as a dog, as I was only about 5-6 weeks along. We found out ourselves about 2 weeks before. Then, around the 21st or 22nd of December - BAM - sick as a DOG I was (<---Yoda speak). We didn't want to tell the family until Christmas Eve, so everyone from his family that didn't already live here came into town and I was constantly lying down and sleeping and they probably thought I was the biggest deadbeat. When we told them (at a 5&Diner restaurant in Scottsdale), my sister in law AnneMarie got all giddy and said, "oh, no wonder you haven't been feeling good!" It was nice that they finally had the understanding and didn't think I was the biggest lazy oaf. A week later, on January 2nd, I was hospitalized with hyperemesis and ended up in the hospital a week. But that following August resulted in that little cutie below in that Santa pic.
12. Can you ice skate? Depends. I can put them on and try, and maybe have a fun time even though my butt will be hurting from falling down, but sure, I can ice skate.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Actually, my favorite gift wasn't a Christmas one. It's hard for me to think of one, because I don't think of what I get that much. I know what I want, but I care more about people's reactions to what I give them.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? getting through it without gaining weight. Okay, I kee'd. That IS important, but not the most important (maybe the second most important. lol). The most important thing for me is building good memories for my kids and making sure those memories are about the true meaning of Christmas with a fun balance of the Santa and jingle bells.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Oh gosh, too many to name. Moving on...
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Between Thanksgiving and the beginning of December, we get the kids pictures taken with Santa. I also do a scrapbook layout for our Christmas cards.
17. What tops your tree? An angel. See below.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. I put a lot of thought in it, and if I feel they don't like it, it's kind of hard for me.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Do they Know it's Christmas? By Band Aid. You got the best song and a collection of the best 80s British/UK performers. What more can you ask for? Okay, Depeche Mode wasn't in it (or Erasure, or the Cure or some other awesome ones), but that song is just perfect. It's below on my playlist if you want to give it a listen. :-)
20. Candy Canes? I had to collect them in 1999 for my intense nausea and throwing up. From that, I don't know how I am not sick of them! That pregnancy ruined the smell of cinnamon for me (since it was everywhere that Christmas), but for some reason not peppermint. Weird.
21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? Yes, but it bugs me that people reject Santa and giving gifts because of the the commercialism. Commercialism has those things, but you can give gifts and have the Santa angle without getting caught up in the commercialism.
Getting back to #10: How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I was going to post pictures of the tree after seeing my friend Lara's post about it (hi lara!). So it's perfect that I can add these within this questionnaire.
After Chris and I had an ugly "first" Christmas Tree when we got married in 94', we decided our tree should have a theme. Dark blue, white and silver was the consensus. In the early days of the theme, we loved the results, but our tree - though the same colors theme (the blues, whites and silvers) - looks nothing like it did 13 years ago. First of all, our old small tree (only about 5-6 feet) gave way to this fatter 8-footer. And the dark blue ornaments that were homogeneous gave way to a hodgepodge of whimsy ornaments. Some have matching "friends" but many do not. The silver chain isn't used anymore and ribbon and snowflakes have won out as well. Dark blue has mostly evolved to lighter more airy and aqua blues. These aren't the best pictures, but I tried.
When we have a bigger house (you know, 12-20 years from now when the market improves enough to make a profit on our current house), we'll have two trees. Our smaller one for more fun ornaments that aren't so rigid in color. It'll be a "fun tree". Then we can have this one, and I won't feel like such a scrooge for keeping certain ornaments off of it because it doesn't "match".
I love your tree! The blue ornaments are so pretty! I wish I could have like 5 trees, because there are so many different ways I would love to decorate them. Of course, that would mean I had a big enough house and plenty of money to buy the ornaments, LOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I love tags. It helps people get a better insight into your life. Merry Christmas Jill.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you make it through the next two days (one now) and have a GREAT Christmas Break! We sure are thankful for teachers!
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