Christmas Q&A

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate. Despite the fact that I do like eggs, I actively avoid most foods with "egg" in the title (i.e. egg foo yung, egg drop soup, egg salad sandwiches, and most definitely egg nog.)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Wrapped, of course. I understand the general theory that Santa doesn't have the time nor inclination to wrap presents, but I'm firmly in the camp that all presents should be wrapped, so as to maximize the fun (and noise, mess) of opening presents Christmas morning.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Only white lights on the tree and if we had house lights, they would also be only white. And absolutely hung straight, evenly and carefully, with no gaps or droopy strands (which is why we don't hang lights; too much work to make them look good)

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No. Where do you even find it??

5. When do you put your decorations up?
The day after Thanksgiving--except for the nativity set; that, we set up for FHE.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
I love the quiche that Mark's mom makes--yumm!! Also, my mom makes her "Christmas jello"; I don't know if it is my favorite, but it is definitely a tradition.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child.
I loved Christmas Eve at my Grandma Morse's house. Until we moved to Seattle, we did every Christmas Eve there. There were piles and piles of presents and we got to open them all that night. The next morning, we had regular Christmas at our own house, so as a kid, it always felt like I got two Christmases.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
No clue, but I do remember looking out the window of my Grandma Wright's house and seeing Santa Claus flying with his reindeer. Pretty amazing.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No, but the girls always ask to open a gift. They give me this line, "Mommmmm. . . we always open a present on Christmas Eve." And then I have to tell them, "No, we never do." And yet, they still try to tell me that we do each year.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Eclectically- with all of the ornaments I have received over the years. I have ornaments dated back to 1978 (I was 5 years old at the time). Each year, we add another ornament for each member of the family and write their name and the current year on it.

11. Snow?
I like the idea of snow, but never really liked the reality much when we lived up north. I groove on the St. George snow (there in the morning; gone by the afternoon). No mushy brown mess, only the pretty white stuff.

12. Can you ice skate?
I have skated before, but I cannot remember when. Maybe at age 10 or so??

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I remember receiving my "Star Princess" banana seat bicycle from Santa when I was eight years old. It was purple; you can't beat that!

14. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
My Mom's Christmas fudge. It is so addicting.

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
I love all our advent calendars. As a kid, I remember waiting, so impatiently, for my turn to put the ornament on the advent calendar. There were five of us, so my turns were limited. I now have 3 advent calendars in our home so that my girls can each do one a day, during the month of December.

16. What tops your tree?
A metal star, which is often found lop-sided.

17. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Far Far Away on Judea's Plain, which my girls (when they were younger)would sing the last two lines, "Peace on Earth, will good to men".

18. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum, but just the peppermint ones and only during the Christmas season.