Here's a little Christmas meme. I found it via Janna's blog. Enjoy! Please comment & play along if you like. C'mon..you know you want to...don't be a Scrooge. It could be the only fun thing you get to do today - just do it! If you participate on your own blog (please do), let me know and I'll come visit! :)

CHRISTMAS MEME
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper - absolutely! WAY more fun to open than a gift bag....and harder to peek into.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. One year I got all wrapped up in the real-tree thing....until I had to take it down and clean up BILLIONS of those @#$%^ pine needles! I swear I was still cleaning them off of the carpet and out of the back of the car for YEARS. So artificial it is...pre-lit.

3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving day...and I'd do it sooner if I were allowed. I LOVE Christmas and I can't WAIT to put up the tree and I HATE taking it down...and not just because it is a lot of time-consuming work to do so.

4. When do you take the tree down? Within a week after the first of the new year..but one year it was still up at the beginning of February (before I was married). Hey - why not hang on to what brings you joy? ha.

5. Do you like eggnog? No. Gross. I'll never drink anything with "egg" in the title.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I don't have one that really stands out - even as a kid...I just like Christmas and WHAT I receive really isn't what it is about for me. (well..mostly). I do remember a stuffed pig I got one year - the tag said it was from my Dad...and I remember being so in love with that idea...that HE picked it out for me. Of course, now that I"m older, I'm sure when I opened the present it was also his first glance at it. Thanks, Mom!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. We picked the set out on our honeymoon but didn't want to travel with it...so each year on our anniversary (Dec. 4), my husband buys me a new piece to add to the set. I LOVE it. It is the Willow Tree nativity.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My Mom.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Lauren. She's 2...and toys excite her - EASY!

10. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? I'll never tell.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I mailed them the last couple years - but I'm not sure I'm going to get around to it this year. =-(

12. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf, Christmas Vacation and The Ref (does that one count?)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year long! I love Christmas!! I always feel it hurts less if you spread the cost out throught the year. However, this year I am a total wreck - I have SO much left to do...and today is the 8th already!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably - but I can't remember specifically.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? The problem I have here is - pretty much everything. Cookies, bars, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning - the whole season from Thanksgiving to New Year's is pretty much a dieter's nightmare.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Doesn't matter to me. Currently I have clear lights with a slight coloring at the tips of the branches (fiber-optic). I have had colored lights in the past too and love those...but they have to be multi-colored. I would never do all-blue or all-red...multi-colored or clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? All of them. But I've always loved The Little Drummer Boy. I also like Silent Night - at my Grandma's house we always used to sing that as a family, while they lit candles on the tree (holy old-fashioned fire hazard!)...but it brings back a warm fuzzy for me.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This truly has been one the hardest things for me as an adult...realizing that it is virtually impossible to gather everyone together at Christmas...I want to be with ALL of them - my family, my husband's family, my grandmas my grandpas, cousins, etc. But you know how it is. SO...my husband and I have decided we will ALWAYS be home for Christmas - so our kids wake up at their house, in their pj's, to their own tree/presents.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I'm not sure! Challenge of the day.

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

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Some on both days. We usually go to my Mom's house on Christmas Eve and open gifts there...and usually I get the kids new pj's to open Christmas Eve too.

22. Most annoying thing this time of year? CROWDS of unthoughtful self-absorbed people!

23. What I love most about Christmas? I'm going to steal Janna's answer here because I feel the same way. Something about Christmas songs - unless I'm at the mall - puts me in a reflective, sentimental mood, reminding me of all the blessings God has given me. I also love to see the excitement and joy on my children's faces Christmas morning....and it is so fun to watch people open the gifts you picked for them. And, of course...the cookies.