1. Do you bake Christmas cookies? Nope, I don’t, but if I had more room to, or kids who would enjoy helping me do it, I probably would.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial, only because I don’t really approve of the idea of chopping down all those lovely trees just for a simple holiday. I do love and miss the smell of the real ones, though.
3. When do you put up the tree? Whenever I find the time between Thanksgiving and the first week or two in December.
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime in the first week or so of January, whenever I have the energy to do it all at once so I don’t leave a big mess laying around.
5. Do you like eggnog? I hate eggnog!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got a kick-ass pink and gray ten-speed bike when I was in my early teens. I remember being pretty psyched about that.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My parents, for sure. They have enough money to get anything they need or want when they need or want it, so it’s hard to pick out something for them that they don’t already have.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My niece and nephew — hello, gift cards!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I like to mail them. Emailing Christmas cards seems tacky to me.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can’t think of anything that terrible that I’ve gotten.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? I would have to choose The Ref. It used to be Elf, but man, I have seen that movie far too many times to really appreciate it anymore.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? About two weeks before the holiday, normally. We just don’t have that many people to shop for, so we don’t need to get a head start on it or anything.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, I don’t think so.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? All of the cookies my mom makes, like her traditional chocolate chip cookies, and some spider cookies she makes with chow mein noodles and melted chocolate or butterscotch chips.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I like “Little Drummer Boy,” and I’m almost, but not quite, embarrassed to admit that I really like the version that Ashlee and Jessica Simpson did of it.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stayed home this year, but in Christmases past, we went back home to my parents’ house to celebrate the holiday.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yep.
20. Angel on the tree top, or a star? Actually, neither one. Our tree topper is a felt Santa Claus. We picked him because he matched the theme of our tree color-wise.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We used to open them on Christmas day when I was a kid.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All of the repetitive Christmas commercials on TV. I hate how they all try to make you feel like you have to buy something from their store, like if they put that extra pressure on the consumers, they’ll make more money even if they know the shoppers can’t really afford to spend that much.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I don’t usually have a preference, as long as the tree has a decent theme to it. I can’t stand those mish-mashed, non-matching trees.
Some goofball in our neighborhood decorated their garage entrance with all
this Christmas stuff. They had a mechanical Santa out there, too, waving
to everyone. Kel and I think that what must’ve happened is it’s a family
who lost their house and had to downsize to an apartment, because otherwise
what the heck would apartment-dewllers need all these oversized decorations
for? It was really funny to drive by there and see all this.
The other day, Kel and I went to the grocery store and used the last little bit of our money to get some things so I can put us together a Christmas dinner since we weren’t planning to go up to my parents’ house for the holiday.
This is the first time I’ve ever cooked anything like it, and I’ll be honest, the only thing that I actually had to prepare was the turkey breast. It was one of those 3 lb. things that you find in the freezer section, and it came with instructions for a herbed crust with tarragon, salt and pepper. We didn’t have any tarragon (although I have no idea why not — we seem to have just about every other dried herb under the sun in our pantry), so I looked up suitable substitutes, and a website said that marjoram would work. Another site said that tarragon tastes similar to fennel, so I made my own herb combination using a tablespoon of dried marjoram and a half tablespoon of crushed fennel seeds, and also salt and pepper. I prepared the turkey breast per the instructions and it came out GREAT!
The rest of the stuff was pre-made or easy to prepare. Cranberry “sauce” from a can (Kel loves the can-shaped stuff, and I kind of like it a little too), frozen corn and broccoli in steamer bags that you just zap in the microwave, brown ‘n’ serve rolls from Kroger’s bakery section, pre-made mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, a yam that I made in the microwave, and the gravy that came with the turkey breast. I also got us a Sara Lee cherry pie which is baking right now that we’re gonna have for dessert.
Easiest big meal I’ve ever made!
We have a bunch left over, which is gonna get us through til Kel gets paid on Thursday, and I’m unthawing a loaf of bread, so maybe we can throw together those Thanksgiving sandwiches — you know, the ones with the leftover turkey, cranberries, all that crap — I think they call them Plymouth Rock sandwiches, or something like that.
Anyway, the pie’s just about ready. I hope all of you who are celebrating the holiday are having a great one. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
