1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? I absolutely love hot chocolate. Always have, always will. Brian says my family are the kings and queens of hot chocolate we all love it. Brian hates it. :( But he absolutely loves his egg nog. He just won't buy it often due to the price.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I am a huge fan of colored lights. I totally think Christmas is the whole colored lights with a tree that has ornaments full of meaning not a perfect tree. White lights are really pretty too but I love colored ones. Brian also likes colored which is why we brought colored lights for our place.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? I actually do not have mistletoe in my boxes of decoration yet. :( But I also right now have absolutely no place that I could even hang it if I did. So maybe in a few years but no mistletoe hangs in my apartment. I just live with my cute little Christmas corner. (Brian doesn't hang it if I don't. He doesn't decorate for Christmas.)
5. When do you put your decorations up? Decorations for Christmas always go up the day after Thanksgiving. That is what I did when I was little and still do to this day....except this year. I put up Christmas on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving since Brian worked all weekend and we were all over the place. I don't know when Brian put up decorations when he was younger but he hates to decorate right now so he doesn't do much and could care less when they come out. I at least got help with the tree stand, stringing lights, and he put one ornament on the tree.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? My grandpa's Christmas candies have always been my favorite. He makes my great grandma's caramel, some toffee squares with almonds and chocolate, and some chocolate covered crisps. They are delicious. Brian can't think of his favorite holiday dish so he doesn't have one.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? My dad use to hang up a blanket when we lived in Layton so that if we got up earlier then my parents we couldn't see what Santa brought (since it was unwrapped). the blanket would hide the whole front room from us and we had to wait outside it until my dad took it down. I loved watching the room unveil and seeing what was sitting around the room and by the tree. Brian's favorite memory was picking out his family Christmas tree. They would go look for a real tree then bring it home to decorate.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember when I learned about Santa. I think in a way I never learned because I always knew since we had sub for Santa when I was growing up. Still to this day I truly believe in Santa Clause and what he stands for. I had people who helped keep the Christmas spirit alive for me and I will always remember what Santa truly stands for. He is a real person who just has people do his job for him.
Brian found out about Santa the Easter after he was 9 (I think?? Third or Fourth grade if I remember). His mom sat him down and told him the Easter bunny wasn't real which had you figure out that everything isn't real. But then he got to be the Easter bunny for his younger sister. I think it is a great idea to have them become the Easter bunny/Santa after they find out.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes. It was always half and half, if we had pjs coming then yes. Last year was the first year I opened a gift that wasn't pjs on Christmas Eve. I am not sure about Brian...
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? The lights go on first then all the ornaments I have been giving since I was first born. I love putting on each individual ornament and remembering why certain ones are my favorites. Brian doesn't like to decorate right now. He thinks it is because he use to pick out the tree then get excited to decorate what he picked out.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Both! I love watching the snow fall and being inside all nice and warm. Snow is the perfect reason to just cuddle up and watch a movie while sipping hot chocolate. If I have to go out in it....I am not the biggest fan. Too many crazy incidents and nobody seems to know how to drive in snow when it firsts begins to fall. Snow is also much better then just being bitter cold. Brian hates the snow, he just plain hates the cold in general. If he could get his wish he would move and live in a warm place where it doesn't snow.
12. Can you ice skate? Yes I can ice skate and even own my own pair of ice skates. I don't do anything fancy but I love to get out on the ice. Brian can ice skate but he prefers not to, goes right in hand with hating the cold.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't recall having a truly favorite gift. The gifts I can remember getting on Christmas are: my cider chest, porcelain dolls, triplets (loved these when I was little...I have several pictures with them), and a roller skating doll (but that memory is really vague). Brian's favorite gift for any time is athletic gear. We stocked up during our first few Christmases together to get almost everything.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Family. I would rather be with family then anything. The same goes for Brian (to an extent). He would rather be around family then have anything else to do with the holidays (or at least that was the answers years ago).
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Grandpa's candy and the hard old Christmas candy. I love that stuff. I also love a lot of the cookies. Brian's favorite holiday dessert is marshmallow Santas.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Sinderklaas or my family stocking. Sinderklaas is putting out my shoes in December 5th for him to fill. Definitely carrying on this tradition. My family also has stockings that go back generations. We are on to the seventh or eighth generation on them. I think it is so neat to have a stocking that is similar to the ones my dad has and his siblings and his parents and so on. Brian's favorite holiday tradition is waiting to open gifts together. Everyone gets to see what everyone else got and you get to spend the quality time together.
17. What tops your tree? An angel right now. I don't know if it will change because I love the angel but also love stars that light up.
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? I prefer to give. I love to see other people's reactions and it is fun to figure out ideas on what to get them. I also dread giving though because what if they hate what you get them...yuck I hate that feeling of dread. Brian also prefers to give. He does that all the time too. We will go out to find him something and we end up buying three things for me. He just can't buy himself something.
19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? I am in between on this right now. I use to love candy canes. I would eat one almost every day when I was younger. Now I can't seem to even want to open one let alone eat the whole thing. Brian thinks candy canes are yummy!! Although I can't recall seeing him eat one. ;)
20. Favorite Christmas show? I love almost all Christmas shows. I love Miracle on 34th Street and Yes Virginia There is a Santa Clause and Charlie Brown Christmas. The ones that show the true meaning behind Christmas and Santa Clause. Brian's favorite is Home Alone. (Which reminded me how much I love it...I really can't choose. The best movies come out around the holiday.)
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love Where are you Christmas?, Let Him In, Grown Up Christmas List, and so many more. I love Christmas music. Brian's favorite Christmas song is Jingle Bells and the Forgotten Carols.
23. Do you use an Advent calendar? Yes, I always have. My favorite was the one we would make in my German classes with candy. They were candy chains. I loved it. (Maybe it had to do with the fact that I got to choose what I put in mine since you had to bring your own candy.) Brian used them from what we have talked about. His were mostly the Christmas books with the chocolate squares.
24. Do you go to church on Christmas? Only when Christmas falls on a Sunday. I always wanted to go the Midnight Mass just so that I can see what it is like. Brian is the same except I think he has been to a Christmas Service from another religion before like Midnight Mass.
25. What were your Christmas morning rules as a kid? We had to let my mom and dad sleep until at least six (or seven as we got older). We couldn't look at anything (hence the blanket story earlier) so we would just get up and talk to each other in bed about what we thought Santa brought us. We would read Christmas stories too. Once it was time we would wake up anyone who wasn't awake and go find my parents. We would then always begin with our Santa gift and our Stocking. I loved looking in the stocking. We would always get an orange, a banana, and an apple. Then after everyone was done with their Santa gifts and eating some of their treats, we would unwrap the gifts one or two of us at a time. Not sure what his morning rules were (I will try to post them later) but he had to be in bed by 10 pm the night before.
Doing this sure reminded me of why I enjoy the Christmas season.Christmas never came from a store for me it came from people's hearts and giving spirits. Complete strangers went out of their way to provide something for a family who was in need and so did loving family. Sure I got things but really each Christmas I was filled with the true meaning of Christmas through the Christmas spirit. This is why Christmas is still so magical to me even today.
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