My Christmas List!

My friend Christie posted this on her blog and so did the Domestica Chica so I decided that this would be fun to do while I lay in bed feeling yucky all over...hence the lack of activity on the blog, sorry! But talking about Christmas sure does help to feel better, I love this time of year!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for sure. I feel like wrapping paper is what completes the present, like what the perfect pair of shoes does for an outfit. And Joanns has whole rolls for 60% off and they are really really cute!

2. Real tree or artificial? Real for now, I love the smell, but they sure do get messy so I am sure we will eventually turn to artificial. I remember one year in college, my roommates and I all bought a Christmas tree that was one of the sorriest looking trees at the store (we were college students living on really tight budgets and could only get the cheapest tree) but we carried that tree home from the store and put it up in our apartment. That tree become another roommate. We decorated it with love, gathered around it nightly and shared the crazy events of the day with her. She was so ghetto-fabulous. She feel over a few times (like I said, we were cheap so we didn't have a tree stand for her) thus, she got her name, Tipsy. We tried to give her water by taking a cookie sheet and than a cinder block that held up one of our beds (we were so ghetto, it was awesome) and put her trunk through one of the openings and would fill the whole up with water. I don't recommend this at all, seeing that later we have severe water damage to the carpet that was than covered up with an arm chair so that we wouldn't lose money from our deposits. She was a great tree!

3. When do you put up the tree? We've been traveling a lot for the holidays the past few years and so we haven't had a need to get a Christmas tree but I would like to think that if we were home this year, we would have one already and it would already be another member of the family.

5. Do you like eggnog? I love it, but can only drink like a cup a night because it is so rich that it gives me a tummy ache, but that tummy ache is so worth it! And to sprinkle nutmeg on top is the best part!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting a Jem doll and her earrings would light up when you flipped a switch, I thought was so cool! I totally loved Jem as a little girl. I'm sure there are other gifts that are my favorites but this one always kind of sticks out in my mind for some reason.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? I have a couple thanks to my Grandma Brimhall. She collected nativity scenes from all over the world and had well over a 100 of them. Tradition was to go to Grandma's house the day after Thanksgiving and set then up all over the house. They are all so unique and beautiful, I love every single one. When she passed away, each grand child got a few of them and I cherish them so much. I love setting them up and thinking of her!

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad, he is seriously the man you has everything. And he is notorious for shopping for himself right before Christmas and than buying for himself the exact thing we bought for him as a Christmas present.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Myself. Just kidding, my husband Ty for sure!

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't say I have ever received a horrible present, I love presents of any kind.

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? I don't feel justified responding to this one seeing that I don't send out Christmas cards, lets me honest, I am the worlds worst procrastinator, cards take way too much planning. But I would probably start when we have kids and than it will be by mail.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation and Elf.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I just started today.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I remember doing Secret Santas in my third grade class and getting a box of chocolates from this boy that I a huge crush on! And than I remembered after school that I needed a Secret Santa gift for my Brownie Christmas party that night so I opted to give my box of chocolates. Now that is what I call having the Christmas spirit!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? For a few years my mom would buy two dozens of the most delicious cinnamon rolls from a Christmas boutique I worked at called, Grandmother's House. They were huge, and gooey and delicious! We would have those Christmas morning.

16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? White lights for sure!

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18 Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel. With it only being the two of us, we want to be with family for the holidays and we are lucky enough that our families live in places that snow in the winter so we actually get to have white christmas! That is just the way Christmas is supposed to be!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I usually forget one, just like with the 12 dwarfs.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My family tradition was to open up one present Christmas Eve and than the rest the next morning. But when we got older, we decided to open up only one present for the whole family that was usually from Santa (aka, my mom) and was in the shape of a DVD and than we would all pile on my parent's bed and watch it that night. That was the best!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Rude costumers in the stores.

23. Favorite Christmas tradition? Ty and I have started our own tradition. Since we have been spending Christmas away from home but with family, we got to Wal-Mart the night before we leave for the holidays and we each get $10 and a half hour to pick out stocking stuffers for each other! Than we come home and stuff each other's stockings and have a little mini-Christmas just the two of us. I love this tradition !

24. Up early or sleeping in? It was whenever my parent's woke up, as a kid we would wake up really early and they would still be asleep so it would feel like they would sleep in but as we got older, they would wake up before use and turn on the Christmas decorations and get the house ready for the day and so than it would be us who would sleep in.
25. Who hands out the gifts? Whoever is closest to the tree, it changes every year!

26. Does Santa wrap your gifts? Santa and Mrs. Claus.

27. Do you tell the Christmas story? After Christmas Eve dinner, my Dad would read it to us.

28. Do you leave cookies for Santa? I don't remember doing it as a kid, but I do want to with my own kids. And actually I want to sprinkle oatmeal on my lawn and call it reindeer food. It only makes sense, those poor reindeer fly all night and no one leaves them food, they need their energy to make it around the whole world in one night!