Holiday Edition Tag

Welcome to the 2008 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Don't be a scrooge!!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Looooove Hot Chocolate, not such a fan of Egg Nog

2. Does Santa wrap presents or sit them under the tree? Wrap. And despite his best intentions, he is often up late Christmas Eve doing it. One day he will get it all done in advance, as he always intends to do.

3. Colored or white lights on tree/house? colored

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nah, who needs the excuse of mistletoe?

5. When do you put your decorations up? As soon as I get to it once Thanksgiving is over.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Hmmmm..... ham and mashed potatoes, probably.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: There are two (and they could possibly be from the same year). Here's one.

When I was 10 or 12ish, I remember staying awake with my brother all night waiting for Santa do his thing so we could check out the goods before morning. Our bedrooms were in the basement, and we kept sneaking to the base of the stairs to listen for "Santa" to be hustling around. My parents kept hearing us run up and down the hallway and would yell down to us to go to bed. Finally we heard them putting everything out, and once it was silent we crept up the stairs. We stood there letting our eyes adjust to the darkness and looked at all the gifts overflowing from beneath the tree. Just as we were about to move in for a closer look, I caught sight of some Christmas lights from the tree reflecting off of my dad's glasses. Only then did I realize that he and my mom were sitting silently on the couch watching us. It seems one of them broke the silence with a final warning of "Go to bed!" as we scurried back down the stairs, finally relenting.

The other, for those who know the story, is the eventful trip we took to San Diego to visit Aunt Pam and family.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Probably around eight years old, something about snooping around and finding a bunch of wrapped presents labeled from Santa. I don't remember it being very traumatizing, so I probably had a hunch by that point.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. The rule is one per person, but before we had kids there were several times Jeremiah and I got carried away and opened them all. It doesn't take all that long when there are just two of you.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? no specific color or theme - just colored lights and random assorted ornaments

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love the look of it, just not the temperature. But I definitely prefer a white Christmas!

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. I'm amazing. ;-)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My son, Isaiah, whom we were blessed to adopt when he was born just a month after Christmas a few years ago. It was a very magical Christmas season as we prepared excitedly to welcome a baby boy into our family. We were blessed to have TWO birth moms offer us the gift of adopting their baby boys, and we are extremely grateful to each of them.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family - spending happy times together.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Almond Roca, baby!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? No one thing, necessarily, but I look forward to things like seeing the lights at Temple Square, attending the Festival of Trees, etc.

17. What tops your tree? I grew up having a star atop the Christmas tree, and for Jeremiah it was an angel. So far we have always had a star, but we may use an angel at some point.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I'll plead the fifth.

No, really I do love giving, but I hate the exchanges where you are expected to spend an exact dollar amount and get something off a prepared list, so there are no real surprises and no way for it to seem genuine and from the heart. Too many regulations kill it for me.

I like giving out of the goodness of my heart, though, especially when it isn't expected.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I LOVE the duet Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Also, almost any rendition of O Holy Night. And a few from the Forgotten Carols - He Was Here and Three Kings Found the Lord.

20. Candy Canes! Not such a fan.

21. What is you favorite Christmas movie? One of my favorite movies of all time is While You Were Sleeping.

22. Black Friday. . . all over it or NO WAY? Changes year to year. Mostly, I just prefer to stay in bed and away from the crowds.

23. Craziest gift you ever got? I don't think it would be appropriate to mention here.... Suffice it to say, we were newlyweds, and most of our gifts were fairly risque.

24. Is your tree artificial or fresh cut? We went with fresh cut until just a few years ago. Love the smell, hate vacuuming all the needles. Now it's pre-lit and artificial.

25. What do you eat for Christmas breakfast? a breakfast casserole - eggs, cheese, ham, etc. All the good stuff!

Have fun with this... Now that you know your friends a little better, copy and paste this but change all the answers to your own. Merry Christmas!!