Merry Christmas!

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: 

let earth receive her King!  

Let every heart prepare him room  

and heaven and nature sing. 

Merry Christmas!

24 Christmas Questions

I saw Little Moments Like This post this today and I thought it would be fun to do the same!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? It depends.  I'm mostly a wrapper, but I do love a good gift bag.  Depends on the gift, if it's hard to wrap (and Kurt won't do it for me) then I go with the gift bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. For as long as I can remember we've had artificial at my parents and we got an artificial one a few years ago.  I honestly don't know if we'll ever get a real one (I know some of you are cringing at that). 

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Since I don't do Black Friday shopping, I use that to get decorations out.

4. When do you take the tree down? Before New Years.  Generally 3-4 days after Christmas (depending on travel).

5. Do you like eggnog? I just told my husband this the other day, I have never even tasted EggNog.  I really should.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmm, I don't know if I really have one.  I loved my cabbage patch dolls though!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I just told Kurt that I wanted to get the Willow Tree House one.  I think it would be fun to get Alex a plush one like I've seen around the blog world lately.

 
8. Hardest person to buy for? Kurt.  He's totally the person that does his research and buys it when he has a bonus or something.  He has every tech gadget out there!  I can never figure out what to get him. 

9. Easiest person to buy for? Alex - there are so many great kids toys out there.  I had to stop myself.  I did my best at keeping it low key this year since he really has no idea what is going on, but it was so hard!


10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  Mail!  I love the Erin Condren cards we got this year!  (repeat from yesterday's post)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm, I really can't think of one.  I've gotten a few from random people that weren't really my cup of tea (not my style clothes, etc), but nothing that was terrible.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? This is hard.  I love Christmas movies (and music).  I love "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Elf" and all the Hallmark channel movies too!

(IMDB)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  I'd like to say like October or something, but so not true.  I used to take 2 days off from work and do all my Christmas shopping then.  This year, I spread it out so that I could take Alex to playgroup and do some shopping.  I started in early December.

14. Ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I can remember

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  7-Steps (can you make them w/o coconut - guess that would only be 6), Peanut Butter Butterscotch/Choc Chip Rice Krispies.  Umm, all of them! :-)

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I'm a white lights only girl.  I don't have any colored ones in my house!

17. Favorite Christmas song? I LOVE Christmas music.  I like every variety, my favorites are probably more religious, like "Angels we Have Heard on High/Gloria", "Silent Night", "O Come All Ye Faithful".  For "non-religious", I'm becoming a huge fan of the Sugarland Gold and Green Album.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year - Home!  And I am soooo excited about that.  Usually, it goes something like this.  About 3 days before Christmas, drive 13hrs to the in-laws, on Christmas Eve, drive 3hrs to Kurt's Grandmother's and back, on Christmas morning (at like 5), drive 4hrs to my parents, 3-4 days after Christmas, drive 13hrs home.  Ugh, that's like 36hrs over 6-7days!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?  Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Prancer, Vixen, Rudolph - I think I got them all!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a star that I bought when we got our tree from Target. 

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I've always done Christmas morning (sometimes with PJ's on Christmas Eve).  With weird travel, we've done gifts 2-days before, then family gifts on Christmas Eve and then gifts with my parents on Christmas day.  This year, we're doing Christmas morning, with PJ's Christmas eve, though I don't know if I'll wrap the PJ's this year.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic/driving/drivers!  I have to go by a shopping center to get home from work, it's kinda hard to avoid and oh my goodness the ppl going to WalMart drive me ca-razy!  Then there's driving around the mall and trying to find a parking spot.  Makes me think I really need to find a new way home and do online shopping!

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color?  We usually use the white and silver bulbs that we bought.  We have a few sports ones that we've been given.  This year I love the First Christmas ornament we got Alex and I can't wait to start a new tradition and get him a new one each year.  Theme wise, I stick with silver and white, plus either blue or red depending on the room.  And then snowmen!

