The stocking are hung by the chimney with care, the last of the wrapping is done, and I’m still eeking out schoolwork, because I’m just that obsessive.  I just submitted a paper to a journal that my boy and I wrote, and now I’m ready to take another day-ish off from doing work.  My boss, I tell ya, she’s a slave driver. 

So in the festivus spirit of the season, I’m stealing a meme that I’ve now seen on both Tense Teacher and Maggie’s Mind.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I need gift bags.  I am so horrifically terrible at wrapping.  My family makes fun of me.  Thus, I just use gift bags and save myself the trouble and humiliation.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real.  Real, real, real, real, real.  I hate artificial trees.  I think they are so awful.  My parents got one last year, and I repeatedly tell them I hate it (I really do).  However, I do have a small fake one (I think it’s about 3′ tall), and when circumstances dictate, I put it up in lieu of a real one (like when I’m not going to be home for the majority of December).  I have only done it twice in my whole life, and I hate doing it. 
3. When do you put up the tree? After Thanksgiving.  Usually depends on my travel plans.   I like to enjoy the tree!
4. When do you take the tree down? After New Year’s.  Thankfully the cats have never been interested in climbing it.
5. Do you like eggnog?  I have never tried eggnog.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My playhouse.  It was a faux log cabin thing, and I loved it.  It went outside.  When I got too old to play house or whatever in it, I used to climb up on to the roof of it and use the point of the roof as a balance beam.  Then I’d leap from the roof to a tree limb nearby.  My next door neighbor hated when I did that.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My mom
8. Easiest person to buy for? This year it was my new neice Lane.  She’s 8 months old.  Cute clothes and fun toys!!!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.  However, it’s at my parents house in CT, so it doesn’t do me much good in Alabama.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail!!!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Only one?  Sheesh.  I’d have to say a picture frame that was so freaking ugly I couldn’t even donate it that my aunt and uncle got me one year.  They were mad at my dad, and took it out on me.  My dad got so pissed.  Good times.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I get my Salvation Army Angel Tree shopping done early – like, right after Thanksgiving – per their deadline.  Any gifts I buy for my friends/family up north I wait until I get home to CT to do so I don’t have to worry about flying with it.  Other people?  I try to find things throughout the year that I can put away.  That plan doesn’t always work.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.  That’s what White Elephant (Yankee swap/dirty Santa/Chinese grab bag) is for.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? This broccoli casserole dish thing my mom makes.  I don’t think she’s making it this year though, and I’m really bummed.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes – I’m a colored lights kind of gal.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night and Carol of the Bells
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? My parents – which means I travel, they stay put.  This will definitely change in some form next year, as I’ll be married and we’ll have our first Christmas where we have to figure out how to get all the family visiting in.  Thank goodness we both work at Universities – we are extremely lucky to have a looooong break at Christmas.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes, but I have to think about it.
20. Angel on the tree-top or a star? A star.  I should probably get one of those one of these days.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I  have never done presents on Christmas eve, unless we’ve been at family on Christmas eve and are celebrating then.  My “santa” gifts always get opened on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? How people get so stressed out over the tiniest details.  I want to see YOU and spend time with YOU.  I don’t give a flying rats ass if each napkin isn’t perfectly creased.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color?  I don’t do a ‘theme’ tree at all – but last year my boy confiscated my mini-tree, and secretly got ornaments made with our pictures on them – so it became our “Mooch Tree”.  And I love that.
24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? My family does a prime rib roast.  Nom nom nom nom nom.  And nom.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I already got what I wanted for Christmas when my boy asked me to marry him.  I could get nothing else and I’d be perfectly happy.