12/4/08 The 25 Days Of Christmas Meme

Nicole did this Christmas-themed meme not too long ago, and I just had to bow to peer pressure. Here's everything you could ever want to know about my Christmas goings-on.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. And all the presents are wrapped in the same paper so that they don't clash and look nice and uniform. And the wrapping paper is always blue. It's my wrapping paper rule. If something is just a weird size and impossible to wrap I'll use a gift bag, but then the present has to be hidden in the back so it doesn't mess up my blue scheme. Christmas quirk number 324: Matching presents in blue.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. I'd as soon do an artificial one in hopes that the cats wouldn't be so determined to eat the needles, but Tony insists that it isn't Christmas without a real tree. So we go to Lowes each year and pick out a Frazier fur (another Tony requirement...only the Frazier is a true tree; all other tree types are imposters). And every year we drag our tree home and set it up in the living room, and then I spend the next month trying to keep the cats from eating the branches and then barfing them back up in the hallway (cat Christmas quirk number 246: presents of pine tree barf on the carpet), and vacuuming up all the dropped needles, and trying to keep it in fresh water. But I do admit that there's something wonderful about the smell of pine in the house, and I do love the "realness" of a real tree, and I never have to spend time assembling and "fluffing" the branches or dragging it in and out of the attic.

3. When do you put up the tree? The first weekend in December. This is another Tony rule. Although I will (and have) already started decorating other parts of the house. We like to do the tree together, but the rest of the decorating falls under my jurisdiction, so I'll set something out whenever I have a free moment. It's not usual for him to come home and find a wreath up that wasn't there when he left that morning. But we always do the tree together, and always the first weekend of December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the first week of January. We don't have a set time on this one, but usually by the time January rolls around, I've all Christmased out and am ready to have my living room floor space back. We take our tree out to the zoo for the animals to play with/eat on. Zoo animals love Christmas trees.

5. Do you like egg nog? Nope. It's a little too thick and egg-y for my tastes. Like drinking underdone scrambled eggs if you ask me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm. So many favorites. As a child, I'd like to say that the trampoline was pretty cool. And the year Mom and Dad gave us the gerbils with the gerbil play city and miles of connecting tubes. More recently, I'd have to say the birdhouse that Mom made me that looks just like my house, or the Roomba (of course!).

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I put it on top of the entertainment center so you can see it from the stairs. And also because that's the safest place to keep it away from pilfering kitty paws.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad. Everything we give him goes directly into the closet and stays there. He probably has 20 years of presents hoarded on the shelves in there. My goal is to find something each year that he'll actually use instead of burying in the closet.

9. Easiest person to buy for? The Seester. She sends a list with exactly what she wants, and she's just as thrilled to get a gift card as anything else. No surprises there.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Each year I make Tony and the cats sit down and take a Christmas card picture. Then we mail them out to friends and family who secretly mock us for doing the same pose each year surrounded by a hoard of cats. Merry Christmas from the crazy cat family.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? For some reason, people like to get me scented bath soaps. I'm not sure why. I think that I must be a difficult person to buy for, so they fall back on the Bath and Body funky smells collection. And I'm sure that that is a perfectly wonderful gift for lots of people, but I'm not really a Cinnamon Pear Mulberry Spice scented lotion kind of person. I have tons of that stuff, and no idea what to do with it.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. You know those people who make it a tradition to watch White Christmas or Miracle on 34th Street? I'm not one of them. Just about the only Christmas movie that I'll actually sit down and watch is How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated version, not the remake).

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as I think of something that someone would like. Gift suggestion lists usually make their rounds in the beginning of November, and I like to have everything at least purchased by mid-November to allow for shipping.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes. I had the same aunt give us the same Christmas throw two years in a row. They were really nice, but I didn't really see the point of having two, so I gave the second one to someone else.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Chocolate turtles and Harry and Davis Moose Munch, which are sent to the office by our vendors every year and Christmas sugar cookies (especially the kind Tony's grandmother makes). Hmmm. Guess I'm not a very healthy Christmas eater.

16. Clear or colored Christmas lights? Colored on the tree. Blue on the outside of the house.
Tony likes the fat retro lights, which I broke down and bought for him at the end of last year, but I haven't decided where to put them yet. I'm afraid that they're a fire hazard inside, but I hate to have them mess up my blue theme outside.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells, hands down. Followed closely by Little Drummer Boy and Greensleeves though.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home. I'd like to stay home, but we alternate back and forth between my family and Tony's family for Christmas. I like to see everybody, but I wish the air travel wasn't always such a hassle. We always seem to be destined to get delayed and spend six hours sitting in an airport somewhere.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Yep. Although why useless information like that managed to stick while things like state capitals or the periodic table didn't...

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel. She's wearing a (wait for it) light blue dress. She's lovely. I bought her the first Christmas that I was on my own, even though she was almost taller than my little scrawny table-top tree. She's one of my favorite decorations. I have to be careful not to unpack her a second before the tree is ready though because Mason finds her feather-covered wings irresistible. I learned this the hard way one year when he snatched her from her ornament box and absconded with her through the house and under the bed. Luckily I got to her before he could start seriously chewing on her wings. He doesn't notice her when she's on top of the tree though.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. How are you supposed to open presents before Santa can come on Christmas Eve?

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Hmmm. I'm going to go with the weather. I know the cold doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas specifically, but I dislike the cold in general. Christmassing in the Bahamas would take care of that though.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? You'd think that with the blue theme going on, I'd have blue ornaments on the tree also, but I don't. Our ornaments are a hodge-podge of ones that we've made/gotten over the years while we were growing up. We have baby's first Christmas ornaments, and clothespin reindeer ornaments, and plastic apple ornaments that we brought home from school in 1988, and first married ornaments, and first house ornaments, and everything in between. And sure, sometimes I look at all of the matching blue ornaments with the blue lights on the display trees in the stores, but I wouldn't change it. Our tree is a living history of who we are.

24. Favorite dinner for Christmas? I don't think we have any set Christmas dinner. Last time Tony's family did Italian beef sandwiches. My family usually does ham and deviled eggs and green beans and such. Either works for me.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? My Christmas list included gift cards, clothes, video games, an omelet pan, and the Checkmate 1.8 million volt stun gun for zapping potential bad guys that I may come across while walking to my car in the evenings. We'll see what actually shows up under the tree.