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What is my deal? When it rains it pours in my blog world.

I really just loved Heather's Christmas tag post so I had to do it myself...and here we go!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Christmas or not, wrapping the gift is sometimes more exciting for me than the actual gift itself. I ADORE gift wrap and good ribbon. All of my packages will coordinate with my tree, they will coordinate with eachother, they will be relevant to the person who the gift is intended and they will be pretty...and when I say coordinate I don't mean "matchy matchy". Isn't that a little ridiculous? The worst part is, my Mom, Sophia and I had a conversation the other night about what sort of "themes" we'd be going with for our paper this year. They feel my pain. But I do love gift bags too, the good pretty ones :)

2. Real Tree or Artificial? I love a real tree. It's so extra Christmasy to me...but ever since I became an "adult" and my ex-husband and I got our first trees...a HUGE real tree for the living room and another HUGE real tree for his study (so it could be seen from the street)...and we spent the next six months finding needles everywhere and healing from scratches all over our arms from hanging lights, I've had pre-lit artificial trees and pine scented candles!

3. When do you put up the tree? within a few days of Thanksgiving and I just love the way it warms up the living room so I hate to take it down. The room feels so lonely without it. One year my Mom just left it up and we decorated it for Valentine's Day too. We were going to decorate it for Easter and every other holiday too put it got too dusty.

4. When do you take the tree down? See above, oh...and when I moved from my apartment into Kevin's house (in Feb of that year) I had to take down my Christmas tree in order to pack it up to move it. It wasn't because I was feeling the holiday spirit. I just HATE to un-decorate and take down a tree. It's like unpacking from a trip...dread.

5. Do you like eggnog? I've never tried it. Can't bring myself too. But then again, it was never a tradition in my house.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The Barbie Dream House my Dad got me our first Christmas in Texas. I was probably too big for it but I hung on the the Barbie phase longer than most kids. In the spirit of self preservation, I'm not even going to tell you how old I was...but I can still remember that overwhelming feeling of happiness on Christmas morning. We have it in the attic of my parent's house and I can't wait until my girls are big enough for me to pass it down.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Any grown man. They have a tendency to buy themselves the things they hint at wanting before you have a chance to gift it to them...ie, while I was in Houston, Kevin bought himself the Netbook I was going to get him for Christmas.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My Mom, Sophia and the kids...pretty much anyone besides the grown men in my life.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I do. An amazing hand carved Italian one from my Grandma that is so special to me I can't bear to put it out while I have small kids because if anything happened to it I'd die. I know that is so superficial, I mean it's just a THING and the memories it would bring my kids should matter more...but I'll let the kids gaze upon their greatness when they're old enough to not use them to play kitchen or something.

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Um, I love to receive them in the mail...especially since my friends have had kids and all...but I've have never once actually sent out Christmas cards before Christmas. One year I mailed them in March.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't even remember...

12. Favorite Christmas movie? "You're gonna shoot your eye out..."

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? when I was a workin woman it was after I got my Christmas bonus (which was the only way a single Mom could really afford to buy gifts) so it's always been pretty last minute.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'm not tellin

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I'm really not big on messing with tradition (ask my Mom, I grill her every Thanksgiving to make sure the menu will be EXACTLY the same as every year prior)...and my family does the big celebration Christmas Eve. After church we have a buffet on the kitchen table and we munch as we open gifts...Chick-Fil-A nugget tray, shrimp cocktail and cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster, veggies and Dill Dip, crescent rolls, colby jack cheese cubes, raspberry ginger-ale and wine as we got older...am I forgetting anything Sophia?

16. Lights on the tree? White with coordinating and complimentary ornaments...but as kids my Mom had a tree with all the collected and hand made ornaments complete with colored lights and I just loved it as a little girl. So hopefully I'll be able to do the same for my kids when they're old enough to notice.

17. Favorite Christmas song? remember how I'm into tradition? well my Mom played the same few Christmas records (yes, I said records) since as long as I can remember so those will always evoke that Christmas feeling in me...when we moved into the house they live in now, my Mom had the old school record player upstairs and we still put the records on and just jacked up the volume so we could hear it downstairs. We've since found all the records on CD!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? My parents were the only ones of their families in Texas (my Mom's family lives in North Dakota and my Dad's in Arizona) so it's pretty much just been us at their house, with the exception of my grand parents coming down sometimes...so stay home I guess. Now that we all live so far apart it'll just be wherever we can get the most family together!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? nope

20. Donde esta 20 Heather?

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? we open the gifts to and from each other on Eve and the Santa ones in the morning

22. Most annoying this about this time of year? *pulling out soap box* the growing trend to take the word Christmas out of Christmas...this year they lit the "Holiday trees" at the Uptown Tree Lighting. Um, they're called CHRISTMAS trees. They holiday is CHRISTMAS. If you don't like to say the word Christmas because it's somehow offensive to you, then don't celebrate the holiday. Don't accept the gifts. Don't take the bonus from your boss. Go to work on the 25th of December. No one has any issues with referring to the Jewish holiday as Hanukkah or the African American holiday as Kwanzaa...so why is it offensive to refer to the Christian holiday as Christmas? I'm just sayin...

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? A few years ago I was in this Moroccan kick with my apartment so I got these great ornaments that were dark purple, gold, bronze, dark red and burnt orange...it sounds funky but it totally works. promise. I've also seen great trees done in a dark aqua / blue and shades of green. Always love golds and whites. If I had un-ending decorating funds I'd have a tree in the girl's room that was flocked white with all glittery pink and silver ornaments and one in Hunt's room with pine cones and all things cowboy. A hand made ornament tree in the game room and the ginormous matchey ornament tree in the living room. A girl can dream. If I could afford it, every room would have plenty of adornment.

24. we're missing 24 too

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Well honestly, I've always always always wanted a Coach purse. I've been asking for Ray Ban aviators, a fun apron and a new watch for years. I'd love a good camera...like a Nikon or Cannon with the lenses and all. I want to get my teeth bleached. I'd adore some skinny...like a miracle pill or something. But really, the only thing I care about is spending Christmas with all three of my kids this year.

I know...I answer tag questions all rambley and it makes it kind of tedious to read my posts...but I'm a talker by nature.