Celebrate

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About How We Celebrate Christmas (but didn't care enough to ask)

 

 

As you can see...I have found several Christmas surveys in the recent weeks...taking me back to high school survey-maddess type, that's for sure!

 

Enjoy!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Me - Hot Chocolate (with peppermint schnapps if possible, though not this year); Hubby - Egg Nog

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa does not make an appearance at our house.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White lights both inside and out.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving...or whenever BFF-D is in town to help Hubby carry the tree up from the basement and move furniture around.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? COOKIES!!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? The outdoor Christmas lights. NOT! There, all my neuroses explained.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? 3rd or 4th grade...at the Kennedy Center...while eating my lunch before seeing The Nutcracker ballet...

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Usually.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Hubby is very particular, only red balls go on the tree.  That's it (thankfully our actual tree comes complete with white lights, red berries, twigs, and pine cones on it).

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? LOVE SNOW!!  Can't wait til I can ski again...Wii Skiing only for me this season.

12. Can you ice skate? Sure, can I ice skate well?  No.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I have no idea, but it probably revolved around my American Girl dolls and/or massive doll house my father built for me (this thing was a beast, it was over 4 feet tall...up until middle school I could crawl through the front door...)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Kicking off a season of celebrating the life of Christ in anticipation of celebrating Easter...I like thinking of Christmas-time as a beginning even though it happens at the end of the year...

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Cookies...all of them...unless they have fruit or nuts in them.  I like my cookies with just a variety of forms of sugar and goodness thank you.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking cookies with Hubby closely followed by leftover ham on a leftover biscuit with my cousins post-Christmas-dinner.

17. What tops your tree? Nothing.  In 4 years we have been unable to successfully find a tree topper that did not end up on the floor.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?  God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?  YUM!

21 Favorite Christmas Show? Show?  like TV program or movie or what?  I'm always partial to The Grinch and of course Hubby's traditional viewing of Opus And A Wish For Wings That Work...movie-wise, I always try to watch White Christmas and The Muppets' Christmas Carol.

22. Saddest Christmas Song? Saddest?  That's interesting...Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is a tear jerker, but only really because of my love for Meet Me In St. Louis and knowing the story behind the song and the original set of lyrics... 

Jack

In the spirit of 24 (premieres in only a few weeks!!) Jack Bauer interrogates Santa =)

...probably only entertaining for 24 lovers like me =)

Christmas

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: CHRISTMAS VERSION

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I am absolutely terrible at wrapping gifts, Husband is not.  If Husband will not wrap the gifts, they go in bags.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial for several reasons.  Most legitimate reason, Husband's allergies.  Least legitimate reason; I hate getting sap on me. 

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? After Christmas, before New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog?  Eggs are one of a few foods I genuinely dispise.  Eggnog contains eggs and is a consistency I cannot take....Hubby drinks the eggnog in this house.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably one of my American Girl dolls, Felicity.


7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, it's a hand-me-down.


8. Hardest person to buy for? My parents.


9. Easiest person to buy for? My grandparents.


10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I'm not sure if I've ever gotten anything too terrible... 


11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail


12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas, Muppets Christmas Carol...anything classic Disney gang...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Usually not until I get a few good ideas.


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, I don't think so.


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham biscuits (leftover ham, leftover biscuits, Miracle Whip....mmmm....) 


16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear lights.

 

17. Favorite Christmas song? God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We don't have to travel far, but I'm definitely looking forward to the day when Christmas is at our home!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes.


20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  We have nothing...we've tried several different things and they all end up falling off and freaking out Kitty.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? When I was a kid it was one on Christmas Even and the rest on Christmas morning.  Now presents are few and far between so they happen whenever the gift giver is present.


22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The people who want Christmas to be politically correct.  I don't ask to come to your religions festivals, but then make you change what you call them because they don't apply to me, don't complain that choose to greet you with Merry Christmas. 


23. What I most love about Christmas? The great reminder of what it's all about and the start of the journey towards celebrating Easter.

Stop

Wait.

Stop.

Hold everything.

 

No, I didn't just smell popcorn =P

 

Better Off Ted is back on the air as of December 8th and TAYE DIGGS will be a guest star! 

 

So. Excited.

