For me, Christmas can't start early enough. Even in early August, when I see that Hobby Lobby has begun stocking their rows of ornaments and wreaths, and Michael's has set up their *fan-TAS-tic* moving, singing Christmas village--it's never too early. I ignore the cries all around me of other store patrons, shouting loudly "SCHOOL hasn't even started yet and they're putting up CHRISTMAS stuff!??"
But for the most part, my passion has to remain silent. Lord knows, Dad won't discuss any type of Christmas decoration or even a *mention* of what type of poultry we'll have this year for Christmas dinner until, like, after Thanksgiving. It's so disheartening. My good friend AmyZ, who I met while working for the a$$wipes at DBRL, shares my year-round love of Christmas, and I'm lucky to have someone like that in my life so I may indulge in Holiday Cheer with a cohort as early as I dang well please.
So...a Merry MeMe! It IS November, after all, folks. I have waited long enough.
1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
I have, thanks to Budget Living, adopted a new Holiday Beverage: Milk Punch. One word, three syllables: OHMAGAHHHHHHHH.
When I'm lazy and don't make it, though, we add some whiskey to egg nog and take it in lidded travel mugs to go look at Christmas lights. Can't get too cold when that's running through your veins!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Neither. Lily wraps all the presents, and they go in front of the fireplace. The fireplace doesn't work, so they're not in danger of incinerating.
3. Colored lights on the tree/house, or white?
White, but I do like a little color jazz thrown in. I like buying all new incarnations of lights each year during the after-Christmas sales, and that generally introduces some color into the mix. I don't like all-blue lights, is all.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No. When I was a small kid, I went over to a friend's house, and I didn't like her stepdad, and they had put one up and I was afraid he was gonna kiss me (I had no reason for thinking this). So I always had kind of an aversion to mistletoe, though I like when Dad tells me stories about how he used to shoot them down from trees when he was a little boy.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
I did it November 1st a few years back (fake white tree, Graceland at Christmas model, Cobblestone Corners village all over the living room), but by the time Christmas came, I was tired of having all that room taken up. If I had a bigger place, I'd put them up November 1st. These days we get the Dawson tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and usually have it decorated by the next weekend, and the rest of the decorations are hung/placed by then as well.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
This is a hard one: Aunt Laura's salad? Warm apple pie made by Lynn Parshall with Mom's wigwam sauce (that "no dessert" clause is bullshit...)? Wanda's cinnamon rolls? Juicy capon?
No.
Dad's Au Gratin potatoes. Hands DOWN. They're not like the ones you know, people. They're potatoes cut into bite-sized chunks, swimming in a rich cheese sauce and cooked until browned. I can't even explain them. We get them twice a year: once at Thanksgiving, once at Christmas.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Each year is really, really good. But I'll never forget a few years back (okay, I wasn't really a child, but this is child-LIKE) when we were out driving looking at lights on Christmas Eve, and a light snow began falling. We were around Greektown, and passed a breathtakingly perfect Stankowski Field, utterly white, unmarred, and evenly snowed-upon. It was begging to be messed with.
Naturally, we parked the car on Maryland (we were the *ONLY* ones around) and raced onto the field, spelling out holiday greetings and skating around the rubbery surface (I wrote HELLO HELICOPTER to the Staff for Life helicopter that would no doubt be taking off to save some drunk driver's life later that night) and generally having a terrific time.
8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
We used to as kids, but our Christmas Eve is so perfect these days without it that the tradition has fallen out of fashion, and Christmas morning is reserved for presents. I used to like to save one present to open on Christmas night, but no one would do it with me (except maybe Dad, once).
9. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights all over, with our random ornaments peppering the branches of the 11-12 foot tree: yearly balls from Grandma, stained glass ornaments Dad made, craftily handmade ones by Mama and her talented friends, messily precious elementary-school art-class glittering monstrosities, things that were in Michael's post-Christmas sale I begged Mom to get, a set of Wizard of Ozzes I always try to place in close proximity to one another but which everyone else re-situates, knowing it would drive me crazy. There's also a really, really good school photo of Joe that's always front and center. (RAT TAIL!)
Dad sets up a snowy hill underneath the tree with his Lionel train set going around the base, I add the village pieces, and it's the most charming scene ever.
10. Snow! Love it or dread it?
It's a love/hate thing, for real. It's so pretty, and I love being *inside* watching it dance, when I know I don't have to go outside anytime soon. But it's a pain when I do have to. I remember walking home from the school bus one winter afternoon when I was a young'un, and the snow was getting in my footwear and soaking my jeans, and I thought "I'm grown up now. Snow is becoming annoying rather than awesome."
11. Can you ice skate?
Yes, I've been a few times, to the trashy little Jeff City rink. I was surprised at how easy it was. Once, me and my friend Lauren began to stand in line for the Rockefeller Center rink, but we were getting kinda hungry so we left. I sort of regret that we didn't do it. Even though I think she took me to Junior's, and it was the best ever.
12. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Hmm...I remember a lot of gifts. Emily gave me a photo collage last year that made me cry, and the year before that, she made me a crazy-wonderful Oz duvet cover. Come to think of it, she *always* gives awesome, generally handmade gifts. Neil gave me a pair of alabaster hearts a month after we began dating, and told me he loved me (for the first time) as I began to open them. In high school, Lindsay once gave me a piggy watch I wanted so bad. The mama pig was in the middle and the second hand were her piglets. Only once a minute were the piglets situated correctly, underneath her teats.
13. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Togetherness.
14. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Oh, okay, here's the dessert portion. The aforementioned apple pie. But I also love a good pumpkin cheesecake with a thick, buttery graham cracker crust.
15. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Christmas Eve: Dinner out (at Olive Garden, if me and Steve have our way--but Mac Grill or Sophia's also works), maybe go see Steve sing a Christmas song during Unity's Christmas service (candles everywhere, carols, SUCH a wonderful evening), then pile and squish in the car to careen around town looking at Christmas lights, with a little Christmas Trivia whenever we think of it. When we finally get back home, we turn on "A Christmas Story" (24 hours of it on TBS, every year!) and Lily wraps everyone's gifts while I finish whatever huge crafty thing I didn't allow enough time for.
16. What tops your tree?
The clear four-pointed stained-glass star Dad made many, many years ago. He positions a twinkle light behind it so it shines.
17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving, definitely. I mean, I love getting, but nothing makes me more excited than someone opening a present I put a lot of effort/thought into.
We Three Kings...Joy to the World (we had this beautiful record when I was little, and I always begged Mom and Dad to let me play this song during the year. They only let me in December, though)...Whose Child is This (Amanda even set "Greensleeves" on her old phone to be 'my' ring)...I Saw Three Ships (that one depresses me a little, to think people were sailing ships on Christmas morning instead of being with their families)...White Christmas (Bing Crosby)...
They're all my favorites. But I like the traditional ones, not these new Sting-helmed charity projects with new artists singing everything.
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