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rivers_bend at 07:50pm on 10/12/2011 under meme
rivers_bend at 07:50pm on 10/12/2011 under memeGoodness, I don't post for weeks, and then I make all the posts at once. Here's the answers to that christmas meme going around.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I don't really see these things as either related or opposites so I am not sure how to answer this. I used to like egg nog more than I do now, and same with hot chocolate. I think of egg nog as something I would have at home, though, and hot chocolate if I were at a coffee shop or something. I don't drink coffee at all, so if it's freezing and I don't want a cold drink, I sometimes get a hot chocolate, though I would always rather have peppermint hot chocolate than plain.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped! We always wrapped EVERYTHING. All the stocking presents, too, even the 9-volt battery we each got every year to put in the smoke alarm outside our bedrooms. My mom had a huge collection of all different sizes of boxes, and a whole dresser of wrapping paper and the sunday comics and tissue and ribbons--everything you would need. There would be a card table set up in the room next to the dresser and we'd all take turns in there and no one else could come in while it was our turn to wrap.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored when I was young, and then the last few years mom and dad moved to white. I never had lights on the house when I lived in England, because it just isn't really such a thing, but I usually had a mix of colored and white lights on the tree.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? My parents had this god-awful dusty plastic mistletoe that they would hang from the light fitting in the foyer inside the front door, but no one ever really noticed it or did much about it. I have no idea if they still have it or not.
5. When do you put your decorations up? I think we often did it Thanksgiving weekend when I was younger, because that is when there was time. I have no idea what my parents do now, as when I was in England I could pretty much never come home for Christmas, and I haven't paid much attention to exactly what weekend it's been, but I don't think there's really a routine anymore. My ex was into putting up decorations on Christmas eve, which drove me crazy, so I always put them up by myself earlier in the month. Now I don't decorate.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? We have a recipe called "Grandma Mary's rolls" that we have for breakfast every Christmas, and that is my favourite. I couldn't care less about anything else, but I always want to have that.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? There was a tree farm we used to go to every year out by the beach. It felt like a forever drive when I was a kid, though it wasn't really, and we would pile in the back of my mom's station wagon (oh the days before childseat laws) and bring a picnic, and get to ride the back of a big truck up a mountain and tromp around in the mud and choose a tree, and then my dad would cut it down and we'd drag it back to the road and wait for the truck to take us back down. One year we went camping for Thanksgiving, and it was raining and hailing the whole time, and we cooked a turkey dinner on a Weber barbecue under tarps in a hail storm, but gave up the trip early and went and cut trees on the way home. There had been a huge barn building built at the tree farm since the last time we were there, and it was empty, and so we picnicked in the barn, and me and my brother and the two kids from the other family we were with played soccer with a crushed soda can (so maybe more kick hockey?) and it was wet and rainy, but lots of fun. Going to get the tree was always fun. I remember the first year mom and dad went and got a tree at Home Depot, I cried, even though I wasn't living at home anymore at that point.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Honestly? I have no recollection of ever believing in Santa. I think that maybe I did, but I don't know for sure.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Every year my brother and I got a new pair of PJs and sometimes slippers or a bath robe for Christmas, and we would open those on Christmas eve and sleep in them that night. Possibly to be cute for pictures the following morning.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I am all about ornaments collected over the years that mean something to you. Not a fan of themed trees or ornaments bought in sets, or anything that matches. Every one should have a memory associated with it.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? It's pretty? I hate it. But I don't dread it, because I don't live where it happens. Thank god.
