1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Egg Nog, in small doses, spiked.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
No, Santa contracts out all his wrapping to me. Or at least he should. Have we talked lately about how much I love wrapping presents? Wrapping presents is an underrated art. I have been known to encase coffee mugs in large scale origami, and to spend more on ribbon then on the gift itself.
Is this silly?
Yes.
Can I stop myself?
No.
As a kid, I wrapped all the family's christmas gifts, including my own. Every year I pick a color scheme for the gifts I give. One year all my gifts were wrapped to look like old fashioned candy. Another year, I used layers of tissue, velum, and clear colored plastic wrap to create different layers of color. This year I'm going for a simple effect, with pale green paper and gold wire ribbon (it's actually a tree garland) with glitterly stars, and small bells as garnish.
Things like double sided paper and thick ribbons, they just thrill my little soul.
I can McGyver a wrapping job anywhere, including at a resturant, minutes before it's given, out of a placemat, thin unfolded napkin, a greeting card envelope and the paper from straws (which curl beautifully around your finger), and by golly it was PRETTY.
So ......... um, yeah. I like wrapping presents.
If Santa left me a bunch of empty boxes, 18 rolls of scotch tape, some good thick wrapping paper, tissue, couple hundred yards of ribbon, some good scissors, and assorted other craft papers and trinkets, that would be a MERRY CHRISTMAS. You'd find me a few hours later with my sleeves rolled up, my hair pushed back behind my ears (and prolly held there with scotch tape and a bow), in a mound of crinkled tissue paper, with my fingers tied in a tangle of ribbon, and as glowingly happy as the smudge of glitter across my nose.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Well, I have white lights on my tree, I like the effect slightly more. Outside I love it when people wrap their trees and bushs in lights. Something about it brings out the beauty in the tree, more than just the effect of the light. I don't care for those inflatable plastic mylar things people use nowadays. They weird me out a bit. Lumanaries are just magic to me.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Every place I can. I'm a hugger and a kisser.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
As soon after Thanksgiving is over. As a kid, I was known to hussle the Thanksgiving guests out just to get started. Throw on a Santa hat, put on Handel's Messiah, and reaquaint myself with all the smiling faces of snowmen and angels and nutcrackers, that I'd so lovingly and reluctantly box up last New Years. Because no one in my family is really very sentimental at all, Christmas became more and more MY holiday. Chanukkah wasn't celebrated much in our family, despite our Jewish heritage on both sides, so anything I knew I'd looked up on my own. So I noted the days on my calender, and would spend a moment each day as I noticed it getting dark, thinking of a lamp still burning. Sometimes the most meaningful observations occur only in the heart and mind. And my birthday being in the middle of all this gave me a feeling of being personally connected to it all. Each holiday decoration became a treasured friend, and I touched each one for a moment before I hung them up.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Mashed potatoes! 'Specially if there were still thanksgiving leftovers. I'd take a bowl of mashed potatoes and put some turkey and stuffing in on the sides, and dump some gravy over the whole thing, microwave it and eat a little cranberry sauce while it cooks ............ SO GOOD.
But for Christmas Day, at my grandfathers, we always had tacos. What? He was Irish and Irish people all totally wanna be Mexican. Good stuff anyway. Whatever his faults (*cough*alcoholic*cough*grabsmyass*cough*), he and Marty were great cooks and not stingy in the least, with food, liquor or presents.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
After decorating the tree one year, I turned out all the lights but the ones on the tree, and lay on the floor, and looked up at the ceiling. I don't think this is the sort of memory thats really possible to share, I could try to explain the magic and shapes and shadows I saw there, but if you weren't there, I'm not sure it would mean anything.
I also enjoyed the year the Christmas parade went past our house in Jersey, on my birthday. I was certain that it was all really for my benefit.
As an adult, I enjoyed most the year I stopped going to my grandfather's house with the family/getting my ass grabbed. It reminded me that the beautiful thing about growing up was that I could start better traditions.
And of course the year I spent alone in Albuquerque and watched the snow fall. That was magic and healing, all at once.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I always knew. My parents explained it as a game other parents played with their kids. I never told other kids or tried to ruin it, and I pretended to believe it when other adults asked because it seemed to upset them if I said, "Oh, I know there's no Santa."
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes. I have no willpower, I tear into gifts as soon as justifiable.
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
I happen to know that Santa likes a good shot of peppermint schnapps and some buffalo wings.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I like it as it is here in San Diego, a destination. It will never touch my doorstep, but it's within an hour's drive into the mountains if I want it.
12. Can you ice skate?
Yes. When I was young and we had the house in Jersey, my mother bought me a pair of 'trainer skates' with two blades for stability. I would ice skate up and down the frozen street in front of the house, bumping the neighbor's parked cars and setting off their car alarms. But after all those years of roller skating at Aquarius Roller-Rink, I'm a better ice skater as well.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My bike, I think. It expanded my whole world, from the yard to the whole block. I was a queen surveying my domain, I was a knight on missions, I was a pirate looking for things to steal.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Taking time to stop and be still and celebrate what we hold dear.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
The gingerbread cake my grandmother makes me for my birthday.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Taking a drive with hot cider in mugs, and looking at christmas lights. A walk is better, if they're nearby.
17. What tops your tree?
A Dove
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving?
Giving. I know that I'm prolly gonna get presents, but when someone actually hands it to me, I'm always a bit taken back.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
Silent Night is my favorite, I've always loved Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and I'm developing a new appreciation for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
YUMYUMYUM.
