Getting to know you Christmas style

A dear friend, Tori, sent me this Christmas style Q & A and I thought it would be fun to share. A week from now I'll be decorating the house from top to basement and loving the final outcome.

Unwrapping memories and smiles with each ornament is one of my all-time favorite things. Here are some other holiday fun facts...

Christmas questions:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, but mostly gift bags for grown-ups and wrapping paper for kiddos

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real until my kiddos decided cutting down trees in Christmas sweaters and 70 degree weather didn't go together. Gotta love Atlanta where it'll be 30 one day and 70 the next... in December.

3. When do you put up the tree? It used to be the first weekend in November. But hubby said that eclipsed Thanksgiving. So I wait until Thanksgiving night to start hauling out boxes and smiling...I adore having the Christmas decorations up.

4. When do you take the tree down? Our tree comes down New Year's Day and it always makes me sad.

5. Do you like eggnog? Definitely, but this will be the first Christmas I won't drink much if any. I'm now allergic to dairy, eggs and wheat, which nixes most of the holiday fixes I look forward to each year. But there's always chocolate. ;-)

6. Favorite gift received as a child? An enormous teddy bear with a huge bow. He now belongs to my oldest and she adores in like I did.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My in-laws

8. Easiest person to buy for? My kiddos

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. We have a hearth covered with kid-friendly nativities. And I have my grandmother's nativity she collected from different places in Europe. That one is still hard to put up because it reminds me I won't be going home to Gram's for Christmas anymore.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I might be online a lot, but I'm a holiday traditionalist. Christmas cards all the way. In fact, we love getting cards because we pray for each person as a family before the card goes on our card wreath.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I could list a few, but I probably shouldn't.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Charlie Brown's Christmas. I have a soft spot for my writing hero -Snoopy.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Don't hate me... my Christmas shopping is done by October. I start Christmas shopping when I do spring birthday shopping.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Uhm... for white elephant gifts

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Marzipan

16. Lights on the tree? Twinkly white lights and lots of 'em

17. Favorite Christmas song? Mary Did You Know

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? We stay home and host a Christmas Eve celebration.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Only if I sing it... You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all....Rudolph.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel, and our girls have named it thanks to the book by Max Lucado called Alabaster's Song. Love that book!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open gifts with extended family on Christmas Eve and then it's our little family on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The Christmas Shoes song. Could live happily by never hearing that song again.

23. What theme or color are you using? I like maroon and gold colors and books, books and more books seems to be the theme around here. We used to have one basket packed with favorite Christmas tales. Now it's expanded to far more than that. But we read them all over and over and it's a favorite Christmas pastime.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Pot roast, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and lots and lots of chocolate.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? An iPod, a Wii Fit, world peace and Jesus to come back.

What about you? What's your favorite part of Christmas?