12. Can you ice skate? I took ice skating lessons when I was younger, and ice skating and roller skating were actually things that we did when I was in school, because I'm old like that, but I haven't been on ice skates in probably 25 years, so I would hesitate to say an unqualified yes to this question.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't do favourites. But I do remember the year that my 'surprise yes' present was getting my ears double pierced. Every year my brother and I each got to have something that we'd basically been told we would never get. Like the ear piercing or a skateboard, or I think one year there was a doll I wanted... and I remember going down with my mom to the jewelers and picking out earrings and getting second holes put in.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? As the years go by, I actually find that i hate Christmas more and more. I would much rather get and give gifts spontaneously throughout the year, and find special occasions that actually mean something to me to get together with people and make meals or have a party. All the culture of shopping and ads and everything grosses me out, and the pressure to have this one day that is perfect and filled with family and everything is much more stressful than it is fun. But I am really glad that my parents have decided that they will come down here for Christmas, and I get to spend it with them.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Still don't do favourites. But I love desserts. As long as they don't have nuts in them.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I don't have anything anymore, but I have lots of memories like the tree cutting, and the way every year we would get up and open all our stocking presents and then have scrambled eggs and Mary's rolls and then open all the tree presents. And we also had a tradition of putting clues on every gift. We had to guess what was inside (or at least make a good effort) before opening it.
17. What tops your tree? I think my parents have a quilted angel doll. I had an owl I made out of foil chocolate wrappers when I was in England.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? That really depends on the context. I think maybe giving.
19. Candy Canes? They exist. I like minty things, but they are probably my least favourite of minty things because they are sharp and hard. I keep seeing people talk in this meme about non-mint candy canes. I do not know what those are, but they don't sound good.
20. Favorite Christmas show? Bah Humbug. do not want.
21. Saddest Christmas song? River by Joni Mitchell
22. What is your favourite Christmas song? In terms of traditional, to listen to, Silent Night, to sing, Lo, How a Rose 'er' Blooming. I love John Denver and the Muppets christmas carols album because that was what we always listened to when I was little. Right now my christmas playlist is MCR singing Every Snowflake is Different and All I want for christmas is you, and Gerard reading the Xmess poem thing.
23. Favorite Christmas movie? Love Actually
24. How long do you leave up Christmas decorations? Until I take them down. Sometimes this has been the 27th or so, sometimes the middle of January.
25. What kind of cookies do you leave for Santa? I don't recall ever having done that.
this meme made me realize that a lot of the pop christmas music that I used to have is now missing. Stupid thieves who got my computer three years ago. I shall have to rectify that. There was some good stuff!
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I don't really see these things as either related or opposites so I am not sure how to answer this. I used to like egg nog more than I do now, and same with hot chocolate. I think of egg nog as something I would have at home, though, and hot chocolate if I were at a coffee shop or something. I don't drink coffee at all, so if it's freezing and I don't want a cold drink, I sometimes get a hot chocolate, though I would always rather have peppermint hot chocolate than plain.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped! We always wrapped EVERYTHING. All the stocking presents, too, even the 9-volt battery we each got every year to put in the smoke alarm outside our bedrooms. My mom had a huge collection of all different sizes of boxes, and a whole dresser of wrapping paper and the sunday comics and tissue and ribbons--everything you would need. There would be a card table set up in the room next to the dresser and we'd all take turns in there and no one else could come in while it was our turn to wrap.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored when I was young, and then the last few years mom and dad moved to white. I never had lights on the house when I lived in England, because it just isn't really such a thing, but I usually had a mix of colored and white lights on the tree.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? My parents had this god-awful dusty plastic mistletoe that they would hang from the light fitting in the foyer inside the front door, but no one ever really noticed it or did much about it. I have no idea if they still have it or not.
