Christmas Edition

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends!

Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you. 'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Hand-sewn cloth gift bags, it's an idea my mom and aunt and one of their friends came up with I think, we call these bags "Flying Pigs"--because we decided that my aunt should collect flying pigs which she didn't want... it's a long, strange story... But they're environmentally friendly, and less expensive because you can use them again next year! They also work well for birthdays!

2. Real or Fake Tree?
Real, always!

3. When do you put up the tree?
Sometime in December. We decorate it sometime after that.

4. When do you take the tree down?
After New Years sometime, when the tree is most sincerely dead.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Oh, yes! Yum! I'll usually thin it out by mixing it with milk, though.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
You know, I don't remember? That's sad...

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
A very small one that sits on the fireplace mantle. It's an old german one from when my mom was a kid, I think.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Ummm... my mom sometimes because it's really hard to tell what she will like and what she won't... My uncle because he buys everything he wants for himself (what do you get the guy who has everything?)... one of my cousins because he always wants really expensive gifts that I can't afford...

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom, my aunt, my sister, they are always happy with donations given in their names to charities such as Heifer International and local charity causes. My other uncle because he doesn't do Christmas anymore.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got?
I don't remember this, either... hmmm....

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Well, I really suck at sending cards either way for any occasion, so I don't really get any cards either. Except from my family, love you guys!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I guess I don't really have a favorite Christmas movie.. But, my family has a tradition to go see a play of A Christmas Carol, at the same theater with the same cast in the leading roles, we've gone every year for the past 20 years. I still love seeing it, seeing what the lead actors bring new and fresh to their roles each year, what the new cast members bring to the production...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I'm really bad at this too, usually not until the last two weeks before Christmas, sometimes not until the 22nd or 23rd of December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Traditional homemade cookies that my grandparents used to make. Now me and my cousins make the same cookies instead.

16. Colored or clear lights on the tree?
Gotta be colored lights, they're so pretty!!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Where-ever my family is. Luckily, at this time in my life, my family is all within a 20 minute drive.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Let's see...
Okay, this is too easy since the person I got these questins from got these all right. But just for the record: "You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blizten. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer..."

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A beautiful hand-stitched angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We do both, but I love the german tradition of opening gifts from extended family on Christmas Eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The materialism, "buy this, buy that", Christmas isn't about gifts, IMHO.

23. What do you enjoy most about Christmas?
Spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family. And the Christmas tree is always so pretty.

24. How did you find out about Santa?
Don't remember this, either.