Egg Nog, in small doses, spiked.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
No, Santa contracts out all his wrapping to me. Or at least he should. Have we talked lately about how much I love wrapping presents? Wrapping presents is an underrated art. I have been known to encase coffee mugs in large scale origami, and to spend more on ribbon then on the gift itself.
Is this silly?
Yes.
Can I stop myself?
No.
As a kid, I wrapped all the family's christmas gifts, including my own. Every year I pick a color scheme for the gifts I give. One year all my gifts were wrapped to look like old fashioned candy. Another year, I used layers of tissue, velum, and clear colored plastic wrap to create different layers of color. This year I'm going for a simple effect, with pale green paper and gold wire ribbon (it's actually a tree garland) with glitterly stars, and small bells as garnish.
Things like double sided paper and thick ribbons, they just thrill my little soul.
I can McGyver a wrapping job anywhere, including at a resturant, minutes before it's given, out of a placemat, thin unfolded napkin, a greeting card envelope and the paper from straws (which curl beautifully around your finger), and by golly it was PRETTY.
So ......... um, yeah. I like wrapping presents.
If Santa left me a bunch of empty boxes, 18 rolls of scotch tape, some good thick wrapping paper, tissue, couple hundred yards of ribbon, some good scissors, and assorted other craft papers and trinkets, that would be a MERRY CHRISTMAS. You'd find me a few hours later with my sleeves rolled up, my hair pushed back behind my ears (and prolly held there with scotch tape and a bow), in a mound of crinkled tissue paper, with my fingers tied in a tangle of ribbon, and as glowingly happy as the smudge of glitter across my nose.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Well, I have white lights on my tree, I like the effect slightly more. Outside I love it when people wrap their trees and bushs in lights. Something about it brings out the beauty in the tree, more than just the effect of the light. I don't care for those inflatable plastic mylar things people use nowadays. They weird me out a bit. Lumanaries are just magic to me.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Every place I can. I'm a hugger and a kisser.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
As soon after Thanksgiving is over. As a kid, I was known to hussle the Thanksgiving guests out just to get started. Throw on a Santa hat, put on Handel's Messiah, and reaquaint myself with all the smiling faces of snowmen and angels and nutcrackers, that I'd so lovingly and reluctantly box up last New Years. Because no one in my family is really very sentimental at all, Christmas became more and more MY holiday. Chanukkah wasn't celebrated much in our family, despite our Jewish heritage on both sides, so anything I knew I'd looked up on my own. So I noted the days on my calender, and would spend a moment each day as I noticed it getting dark, thinking of a lamp still burning. Sometimes the most meaningful observations occur only in the heart and mind. And my birthday being in the middle of all this gave me a feeling of being personally connected to it all. Each holiday decoration became a treasured friend, and I touched each one for a moment before I hung them up.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Mashed potatoes! 'Specially if there were still thanksgiving leftovers. I'd take a bowl of mashed potatoes and put some turkey and stuffing in on the sides, and dump some gravy over the whole thing, microwave it and eat a little cranberry sauce while it cooks ............ SO GOOD.
But for Christmas Day, at my grandfathers, we always had tacos. What? He was Irish and Irish people all totally wanna be Mexican. Good stuff anyway. Whatever his faults (*cough*alcoholic*cough*grabsmyass*cough*), he and Marty were great cooks and not stingy in the least, with food, liquor or presents.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
After decorating the tree one year, I turned out all the lights but the ones on the tree, and lay on the floor, and looked up at the ceiling. I don't think this is the sort of memory thats really possible to share, I could try to explain the magic and shapes and shadows I saw there, but if you weren't there, I'm not sure it would mean anything.
I also enjoyed the year the Christmas parade went past our house in Jersey, on my birthday. I was certain that it was all really for my benefit.
As an adult, I enjoyed most the year I stopped going to my grandfather's house with the family/getting my ass grabbed. It reminded me that the beautiful thing about growing up was that I could start better traditions.
And of course the year I spent alone in Albuquerque and watched the snow fall. That was magic and healing, all at once.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I always knew. My parents explained it as a game other parents played with their kids. I never told other kids or tried to ruin it, and I pretended to believe it when other adults asked because it seemed to upset them if I said, "Oh, I know there's no Santa."
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes. I have no willpower, I tear into gifts as soon as justifiable.
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
I happen to know that Santa likes a good shot of peppermint schnapps and some buffalo wings.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I like it as it is here in San Diego, a destination. It will never touch my doorstep, but it's within an hour's drive into the mountains if I want it.
12. Can you ice skate?
Yes. When I was young and we had the house in Jersey, my mother bought me a pair of 'trainer skates' with two blades for stability. I would ice skate up and down the frozen street in front of the house, bumping the neighbor's parked cars and setting off their car alarms. But after all those years of roller skating at Aquarius Roller-Rink, I'm a better ice skater as well.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My bike, I think. It expanded my whole world, from the yard to the whole block. I was a queen surveying my domain, I was a knight on missions, I was a pirate looking for things to steal.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Taking time to stop and be still and celebrate what we hold dear.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
The gingerbread cake my grandmother makes me for my birthday.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Taking a drive with hot cider in mugs, and looking at christmas lights. A walk is better, if they're nearby.
17. What tops your tree?
A Dove
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving?
Giving. I know that I'm prolly gonna get presents, but when someone actually hands it to me, I'm always a bit taken back.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
Silent Night is my favorite, I've always loved Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and I'm developing a new appreciation for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
YUMYUMYUM.
1 Comments:
you're cute.
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