Monday, December 4, 2006

ONE MORE CHRISTMAS POST

A Christmas Meme

Hat tip to Dymphna's Well.

This post has been updated to include my wife's answers as well. :)
And Nick is throwing in his $0.02 as well.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
(BMP) Both are really good, unspiked.
(AMP) Egg nog.
(NFB) Hot chocolate.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
(all three) Wrap, of course.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
(BMP) Colored, blinking, and I'm partial to the old style fat bulbs.
(AMP) Colored
(NFB) We have a pre-lit artificial tree with white lights, but I prefer the old-school bubble lights that my mom uses.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
(both of us) Don't have any to hang. (wife adds: "too cheap to buy one")
(NFB)Agrees with Mrs. P.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
(BMP) No sooner than the First Sunday of Advent. If I had my way, it would be the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
(AMP) Sunday after Thanksgiving
(NFB) Hopefully before Christmas Eve!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
(BMP) French meat pies you get from the deli.
(AMP) Ham
(NFB) Sweet potato casserole (with all the brown sugar!!)

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
(BMP) Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas
(AMP) Presents from the tree all the way to the fireplace
(NFB) Watching Mom and Dad open the gifts I got for them.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
(BMP) At age 10. My mom had asked if I had really still believed.
(AMP) At age 10. My mom told me.
(NFB) Parents sat me down a few days after Christmas when I was in 2nd grade. Probably 'cause that was the year I noticed that all the gifts from Santa were labeled in Mom's handwriting.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
(both of us) From the relatives' houses, yes. The stuff from Santa waits till Christmas Day.
(NFB) My wife and I open our gifts after Midnight Mass. It's the only "alone" time we get to do so.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
(both of us) Modest bulbs and tinsel, balls, candy canes, and stuff the kids made in school.
(NFB) Glass balls, ceramics painted by my great-grandparents, stuff we had on our respective trees when growing up.

11. Snow? Love it or Dread it?
(BMP) Dread it big time, especially considering the driving I do and the idiots I have to deal with on the road here (Sorry, Christmas spirit doesn't mean leniency to stupidity - not in my book anyways).
(AMP) Love it on Christmas Eve and Day only (two-inch limit). Otherwise, dread it.
(NFB) As long as I don't have to shovel...

12. Can you ice skate?
(BMP) Give me a pair of ice skates and I'll show you the best slapstick comedy on ice since the Three Stooges!
(AMP) As a child yes. As an adult, no.
(NFB) Never tried.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
(BMP) At age 8, the 45 RPM record of Go All the Way by the Raspberries.
(AMP) No.
(NFB) Nope.

14. What's the most exciting thing about the Holidays for you?
(BMP) January 2
(AMP) Having family together
(NFB) Mom's cookin'!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
(BMP) My mom's chocolate truffle
(AMP) Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
(NFB) Cookies

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
(BMP) Midnight Mass
(AMP) Opening the gifts
(NFB) Blessing and lighting our family Advent wreath (a tradition we've started since getting married.)

17. What tops your tree?
(both of us) A well-lit star.
(NFB) Nothing.

18. Which do you prefer - giving or receiving?
(All Three) Both. I like a good balance LMAO!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
(BMP) O Come, All Ye Faithful, arranged by David Willcocks
(AMP) I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas
(NFB) Thanks to my mother, "Winter Wonderland" as sung by Johnny Mathis

20. Candy canes?
(BMP) Loads of them. My wife won't have it any other way hehehe!
(AMP) Dump peppermint canes, get flavored ones!
(NFB) The ones with colored stripes that taste like fruit punch or something.

If you read this, TAG YOU'RE IT!

Peace,
BMP

6 comments:

Staying in Balance said...

How could I have forgotten A Charlie Brown Christmas? Classic. Actually about the REAL meaning of Christmas.

Mr. C said...

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
Irish Coffee (via Bushmills)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
He doesn't wrap or rap, and doesn't sit them under the tree, he treats each one's placement with care surpassing feng shui.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Colored, my preference "bleu"

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope, never have. Kissing is an inspired gift of God the HS, and not subject to poisonous, pagan traditions. We are libidinous on our own, thank you.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Pretty much when we get "a round tuit." Over the years, generally between TG day and the second week of Dec.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Tamales, tamales and more tamales

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
My grandfather's aluminum tree and taking the drive with him around the town to see the house lights while the presents were being feng shui'ed.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Oh, once on one of those drives when we saw a "local" Santa entering the front door of a nice home. Oh, and when I watched "The Polar Express" last winter. That's the truth, Ruth.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Always, and most of them, as time alottments allow. Doing three or four Masses on C.Eve can cramp that style.


10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
With simultaneous attention to detail and reckless abandon.

11. Snow? Love it or Dread it?
We seldom see it in Central CA. Last time was Jan.'97, we polar-bear nekkid into the hot tub and waved at the passersby, discreetly. That was sheer joy.
Don't go to the snow though, too cold.

12. Can you ice skate? The real verb for us is "would" we. Nope. See: "orthopedics" and HMO.


13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
When my wife phoned me during her winter semester break and asked if we could get married when she returned from home instead of waiting for June.

14. What's the most exciting thing about the Holidays for you?
Singing "Stille Nacht."

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pumpkin pie, carmelized pecan top shell, real whipped cream

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Finding the road less travelled and avoiding manaical idiots driving to Walmart/BestBuy/Costco as if the world was ending.

17. What tops your tree?
Nothing, we have an upside down tree this year. It's way cool.

18. Which do you prefer - giving or receiving?
Giving. And I'm getting closer to that sacred siren song to "give what you have to the poor" more everyday.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
In the Bleak MidWinter (Holst) followed closely by "Est ist eine Rose entsprungen"

20. Candy canes?
No, I just use the folding one I got at Walgreens.

Brian, you should see the code for this post, it has SSPX in it! A sign of the apocalypse?

Brian Michael Page said...

Charles, guide me to this "code", oh please please please. That and the upside down tree. :)
BMP

PhiMuAlpha2681 said...

Best tree story I've ever heard: one of my fraternity brothers told me that one year, his parents got a real tree that was too big to fit in the house, so they topped it at the ceiling, and put the top on the second floor so it looked like the tree had gone through the living room ceiling. The top on the second floor was then duly decorated, and the angel was put up there.

~nb

Anonymous said...

Oh, goodie. I love memes. I'll let you know my answers. But you must know that I love egg nog spiked!! And hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps.

rhapsody said...

I already got tagged by Terry at Abbey-Roads...

so I accept & thank you both- it'll be up later today.

PS Love some of these answers here, too- In the Bleak Midwinter is one of them, & I've got a good peppermint schnapp's story, but I don't remember it all:) & we all still enjoy a Charlie Brown Christmas after all these years.