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? I really didn't have anything I really wanted this year.  I made a "wish-list" of things that I wouldn't mind, but nothing that was an I really want. 


And because I couldn't resist, this is what Alex is wearing today.  "Elf-Sized"  I love it!!!

I really need to go take some more Christmas pictures tonight!!

Christmas Card 2011

Whoa, I last blogged on 12/4, are you serious?!?!  The holidays are soooo busy.  So while I play catch-up on blogging, I thought I'd share our Christmas card.

For the last 2 years I've made our Christmas cards but this year I knew I wanted a picture card and I love it.  In October I ended up ordering them from Erin Condren.  So worth it to have the address labels already and the great colored envelopes! 

I won 25 Shutterfly cards on another blog and have plans for those too, just as soon as they make a 30hr day!  :-)

Christmas Traditions

 Picture from here

Christmas is quickly approaching and it's one of my favorite times of year!  When we were kids our traditions consisted of Christmas Eve mass and then going to grandma and grandpa's.  We got to come home and usually got a new pair of PJ's.  Then my sister and I would sleep together in the same bed.  She'd wake up early, and I'd ignore her for as long as possible.  Christmas morning we'd open gifts, and my mom would make a nice big breakfast!  We'd get together with my extended family again and play with my cousins most of the day.  I can't remember any other traditions but I'm going to ask my mom when I visit with her over Thanksgiving.

With all that said, I was trying to start some Christmas traditions with Alex.  I realize that he's young this year and won't really remember much/participate this year.  I was trying to come up with some traditions to start.  Here are some ideas that I've seen.

1. Elf on the Shelf - I've seen this all over the blog world and I think that this is a great idea once Alex is old enough!
2. Yearly Ornament - My parents didn't do this for us but I really like the idea of buying an ornament each year.  Then when they move away they have ornaments to bring with them for their tree. 
3. Cookie Baking - I love making Christmas cookies.  The season always seems to pass to quickly, but I really want to at least have an afternoon of baking each year.
4. Christmas books Advent Calendar - I initially saw this blogged about here.  I think I'll buy books after Christmas this year (get some on sale) to start next year.  Though, maybe I'll only buy 12 books this year for next and then 12 new ones the year after and do an every other day kind of thing.  I'm sure we'll get some books this year.
5. Christmas Tree - Making a special day out of putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations.
6. Christmas Movies - I LOVE watching Christmas movies on TV.  Maybe watching a Christmas movie once a week in December.  (i.e. Elf, The Grinch)
7. Visiting Santa - Actually I'm kind of on the fence about this one.  Maybe this sounds silly but I don't want him to think that Christmas is just about getting gifts and for some reason standing in the mall forever in lines to tell Santa what you want just doesn't appeal to me.  Call me crazy.
8. Sleigh Ride/Riding around looking at lights - One thing I like about the season is looking at all of the lights and decorations that people put up.  Here in the south not as many people put up as many lights/decorations as they do in the north (at least in my opinion), but it's still fun to drive around.  And I know that there are lots of Lights on the Lake/Park, etc type places that would be cool too.  The sleigh ride is something I used to do in NY, though that doesn't work as well here in the south.
9. Giving/Volunteering - I really, really want to stress to Alex (and any other kids we have) that Christmas isn't about getting gifts but it's about giving to people too.  Helping those that are less fortunate (though why does this come up the most during Christmas, we should be doing this all year round!) and just helping the community in general.  Kurt and I have found ways to give over the last few years, we purchase gifts for the kids on the trees at the mall or volunteer at the Food Banks.
10. Meaning of the Season - With all that said, it's not about Santa or any of that for the true meaning of Christmas.  I don't usually blog about religion, but Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus Christ and that's what we're truly celebrating and we need to remember this the whole season long, not just by going to church on Christmas/Christmas Eve.

What traditions do you and your families have?  Any that you would suggest adding/doing, etc?  What are your favorite Christmas books/movies?