Christmas Season

I love this time of year. I'm realizing ever increasingly how special my parents have always made Christmastime. Mom and Dad, you are amazing. We've got so many fun traditions and stories.

In honor of the season, I found a même (of course). I'm drinking Mexican Hot Chocolate in my pjs and listening to Billie Holiday sing Christmas songs as I write.

Favorite Christmas Même…

* Non-Jesus-related song?
"Christmas Eve in Serejevo", by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and "Christmastime is Here" by Vince Guaraldi.

* Jesus-related song?
"Lux Venit", by Michael W. Smith I also love "Jesu Bambino", but I don't have an artist for that one.

* Santa-related song?
"Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". I'm sorry, but I think it's hysterical. I sang it for our teacher talent show last year with Pete and the kids loved it.

* Fictional character? Huh? Santa, I guess, unless i can count Linus, since he's a cartoon, and he's in a Christmas cartoon.

* Dinner’s main course? Prime rib. We usually have ham though. :( If it's a Honeybaked, that's fine. :D

* Dinner’s dessert? We don't usually have dessert with Christmas dinner. We eat our dinner, then go to church for the Christmas Eve service, and when we come home we open our presents, have creme puffs with chocolate syrup, and then open our stockings.

* Scent (pine, gingerbread, candles…)? I found a wonderful tree variety a few years ago called Concolor-it smells like the most fabulous combination of oranges and pine. It's delicious.

* Animated movie? I'm going to have to go with "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

* Non-animated movie? "Home Alone", "While You Were Sleeping", "The Sound of Music". It has more to do with tradition than content. I love the newer "Miracle of 34th Street", but for me, that's a Thanksgiving movie.

* Personal memory? I have tons of them. One year we were opening presents in the living room and my dad was burning the wrappings in the kitchen fireplace, like usual. Someone put a plastic grocery bag of wrappings on the table for him to burn and didn't realize that the centerpiece from dinner still had a candle burning in it (it had burnt down pretty low). The bag caught fire, and chaos ensued...my sister and I each picked up one of the babies and ran with them to the far end of the house before they had any idea what was going on. My mom panicked, my dad was trying to find the source of the fire-he thought he'd done it. My brother yanked the burning bag from the table and started stomping on it to put out the fire, and the plastic from the bag stuck to his shoes, and he couldn't get the fire off his shoes, so my mom panicked even more. My cousin (who isn't always the brightest crayon in the box) picked up the centerpiece, dropped it in the sink, ran water on it to put out the flames, and saved the day. My aunt had made a brand new holiday tablecloth, and I don't know if she ever forgave up for burning a hole through it the first time we used it.
Oh, things are never dull in our house at Christmas...

* Story/Fairy Tale? Can I say a Charlie Brown Christmas again? Well, I love "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".


I can think of some other fun stuff to put on this list, but I'm feeling a little self-conscious about my list making these days, so I'll stop there. However, I found another fun list on a different tack, so here are


Some random/weird facts about me.

1. I'm fascinated by my sense of humor. I completely entertain myself, not by finding things funny, but by the kinds of things I find funny. People either think I'm great or they think I'm weird.

2. I hate it when people tell me I'm smart. I have taken my identity from it for a long time, and I've recently realized that it's unhealthy. When people say I'm smart, I feel suffocated. There's so much more to me than my brain! Besides that, I have this niggling suspicion that I'm not nearly as smart as they think I am, so I feel false, and I'm just waiting for the boom to fall on my façade.

3. I'm a project-starter, not a finisher. I get stuck in the details along the way, and just can't cope with it. I love the euphoria that comes at the beginning of projects, though.

4. Though I am one of the most open people I know, I often find myself intimidated at the thought of putting my true self out there for people to see...specifically, this applies to my writing. I think I get weirded out by the idea that my thoughts are floating around for just anyone to access. It feels kind of invasive. Why do I have a blog, then? First, I don't think anybody reads it; second, I think I've decided that it's a form of therapy for me-I need to get uncomfortable, and be okay with it. This probably would be a moot point (or as Joey says, "A moo point"), except that I think I'm supposed to be writing for someone besides myself to read.

5. I have a secret thing about celebrities. I think it's because I might covertly wish I was one. Not sure why, but yeah. There it is.

6. I hate to dust. I also hate things being dusty. It's such a catch-22.

7. I LOVE fashion. Design, style, couture, textiles, sewing, matching, cutting, Clinton, Stacy, Dior, Armani, Lauren, Bloomies, Saks, Marshall Field, Coco, Diana Vreeland, Edith Head, John Galliano; ALL of it. However, I can't get over the idea that it's frivolous.