I stole this from my friend Nancy's blog.


1) Have you started your Christmas shopping? Yes, I'm mostly done. The crafts are done and ordered. There's a few little things I'd still like to find. And I still want to have a family photo taken, but need to ask a friend if she'd be willing to do it.



2) Tell me about one of your special traditions. We've begun the Advent Calendar tradition I blogged about a little while back. It has been very special to us thus far, and has inspired some wonderful discussions. We also started (or will be starting) pj's for Christmas Eve present so that we can open the stockings in the morning with the kids wearing new jammies. Next year I'd also like to potentially start a book a day in December, so I hope to find some good post-Christmas sales on Christmas books that I can save for a year then unwrap one each night.



3) When do you put up your tree? When we're home for Thanksgiving, the Friday after Thanksgiving. When we're gone (i.e. this year), we did it the weekend before Thanksgiving.




4) Are you a Black Friday shopper? Typically no. I firmly believe that when sales are advertised, they're typically average at best. The best sales are the ones that you just happen upon during a random shopping trip. When there are hoards of people shopping, why would they give you the best deals? They'd rather you just THINK you're getting the best deal. And to wait in line for over half an hour to check out is just maddening. Nevermind the crowds! I typically try to finish all my Christmas shopping by Halloween so that I can enjoy December. I didn't meet my goal, however, this year. And I miss outlet shopping, because we don't really have any here. So while in Texas, Jessica and I did go Black Friday shopping from midnight til 4am. And it was fun. But I'll probably stick to my "no Black Friday" rule unless she happens to be around to lure me in -- because that was worth doing again. I'll stay up late, but I won't get up early.
5) Do you travel at Christmas or stay home? We almost always travel on Christmas. When we were in college, we'd celebrate Christmas Eve with my family, then fly out to Jon's family on Christmas Day. We continued that for quite a while into our marriage as well. Later we started trying to alternate years at one family's house. This year might be the first year with kids that we're actually home. I'm trying to remember if there was another one in there somewhere... but I don't think so. The most important thing to us on Christmas is celebrating Jesus' birth with family. So if there's a true tradition, it's family. And while we'd LIKE to build our traditions at our house, if we're alone, we're likely going to head for the road and seek out our family.

6) What is your funniest Christmas memory? My family is funny, there are a lot of them! Probably one of the funniest I can think of though is 2003, when we announced that we were expecting Amara. We shared the news by giving my parents bibs to open. My Mom let out an absolutely blood-curdling scream. It was funny, because I'm quite positive I've never heard her scream -- she's simply not a screamer. It scared the bajeebers out of all of us! The look my dad gave her is hysterical (and I think caught on photo somewhere). We were crying tears of both joy and laughter.

7) What is your favorite Christmas movie of all time? I'm a sucker for the cartoons. I still love Rudolph and the Grinch.
8) Do you do your own Christmas baking, what’s your favorite treat? I'll usually make a batch of cookies, but we're not really a "treat" family per se. I make the peanut blossoms, because they're a personal fave and everyone in our house loves them... and the kids are good at helping with those. As the kids get older, I'll probably add a few more into the mix, but right now, frankly, baking because "I'm supposed to" is just too much work and not up my alley. Actually....I need to get my Grandma's Kringle recipe. Oooh those sound yummy!

9) Fake or real tree? We had a real one the Christmas we were in Buffalo...and we vacuumed up pine needles until July. We've got two bad allergy sufferers in the house, too, so we opt for the artificial tree. The other plus for that -- I'm really bad about taking it down again. Don't be surprised if it's March when I tell you my tree's finally down.

10) What day (as a mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done? This year I'm actually feeling pretty overwhelmed already. All the baseboards are off the upstairs (and will probably still be). All the walls are sheetrock or half painted (and will probably still be). The floors are in! But the master bath is still filled with furniture from the master bedroom (and can't be if we intend to host family). The appliances were delivered today, but installation wasn't included (we thought it was, and now must figure out how to do it ourselves). The tile floor is half torn up (and will either be completely or half torn up for Christmas). The fact that everything is half done and in a state of reconstruction doesn't bother me -- my family doesn't care about that. I just want the space to be safe and relaxing and picked up, easy to cook, clean, play games in, etc. And I feel like a lot of little projects are in the way of getting to that point.

11) Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve? There might be a couple, but usually no.

12) What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas? Going to church on Christmas Eve, then going home, lighting the fire, snuggling in, and reading the Christmas story from Luke. Growing up it was followed by opening all the gifts. Now we're moving gifts to Christmas Day, so we'll probably do games or something afterwards.

13) What Christmas craft do you like the best? I loved making the salt clay ornaments as a kid. I tried that last year and they were terrible, but will have to try again.
14) Christmas music? I'd listen year round if it wouldn't drive Jon (and everyone else) insane. I don't particularly care for the secular (i.e. Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, etc). I love the original ones written by Christian artists the best.

15) When do you plan to finish all your shopping? I have one more craft I realize I need to finish. Then I'll hopefully find the last couple this this week or weekend. And if I don't, it just won't happen.