5. When do you put your decorations up? I think we often did it Thanksgiving weekend when I was younger, because that is when there was time. I have no idea what my parents do now, as when I was in England I could pretty much never come home for Christmas, and I haven't paid much attention to exactly what weekend it's been, but I don't think there's really a routine anymore. My ex was into putting up decorations on Christmas eve, which drove me crazy, so I always put them up by myself earlier in the month. Now I don't decorate.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? We have a recipe called "Grandma Mary's rolls" that we have for breakfast every Christmas, and that is my favourite. I couldn't care less about anything else, but I always want to have that.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? There was a tree farm we used to go to every year out by the beach. It felt like a forever drive when I was a kid, though it wasn't really, and we would pile in the back of my mom's station wagon (oh the days before childseat laws) and bring a picnic, and get to ride the back of a big truck up a mountain and tromp around in the mud and choose a tree, and then my dad would cut it down and we'd drag it back to the road and wait for the truck to take us back down. One year we went camping for Thanksgiving, and it was raining and hailing the whole time, and we cooked a turkey dinner on a Weber barbecue under tarps in a hail storm, but gave up the trip early and went and cut trees on the way home. There had been a huge barn building built at the tree farm since the last time we were there, and it was empty, and so we picnicked in the barn, and me and my brother and the two kids from the other family we were with played soccer with a crushed soda can (so maybe more kick hockey?) and it was wet and rainy, but lots of fun. Going to get the tree was always fun. I remember the first year mom and dad went and got a tree at Home Depot, I cried, even though I wasn't living at home anymore at that point.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Honestly? I have no recollection of ever believing in Santa. I think that maybe I did, but I don't know for sure.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Every year my brother and I got a new pair of PJs and sometimes slippers or a bath robe for Christmas, and we would open those on Christmas eve and sleep in them that night. Possibly to be cute for pictures the following morning.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I am all about ornaments collected over the years that mean something to you. Not a fan of themed trees or ornaments bought in sets, or anything that matches. Every one should have a memory associated with it.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? It's pretty? I hate it. But I don't dread it, because I don't live where it happens. Thank god.
12. Can you ice skate? I took ice skating lessons when I was younger, and ice skating and roller skating were actually things that we did when I was in school, because I'm old like that, but I haven't been on ice skates in probably 25 years, so I would hesitate to say an unqualified yes to this question.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't do favourites. But I do remember the year that my 'surprise yes' present was getting my ears double pierced. Every year my brother and I each got to have something that we'd basically been told we would never get. Like the ear piercing or a skateboard, or I think one year there was a doll I wanted... and I remember going down with my mom to the jewelers and picking out earrings and getting second holes put in.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? As the years go by, I actually find that i hate Christmas more and more. I would much rather get and give gifts spontaneously throughout the year, and find special occasions that actually mean something to me to get together with people and make meals or have a party. All the culture of shopping and ads and everything grosses me out, and the pressure to have this one day that is perfect and filled with family and everything is much more stressful than it is fun. But I am really glad that my parents have decided that they will come down here for Christmas, and I get to spend it with them.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Still don't do favourites. But I love desserts. As long as they don't have nuts in them.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I don't have anything anymore, but I have lots of memories like the tree cutting, and the way every year we would get up and open all our stocking presents and then have scrambled eggs and Mary's rolls and then open all the tree presents. And we also had a tradition of putting clues on every gift. We had to guess what was inside (or at least make a good effort) before opening it.
17. What tops your tree? I think my parents have a quilted angel doll. I had an owl I made out of foil chocolate wrappers when I was in England.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? That really depends on the context. I think maybe giving.
19. Candy Canes? They exist. I like minty things, but they are probably my least favourite of minty things because they are sharp and hard. I keep seeing people talk in this meme about non-mint candy canes. I do not know what those are, but they don't sound good.
20. Favorite Christmas show? Bah Humbug. do not want.
21. Saddest Christmas song? River by Joni Mitchell
22. What is your favourite Christmas song? In terms of traditional, to listen to, Silent Night, to sing, Lo, How a Rose 'er' Blooming. I love John Denver and the Muppets christmas carols album because that was what we always listened to when I was little. Right now my christmas playlist is MCR singing Every Snowflake is Different and All I want for christmas is you, and Gerard reading the Xmess poem thing.
23. Favorite Christmas movie? Love Actually
24. How long do you leave up Christmas decorations? Until I take them down. Sometimes this has been the 27th or so, sometimes the middle of January.
25. What kind of cookies do you leave for Santa? I don't recall ever having done that.
this meme made me realize that a lot of the pop christmas music that I used to have is now missing. Stupid thieves who got my computer three years ago. I shall have to rectify that. There was some good stuff!
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Gerard reading a poem? Where can a body find this?
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I loved having a live tree. I think my parents mostly use an artificial one now, because it's just so much easier and less wasteful, but it's not the same as going to cut one down.
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I don't really like mint anything, but I've had Jolly Rancher candy canes several times and really liked them. I had some Jelly Belly ones too, but I didn't enjoy them. Flavors that are good as a jelly bean don't necessarily make good hard candy, it seems.
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