The Meme For Which You’ve Waited Eight Whole Days. You’re Welcome.

Taken from Swistle, who took from Girl in a Boy House.

*****

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Eggnog equals sick. Hot chocolate equals scrumptious delight.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Like Swistle, we don’t believe, but unlike Swistle, we do receive. Each of the kids gets one present with good curb appeal under the tree each year on Christmas morning. In my family, growing up, all the grandkids got a Santa present each year until the youngest was too old to believe. I was the oldest, so I got Santa presents until I was in college.

Colored lights on a tree or white? Both, but I like colored best.

Do you hang mistletoe? No.

When do you put your decorations up? When we get around to it, moderated by how spirited I’m feeling that year.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Leslie’s toffee.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We have before, but not traditionally.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lots of ornaments, none matching; the more homemade, the better. I love love love the ones the kids bring home each year. I think most trees are pretty, but I much prefer a cozy, colorful tree with homemade ornaments to the sterile ones people put up now with decorations in one color, all white lights, etc. I also prefer real trees, but I can’t justify cutting down 75 or something over the course of my lifetime, so we do fake. This year, for the first time, we let the kids start decorating the tree by themselves. They did the garlands – red and green beads and gold plastic beads – and I handed out ornaments for them to put on. Kieran can reach pretty high now, but most of our ornaments are still on the bottom two-thirds of the tree. We’ve done candy canes before, but not this year.

Snow: love it or hate it? We never get snow in Texas (except today, apparently, after it was 75 degrees yesterday, WTF), so I can appreciate it. Snow is beautiful, in theory, but then it gets muddy and sloshy, and your boots start getting bleached by salt, and all the kittens die.

Can you ice skate? I can walk around on ice wearing ice skates, if that counts.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Oh wait. I’m realizing now that the “dish” question above was probably asking for something savory. Well, suck it, suckers, because I like what I like.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Spending the night at my grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve. I especially love looking at all the holiday cards they got that year, but only if it doesn’t spiral into snarky, self-righteous gossiping (practically impossible).

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Meh. I definitely enjoy candy canes over most other peppermint-flavored stuff. Except those soft pepperminty mints… You know what I’m talking about? They’re like butter mints, but red and white striped boxes of pepperminty goodness.

Favorite Christmas show? Movies? Recently, “Bad Santa” and “The Family Stone.” Traditionally, that Rudolph Claymation special and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

*****

Happy holidays, mah peeps!! New decade coming soon!! (And for a fantastic defense of this phrase, see this over at The Mom Slant. Julie said it better than I ever could.)