Yule Rules

The latest meme, via Les:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate is certainly good (esp. with a bit of peppermint schnapps), but I love egg nog. Especially good egg nog. Never mind it’s a zillion calories per tablespoon. The real stuff — spiked or not — is faboo. And then there’s my Mom’s “recipe,” which is essentially booze with cream and, maybe, eggs, that gets served up on Christmas morning. Yum.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? There is always wrapping involved. If worse comes to worse, it’s wrapping in a giant Target bag, but it’s wrapping nonetheless. Except, as I recall, Katherine’s bicycle, which was unwrapped (but hand-delivered by Santa at home, so it was there when we returned from the holidays).
3. Colored lights or white on tree/house? Growing up, we had colored lights, but I kind of like white ones — let the color come from the ornaments. Though we’re talking here about tree lights, not house lights, which was never a Thing growing up, and remains not. Though Katherine is expressing a serious yen for them (we’ll have to do something about that next Christmas — perhaps lining the living room windows).
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Never been a trad in either of our families. Not that it stops us from doing the face-mooshing thing,, mind you.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Never before Thanksgiving. Afterwards — well, it depends on when we get off our keisters. There have been years when it hasn’t been until just before our Twelfth Night party in January … This year, though, with Jim and Ginger here for the Thanksgiving weekend, we got them up in a very timely and expeditious manner. Yay.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Probably my mom’s cheesy potatoes. Oh, yum. I could gorge myself on those things (and, in the past, have).
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Probably when we lived in Diamond Bar. Our bedroom window overlooked the driveway, and we weren’t allowed into the living room until Nono and Nona arrived, so we sat with our faces glued to the windows, watching eagerly …
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t really recall, to be honest. I seem to recall possibly spoiling it for John, but that may be a miscollection. It wasn’t traumatic or anything, and I don’t even know that it was a big “Aha!” moment. I think, for most kids, there’s sort of a period of consensual fantasy, until it becomes annoying and “kidlike.” Kitten, so far as I know, still believes, but is also happy not to poke too mightily at the myth …
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Only one year, growing up, did we do a Christmas Eve thing. Given our current travels, we usually have some sort of quick pre-Christmas here at home before heading to the airport — but nothing happens Christmas Eve proper, except lots of carrying of gifts downstairs …
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? We haul it up from the basement. Put it together. Break open boxes of ornaments, and start (whoever is around) putting them up. Garland goes up before ornaments, if we’re doing the garland thing. Then, until the tree comes down, I obsessively shift ornaments around and bend the branches in different directions to make the Perfect Tree Decor.
11. Snow, love it or dread it? I like snow. Yeah, it can be a serious pain, but I don’t need to worry about it too much (being able to work from home as need be) — and it’s not like it’s ever a problem when we’re in California for Christmas …
12. Do you know how to ice skate? I’ve tried it. Once. Not my cuppa. 🙂 Kitten, though, does great on skates (so does Margie).
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Crikey. No, not really. I can remember playing with Hot Wheels in Santa Barbara — and some cool “Hot Wings” metal jets when older. I don’t recall a single favorite, though.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Hmmm. Definitely time with the family. Good food. Swag, sure, but more the giving thereof than the getting.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? The endless array of cookies at the Ks. Especially some of the layer bars, and the lemon squares. Mmmmmm. Maybe I’ll bake a pecan pie this year, just for kicks.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Gotta be our Standard Migratory Pattern during the holidays, pretty much unchanged since our marriage. We stay at the Ks. We have Christmas Eve dinner there (my folks come down to join in). We open gifts at the Ks Christmas morning. In the afternoon we go to my folks or my brother’s, and open gifts there, then have dinner. Then we head to where the Ks are for dessert (either Margie’s brother’s or his in-laws).
    That can mean a triangle route of as little as 60 miles or as much as 150-200 miles (never actually clocked it), but it’s a really neat way of spending time with everyone.
17. What tops your tree? Margie has this very nice angel with lights in her hands that plugs right into the tree lighs. Spiffy.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Well, I love getting stuff, like a kid, but the adult in me loves giving gifts and seeing expressions of joy and pleasure when they’re opened.
19. Favorite Christmas Song? Standard carol? Probably Adeste Fideles or Joy to the World. But run the first third (the Christmas part) of Handel’s Messiah past me, and I’m in choral heaven …
20. Favorite flavor of Candy Canes? If it ain’t peppermint, it’s not a candy cane (just as if it’s not gin, it’s not a martini).