Some Christmas Fun!

 

Has this season felt heavy to you? I have seen a lot of heaviness all around me here, and I thought it might be great to kick of this busy week with a little Christmas fun! These are some random questions I chose to answer, and if you want to share your answers too, please feel free!

            Do you prefer a white, snowy Christmas or do you want to celebrate on a beach with palm trees? I have historically been very grateful to live smack in the middle of the part of the country that experiences all four seasons. I love the new life of spring, the warmth of summer, the pretty colors of all, and the glittery snow of winter. It feels appropriate to see all four seasons, and it’s all I’ve ever known, so it also feels right and normal. But I must say, after getting married in Florida and experiencing some warm-weather holiday seasons over the years as we’ve traveled for our anniversary, I sure wouldn’t mind the white sand version of Christmas.

            What’s your earliest Christmas memory? For some odd reason, one of my earliest memories is from one of the years Mom and Dad helped deliver gifts and meals for the Rescue Mission. We had to get up early a day or two before Christmas and drive around the city dropping off these gifts. I was so tired and mostly slept in the back of the van while they did the deliveries. I have no idea why I remember this, and clearly I was a fairly terrible helper! (Also, I had not yet been issued my first camera, so there are no photos of this event. However...here is a photo of Ryan and me volunteering as gift wrappers for the same Rescue Mission years later!)

            What was your favorite television Christmas special growing up? I watched them all! Mom would make sure I’d taken my bath and washed my hair early, and then I would go sit in the basement (which is where our family room with the TV was located) and let my hair dry by the warmth of the wood burning stove while I watched Rudolph and Frosty and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I didn’t get to watch TV too often

            What holiday food or drink do you like the most? My favorite holiday food is cutout Christmas cookies with tons of frosting. They are so much work, so I almost never make them, but I love eating them. Holiday drink? Probably hot cocoa with whipped cream. GOOD hot cocoa. Not all hot cocoa is created equal.

            Do your parents still have any of the ornaments you made in grade school? No, because they gave them all to me! We have a storage tub of “vintage Ryan and Bekah Christmas memorabilia” that includes ornaments like these and our childhood stockings and other such treasures.

            Christmas music: do you love or hate it? I love it! All year round!

            Do you leave the Christmas tree up for months and months? I actually don’t! While I love decorating early in November, my plan is always to take it down before New Year’s Day, because I love the idea of starting the new year with a clean slate. Alas, that isn’t going to be possible this year, so I’m trying to retrain my thoughts to be okay with it!

            Do you love to hit the clearance sales after Christmas? I really do. Again, it’s not going to happen this year, but it’s one of my favorite things, and I have found wonderful, helpful deals in décor and gift wrap over the years by hitting such sales!

            Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or an artificial one? I never had a real tree until the year Ryan and I were married. I deeply treasure our visits to tree farms in those early years of our marriage, because they were fun dates, and I loved the scent of the real tree in our house. But about five years in, the prices just became too high for our budget, and we could not justify spending that money on something that was going to be gone in a month. I think our WillowBridge Christmases were our last years to have a real tree, and that marks the first tradition I can think of that we did away with in our marriage. I’m fine with it, though. I appreciate saving the money and having trees we can use year after year!

            Do you know how to wrap a Christmas present or does it turn out in a crumpled mess? My wrapping skills are decent, but nowhere near as amazing as Ryan’s. He is better at most things than I am, including wrapping gifts!

            What traditional Christmas food do you think is yucky? I can’t handle fruitcake or eggnog.

            So there you go! How about you?