Christmas Q&A

***Following are my answers to a list of 20 holiday-related questions that we (Lauren, Ashley, Amy and I) compiled.  We thought it might help you get to know us a little better.  Have fun reading!***

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

This is such a hard one for me to answer!  I have such fond memories of laying on the bed in my grandma's guest bedroom and watching It's a Wonderful Life--oh how I love that movie.  But if I had to pick just one, I'd go with White Christmas.  I  just love that movie so much.  I'll watch it anytime of the year which annoys my husband to no end.  And while I don't have all of the dance moves memorized just yet, I do know all of the song lyrics.

2.  What is your favorite Christmas cookie and/or food to eat?

My grandma always had m&m cookies and I looooove them.  I'm not sure if that qualifies as a 'Christmas' cookie.  My sister-in-law makes them now and she  uses red and green m&m's so that works for me!  And I love to eat homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.

3.  What is your favorite gift to give? 

Books.

4.  What has been your favorite gift given to you?

I always love getting something that I love that I didn't know I was getting.  So I guess it isn't necessarily a specific thing, but just when someone knows you well enough that they get you a great gift.  With that being said, I love receiving books as much as I love giving them :)

5.  What is your favorite Christmas song?

I don't know.  I am the annoying person that will pop in Christmas music in the middle of July.  I just love it.  This year my favorites are Do You Hear What I Hear and I Believe.

6.  Do you travel for the holidays or stay home?   

Oh we are all over the place.  My husband's family lives in Kokomo so we go there the weekend before Christmas, spend Christmas morning/noontime at home and then head back to Kokomo for Christmas evening.

7.  Do you like egg nog?  

I've never tried it.  But egg in a drink?  geh.  And I also don't understand how the word nog is supposed to sound appetizing.

8.  What is your favorite Christmas tradition/memory?

Opening stockings as soon as you wake up--hands down my favorite memory.  We would stay the night at my grandma's house and my dad would hang up my grandpa's socks before we went to bed and when we woke up in the morning they would be full.  Now I have regular stockings for my kids but it is still something that we get into right away.

9.  What's at the top of your Christmas list?   

This shirt.  I asked my husband to get it for me.  It is not something I would buy for myself, but I like that it is unique and bookish, too.

10.  Does your family wake up early or sleep in on Christmas morning?

We wake up when we wake up.  My kids have always been good sleepers, but I have a feeling that now that they're a little older they could be waking us up early come Christmas morning.

11.  Do you travel on Christmas day?

yes.  We head to my husband's family's house later on in the day and then we spend the night there.

12.  If you visit family, does everyone bring food to share or does one person do all of the cooking?  

Most of the cooking is done by one person but there are usually random trays of cookies and dips that others bring.

13.  Do you do anything special on Christmas Eve?

Just stay up and watch Christmas movies while wrapping gifts.  Yes I am a procrastinator.  This year I bought Christmas jammies to give the kids.  So I'm going to let them open that gift on Christmas eve.  I think they are going to be excited to open a gift 'early'.

14.  When do you typically put up decorations/take them down?

I usually put up decorations after thanksgiving and will add to them, it seems, up to Christmas day.  Then I take them down once the kids go back to school.  I'm always amazed at how clean my house looks when the decorations come down.

15.  Do you want it to snow on Christmas Day?    

This is another hard one for me to answer!  I don't like winter and I don't like snow.  But we are where we are and it makes the kids SO happy!  For me personally, if it were to end up being a rare 60 degrees and I could wear my flip flops, I'd count that as a Christmas miracle!  

And maybe the kids wouldn't mind it so much if we lived someplace warm and we could go swimming on Christmas day.

16.  How does your family open gifts?  

For our immediate family, we have one person who passes one present to each person and we open those.  Then the rest of the gifts get passes out and we all open them.  There aren't a lot of us so it doesn't get too crazy.  We don't have a set tradition.  

17.  What does Christmas breakfast look like in your home?

One year we made a huge brunch and ate it after opening gifts.  This year I think we're going to have cinnamon rolls.  And some years we just eat cereal.

18.  How many Christmas' do you have/parties to attend?

We have three main Christmas' to go to and I had two parties.  Not too crazy.  

19.  Do you prefer to give or receive?

I love giving gifts.  But I'm not going to lie--receiving them is probably my favorite.  I know that is the wrong answer.  But I'm just being honest.  

20.  What is the main way you focus on Jesus during this season? 

We try to do the Christmas Adventure Box and that involves reading the Christmas story a little each night.  We also teach our kids that they are receiving gifts because of our love for them, not whether they were good or bad. 

***I hope you've enjoyed our "20 Questions" posts this week.  I wish you and your family a very joyous Christmas season.***