Intake

So I have decided to clue you in on my insane food and beverage intake for today, mostly because Hubby watched me pack my bag for work today and commented on the assortment of food that I kept throwing into the bag.  So, here it goes, in chronological order*:

 

1/2 cup of decaffeinated Constant Comment hot tea

10 oz water

150mg Zantac

1/2 cranberry bagel with Country Crock spread

20 oz water

2 Sunsweet Ones (Why yes, I am a 90 year old person...shut it!)

1 prenatal vitamin

1 DHA supplement

20 oz water

1 cup of garlicky/cheesy noddles with 1 cup of broccoli (leftovers from dinner last night)

1 Dole Mixed Fruit fruit cup

1 Cadbury Rose chocolate (my last of a box Hubby brought from England)

1 apple, sliced

1 cup of Light and Fit Strawberry yogurt

1 snack-sized baggie of mini pretzels

20oz water

Chicken Fajita Wrap from Backyard Grill

Side of Fries from Backyard Grill 

1 cup Edy's Slow-Churned Peppermint Ice Cream

10 oz water

150mg Zantac

 

 

*Please note these items are generally consumed fairly evenly throughout the day...pretty much hourly to keep the insane heartburn at bay =P

Crappy

So I'm a crappy pregnant lady...maybe not "crappy" but definitely not all sweet, bright-eyed, optimistic, dreamy and whatnot.  These are things I notice in the responses I have to people which apparently I have no filter for now that I am with child.  Case and point:

 

During 20ish week ultrasound:

Tech: ...and here's your baby!

Me: Aww, it looks kinda like the Terminator when all it's flesh gets melted off and it's just a metal skeleton!  That's awesome.  I've had heartburn so bad we were concerned the baby would have an Osama Bin Ladin beard by now.

Hubby: *sigh*

 

A few weeks later:

Any Number of Well-Meaning Friends: Wow, how many weeks are you now anyway?

Me: Um, 24, 26, 27....I can never remember, I think she's an eggplant now.  Produce is easier to remember than numbers.

Friends: Aren't you an accountant?

Me: But the numbers change every week and are always so close together...

 

Regarding changes to my body:

Friend: So, have you noticed your belly button start to change?

Me: My belly button is messed the heck up, man.  Seriously, messed the HECK up right now.  I have no idea what's going to happen to it when this is all over.

 

Me: You know what is good about this whole mess?

Hubby: What?

Me: I cannot imagine being this weight with no baby to blame it on.  I mean, it's exhausting carrying around all this excess weight...what if it was just "me"...that'd be gross.  I'm entirely too short for this.  I look ridiculous.  Talk about good motivation to lose the weight come spring!

 

 

Yes, I know I'm insane...and according to my weekly baby emails (that inform me of my produce-of-the-week) I am two-thirds of the way there!  Then perhaps I'll just go back to being my normal ridiculous self with a slightly more heightened comment-filter and people won't have to whisper to me, "Um, that was out-loud, but I'm going to pretend it was supposed to be in your head, k?"

 

I'm very thankful for my amazing friends who find me "funny" and not uncaring or (too) embarrassing =)

 

Giving

Yesterday Pastor Lon preached on a topic that is avoided by some churches, over emphasised by others, and appropriately addressed in others still.  As part of a message dealing with greed, charitable giving, and storing up treasures in heaven Lon touched on an area that had been on my mind for the past few years.

 

For years I have had semi-strong feelings about giving to non-religious charity organizations.  I have had a terrible time internally justifying my thoughts as more than just personal opinions and so had not discussed this with more than a small handful of people close to me while I waited on the Lord to make Himself known in this area to me.  It had long been a point of confusion for me why one, as a Believer, would chose to donate to an organization that was not faith-based over one with a similar mission that was also faith-based or why one would choose to serve in a volunteer organization like AmeriCorps or Greenpeace rather than on a missions team, but that was where it ended, a point of confusion.  After yesterday I feel like my internal struggle has been lifted.  Obviously, this is not a deal-breaker situation by any means and supporting non-faith-based initiatives can still be meaningful (and full of tax advantages...the CPA in me would be remiss to add), but I will no longer feel guilty when making the choice to support a faith-based organization over a non-faith-based one.

 

Obviously there is much more to this issue, way more than I care to touch on after it being dealt with so well yesterday.  I have no desire to regurgitate.  You can watch Lon's sermon for yourself by clicking on this link (non-video versions are also available on the website as well).

 

Just know that it's cool to have not even been thinking about an issue that I had once been so caught up with, and out of the blue receive instruction and guidance in a manner you never expected.  Our God is cool like that, He doesn't forget what's on our minds, even when it is not longer in the forefront.  If there is a lesson we are to learn, we will learn it in His perfect timing.