Holiday MEME

While following up with fellow bloggers this week I found an appropriately festive HOLIDAY MEME over at "Can You Hear Me Now?" Now, my grandparents are Mr. & Mrs Claus, so I'm game for anything Christmas-y, and this has gotten me in the mood to dig out the tree & ornaments. I know, it's terrible that I have an artificial tree (not FAKE mind you, but artificial). But living where I live, real trees are too expensive to buy and due to the dry weather they're usually dead within a week. Better to go with the non explosive beautifully decorated artificial tree than the kindling with pretty lights I would end up with.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Definitely hot chocolate-with lots of whipped cream.. Don't care for egg nog. Tried Starbucks Egg Nog latte. Thought I liked it until about the 5th sip. Nope. Don't like it. Starbucks peppermint mocha is my absolute favorite. I order it all year long.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
He wraps them in his own special paper and puts them under the tree on Christmas Eve after Lovey has gone to sleep.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
This is a dilema at my house. I love colored lights, as does Lovey. Chas doesn't have much of opinion on it. But, I also really like the simplicity of white lights on the house. So, I never know what we're going to do until it's done. I think I'm going to do big fat colored lights this year though. My tree is mostly mini white lights, but I do weave a few big purple lights throughout. Looks much better than it sounds.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No mistletoe for me. I have pets that will jump or climb anything to get to a plant. Mistletoe is poisonous so, not a good thing for us.

5. When do you put up your decorations?
My Christmas tradition is Dec. 7th. It's my Sissy's birthday and when we were little, my mom always put up the tree on her birthday, or very close to it. If it didn't go up on her birthday, we at least went to pick it out on that day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
That's a hard one. There are so many things my grammy makes for the holidays that we eat all year. I'll have to say 24 hour salad. The funny part of it is that it's never made 24 hours in advance. It's a very very 40's-50's dish with marshmallows and fruit cocktail. My Grammy & I are really the only ones that eat it, but I do love it and only have it twice a year.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
I don't think I have just one. Christmas was always very special in my family. My grandparents (mostly my Grammy) go all out at Christmas with a tree (or two) in every room. Each with it's own theme. No one can decorate a tree as beautifully as Grammy. She could have done it professionally. As a child it was magical. Even when we were really little and she only had a few trees, I loved helping her get out the boxes and putting up the all of the decorations. To me then and now, my grandparents are Mr & Mrs Claus.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think I was probably in 4th grade or so and my mom had one of the few moments when she was a really good mom. She explained the whole thing to me in a beautiful way that I still hold with me. I tear up thinking about it.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
You bet! Every year since…well, FOREVER…we open a gift. It's always pajamas, and they're always matching. We we were little they were exactly the same, and usually home made. As we grew up my Grammy stopped for a few years. Sissy and I quickly started up the tradition again and began buying them ourselves. Now we all take turns everyone gets a set from baby Monkey all the way up to Grammy & Gramps.

10. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree?
I have all blue, green, lavender & silver ornaments on my tree. Some are vintage, but not all. I use a blue velvet tree skirt that I found at Target a million years ago and love. Lovey has a tree in his room with multi colored lights and the crocheted ornaments my great grandma made. Some of her green ones make their way onto the big tree too.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
Being that I live in Southern California, I'm gonna say LOVE IT. Mostly because I don't have to live and drive in it. I can't stand a hot Christmas and that's likely what we'll have this year. It was 90 the week before Thanksgiving.

12. Can you Ice Skate?
I'm no Michelle Kwan but I can enjoy my self skating around the rink. It was a favorite pastime of mine when visiting my dad over Christmas.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I don't think I have one. I do remember getting my "beach cruiser" bike one Christmas. It was in the 80's, the temperature was in the 90's, but we still wore our leg warmers, knickers & sweaters out riding bikes that day. There's a picture of that outfit and the bikes somewhere.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Honestly, since my family left California, the holidays are hard. I really miss the magic my grandparents create at their home, and not being with my sister, well, let's just say I'm still not used to it. But, traditions are very important to me with or without all of my loved ones. I work hard at keeping my favorite traditions going and creating new ones. I don't get a lot of support for it now, but I know that one day, when Lovey is an adult, he will appreciate it and look forward to those traditions.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
My absolute favorite is my apple pecan cheesecake. It's so incredibly good.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
When Lovey was little, I read to him all the time. I read to him long past when he was able to read for himself. On Christmas Eve, we always pulled out our favorite Christmas stories and read them by the light of the Christmas tree. I'm quite gifted at this, if I do say so myself. At one point I think we had about 6 books to read. I still read How the Grinch Stole Christmas & The Polar Express just not aloud, but that day will come again.

17. What tops your tree?
I have an antique blue blown glass tree topper that used to sit atop one of my Grammy's trees. It has a broken tip, but other than that it's beautiful.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving. Simply giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
There are so many! Little Drummer Boy-sung by a children's choir. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas-James Taylor. Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth-David Bowie & Bing Crosby. Silver Bells-Andy Williams. The list goes on and on.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yummy?
Both. Yummy at first, then it just goes on too long. I do like the Starburst candy canes though..not minty. They're fruity & colorful.