christmas questions

1. Colored lights or white lights on your house or not at all?

2. Hot chocolate or Egg Nog?

6. When do you put up your decorations?


7. What's your favorite holiday tradition?
my favorite....that's a tough one. so, i'm thinking i'm going to have to say decorating the gingerbread house as a family. we've done it every year since ashlyn's first christmas and it's always fun to watch their creativity at work. they work together, sharing candies, swapping favorites to stuff their cheeks then douse the whole thing in sprinkles. fun times. we haven't done ours yet this year, but here's the one we did last year.


8. What's on the top of your tree?


9. Do you have a nativity displayed through the holidays?
nope. don't own one (see last post)


10.Candy Canes, traditional or flavored? Or Chocolate Covered Cherries?

ooooooooh, that one is easy for me. candy canes and they have to be traditional. that flavored stuff is for the birds....but the kids always reach for the flavored ones because of the rainbow colors. chocolate covered cherries---those are all for my dad. i can't stand the things. ick. but i did at one time have a recipe to make them homemade. they took forever. you had to make a soft dough to roll in a ball around marischino cherries. then they got dipped in the chocolate. after a while the juice from the cherry would interact with the soft dough and liquify it. in fact, they used to be in high demand----but i can't find the darn recipe. *sigh*


12.What's your favorite Christmas song?
Instrumental Carol of the Bells


13.When did you learn the truth about the "magic" of Christmas?
have no clue. i don't have a great memory.


14.Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
we celebrate at little grandma's on christmas eve, so yes. but in our home, no, we don't open anything on the eve.


15.Is there a special ornament or Christmas decoration that you wouldn't feel like Christmas without?
not a single ornament in particular, but the whole tree. i wouldn't seem much like christmas without white twinkling lights on our little christmas tree. and it wouldn't seem much like christmas if we make a new ornament for the tree every year. just another one of our little traditions.


16.Do you take neighbor gifts/treats to anyone, everyone, a select few?
i used to bake a lot during the holidays, but the past few years it just hasn't been practical. but we always, always, always make time to whip up a batch of homemade peppermint patties for helen and homemade peanut butter cups for roger---friends doug used to work with years and years ago.


17.Is your big meal on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning or Christmas afternoon? we have two. our first big meal is always on Christmas Eve at grandma pearce's. never a question about it, every single year since i was a little tot, we have christmas dinner at grandma's house. and she insists on cooking every single bit of it herself. and then we have christmas dinner at my dad's. (except last year---we stayed home and hosted christmas brunch)


18.How do you decorate your tree?
white lights, hodge-podge of ornaments---a good mix between store-bought, received as gifts, and handmade. with ribbon streamers and a shimmery gold bow as the topper. this year we added in some small pinecones and brushed silver jingle bells.


DONE 19.Snow? Love it? Dread it? Tolerate it?


21.Do you have a family get-together during the holidays with extended family?
see Question 17.


22.What's the most important thing that you must do each Christmas season?
read the christmas story from the Bible.


23.Do you bake Christmas cookies?
haven't in a few years. i prefer to make treats versus cookies at christmastime. chocolate covered pretzel rods rolled in nuts or sprinkles. or turtles---twist pretzels with a rolo melted on top and a walnut pressed in the top. or peanut butter captain crunch treats.


24.Do you leave cookies and milk for Santa? why, yes. yes we do. well, not exactly cookies and milk. ashlyn is in charge of making up treats for santa. she gets more and more creative every year and always thinks of the reindeer. here's last years tray.

and santa always leaves a thank you note

25.What's your favorite Christmas memory? it has to be the year that i had a pretty good idea i was getting my class ring for christmas. i unwrapped all my presents except for one huge box, so i knew that wasn't it. so i immediately diverted to ripping through my stocking, only to not find a small little box containing a beautiful sparkly treasure. so, majorly bummed, i opened up the huge box and realized i'd been punked. it was full of cash register tape rolls. man that sucker was heavy. so i emptied the rolls from the box, only to find another box, opened that one----and yep, you guessed it, more cash register tape rolls. geesh. crazy parents. i knew then that i'd find that little box with a sparkly treasure soon enough. i think it was 3 or 4 boxes in before i got to it. very clever wrap job, i must admit. and i've even used it myself since then when i bought doug a watch one year for christmas. heh. heh.

26. Christmas Cards. Do you send them? Include a letter or photo? Purchased or Handmade? hmmmm, well this one doesn't have a straight forward answer. let's just say that i have plans to send them, every year. but time gets the best of me. so i do ususally send them, but not a ton of them-----i keep the list to under 50. this year i think it's 30. last year, i just created a photo card and ran out of time so i emailed it to everyone. this year, i've created another photo card---and i'm hoping to order them from 1 hour photo today. thanks to wonderful coupons, they won't cost me but $3.

off to transfer all the traincake pictures. hahaaa. if that's what you want to call it. be back later to share.