Christmas Quiz

Here's a little quiz my friend Rebecca took and I thought I'd take a shot at it too!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? - Gift bags...I am lazy. My family can tell you that normally my wrapping paper is the plastic shopping bag the gift was placed in after purchased. But I do tape it all up and put a Post-It note on the top so they know it's from me. :)

2. Real tree or Artificial? I love real trees, but it only worked when I lived at home and I didn't realize the upkeep or mess they made. When Greg and I got married he INSISTED on a real tree, but I wanted the ease and less expense of a fake tree. So we agreed every other year we'd go buy a real tree. I actually think our first two Christmases together we bought a real tree, but by the third Christmas it was my turn for the artificial tree. The best thing about them besides the easy clean up is that the lights are already strung and ready to go! So then our 4th Christmas I told Greg I was ready to go buy a tree since it was his turn. He said the previous year had been so nice and easy and that was the last of the real trees in our house. Now every year Greg just goes and gets the fake tree from the basement and doesn't say a word about a real tree. Greg's mom says it ticks her off since he made her buy a real tree every year and she was the one who had to take care of it. Ha ha...things are so much different when you are the one in charge and cleaning up, huh?

3. When do you take the tree down? My mom and older sister take theirs down the day after Christmas. Although I think it would be nice to have my house back in order, the thought of it all being over on Dec 26th is just too depressing, so I take mine down on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

4. Do you like egg nog? I love it...especially with a little Sprite in it. I can feel my thighs getting bigger as I type this!

5. Favorite gift received as a child? Snoopy SnowCone Machine...for sure!

6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yeah, I have a couple of them. But my favorite is the one my Grandma Loveridge made and my Aunt RevaBeth gave me about 7 years ago. RevaBeth was going through some old things and saw it and thought about me (my Grandma Loveridge was my guardian angel on my mission). It is beautiful and it means the world to me.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My mom....what do you give the woman who has EVERYTHING??? But my husband Greg comes in a CLOSE second. His dress shirts have to have buttons on the collar and heaven forbid one year I got him a dress shirt that had TWO pockets (one on each side) instead of just one. Shame on me!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Nicole. She still doesn't know what is going on with Christmas and her birthday.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Last year was the first year I've done anything (I wanted to wait until we FINALLY had a child...so I had something to write about) and I mailed them. This year? I don't know. We haven't been able to get a good family picture. Nicole is awful everytime we try and I don't want to send anything unless I have a picture to send with it...hum.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A Coca-Cola Ice Cream Scooper (made of flimsy plastic). Even Greg will admit it was a bad idea on his part.

11 . Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story...."F-R-A-G-I-L-E....it must be Italian"

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? About August. I pride myself that I am usually all done by Halloween (except for Greg's gifts).

13 . Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I can remember.

14. Any Christmas traditions? Christmas Eve dinner at Tepenyaki (although I think my mom's going to change it this year) with my family and then homemade hamburgers and french fries at the Cooks along with Grandpa's horribly miserable COMPETITVE bingo game. Christmas morning with my family and Christmas Casserole (Greg's favorite food ever). Christmas Lunch/Dinner with the Cooks. Open pajamas on Christmas Eve. Greg and I open our stockings on Christmas Eve (we have such a fun time with this one), but then Santa fills Nicole's that night and she gets that and one big toy from Santa on Christmas morning. All the presents under the tree are from mom and dad, friends and family.

15 . Clear lights or colored on the tree? I love both, but our tree has clear lights and Greg refuses to hang any lights on the house (maybe I should try this year)...if he did...those would be colored.
16. Favorite Christmas song? The Drummer Boy....BY FAR!!

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Since all of our family lives around here, we stay at home. We are very blessed!

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Coment, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph!

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Actually I have a bow.

20 . Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? See above.

21. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Nothing comes to mind for dinner...I'm a breakfast girl....for sure the butterscotch pull-aparts!!!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. We had Greg's family over for dinner and trick-or-treating. Nicole had a fever so she didn't dress up and didn't get to go to truck-or-treating or trick-or-treating with Corbin (her cousin). It was sad, but she and Corbin still had a great time running around the house and screaming all night.

Painting Pumpkins

Me, Greg and Nicole

Nicole, Me, Michelle, Elijah, Adam



Greg and Stephen trying to act so tough! :)


So every year for the last 6 years Greg and I get together with our friends Michelle and Stephen to carve (paint) pumpkins. We started out carving, but now with kids we are tired and lazy and we paint. It is such a fun tradition! I miss Michelle so much and I hate that when we both bought houses she moved further North and I moved further South. Michelle and I painted our pumpkins with a pilgrim shooting a turkey. That way they will last until Thanksgiving. The men painted BYU...of course. And well, the munchkins...they just slapped paint on their pumpkins and we were all so proud of their masterpieces!

The Walker Family

This is my good friend Kristen's (we worked together at Omniture) family. I am CRAZY about her little daughter Genavie. Whenever I see her, I'm just happy.