25 things!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I just bought some really good Mexican hot chocolate at the Nordstrom Cafe. It's this season's best.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Santa wraps the presents, unless it's a dog or a bike or a basketball standard. If it's a dog, he keeps it in your parents' room, where the dog and your father can bond from the very first night. If it's a bike and basketball standard, he keeps them under a blanket to be found when you get home from Christmas vacation in Utah. He will tease you, however, by wrapping up a helmet and giving it to you on Christmas day...sans bike. You will be very confused until you get home and find your new bike under a blanket.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I really like white lights, but both have their place.



4. Do you hang mistletoe?
'Tis the season.

5. When do you hang your decorations up?
If I were to follow in the tradition of my mother, I would have to break them out somewhere between December 21 and 24.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Though it only happened once, I REALLY loved the prime rib made by my mom a few years back. I've begged since then, but apparently you can only make prime rib when the sales are right at Sam's Club.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
I loved singing carols as a family and extended family. I also loved going to see the lights in Brea.

8. When and How did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think my parents and sisters still think I believe in Santa Claus. When I was in middle school I figured out that my parents kept our gifts in the trunk of the Stanza, so on one or two occasions I snuck out there and found what Santa dropped off early for us. It was always interesting figuring out who all the gifts were for, however.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Pajamas. Mom and dad would always pretend that it wasn't going to happen, but then it always did.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Lights, an angel made by a kindergarten teacher, and a varied collection of ornaments...and some baubles that are probably older than I am.

11. Snow? Loved it or dread it?
Love it in January, hate it by February...except on the slopes.

12. Real tree or fake tree?
Real. Always real. I am unforgiving to those that go fake.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My "sister's" dog Dutchess was probably the best gift. I also liked the working train that I got when I was four. Unfortunately, we took it back for some reason, and I ended up with a Brio wooden train instead (which was still very cool). The bike helmet was good. I also liked the Game Gear and the Play Station. What else? Oh, the ski clothes, the digital camera, and many many more.

14. What's the most important thing about Christmas for you?
Being with family and remembering how much we have, compared to so many people out there with so little.

15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert?
I love See's Candy, and all other Christmas candies, for that matter.

16. What is your favorite tradition?
I liked rabbit hunting the day after Christmas. I love going to the ultra-busy malls. I loved it when the Plett's would take the whole neighborhood caroling, and I would always be home alone and have to listen to them and then make an excuse as to why I could not go with them...I could have used some back-up on that one, mom and dad.

17. What tops your tree?
An angel made by a kindergarten teacher.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
I love finding the "perfect" gift for other people and giving it to them. Receiving is also very nice!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
I really like "Christmas Time Is Here" from Charlie Brown. Also, "Someday At Christmas" by Stevie Wonder. For a full listing, see this blog.

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum?
I like the fruity ones. The other candy canes are the equivalent of the candy I would eat last in my Halloween bag.

21. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Home Alone, Mr. Krueger's Christmas, etc.

22. What do you leave for Santa?
A wish list for next year. I don't think we ever left him anything growing up. We weren't a very "snacky" family, or at least our mother didn't think we were.

23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?
Growing up we would always eat Christmas breakfast at my grandma Johnson's house with all of the cousins. When we were at home, Robyn, Kimberly, and I would sleep in the same room, and they would get mad at me because I couldn't sleep, or I would make too much noise. I would usually wake up sometime around 4 AM and go look at what Santa had brought. That reminds me...Santa also hid a guitar under a blanket one year. He wasn't a very creative wrapper of big objects.

24. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?
I like getting ideas online, but I love big crowds at the mall. My favorite memory is driving to the mall in California after my first semester at BYU and listening to "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness. Not a Christmas song, but still a good memory.

25. Christmas letter or Christmas card?
Christmas letter folded inside a Christmas card.