I just can't get enough of these things.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? It has to be wrapped. Where's the joy in opening a bag. Unfortunately unless I can find somebody to wrap my gifts they usually end up in gift bags. Though Melissa likes gift bags because she can reuse them later (you will soon see that frugality is a theme for our Christmases).
2. Real tree or Artificial? I grew up with real trees and we may go back when we get to Cedar and we can go cut down our own tree, but for now it's fake.
3. When do you put up the tree? I try to push it to December, but we usually get it up the day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? I think January, and unfortunately it's trees.
5. Do you like eggnog? I think eggnog should be on the shelves all year long right next to the chocolate milk. I wish Hershey's would make an eggnog syrup. Think of it, you could turn all your milk into eggnog, use it as a topping for ice cream, or pour it over pancakes. The possibilities are limitless.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Optimus Prime (you may remeber from a previous post about a toy that I sold on ebay and miss dearly.)
7. Hardest person to buy for? Melissa of course. She doesn't like it when I spend to much, but she also really likes a surprise. One of these days I'm going to spend way too much and see if the surprise wins over the frugality.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Spencer, I hope it stays this way, but currently he loves all the same toys I do so shopping for him is fabulous.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? We have 3, though one is a series of small figurines (I think they have a name, but I can't remember it) that the kids are allowed to play with. some of the heads are gone so we may have to use it as a halloween decoration in the future.
10. Best Christmas gift you ever received? When we were engaged Melissa bought me the "Teachings of the Prophets" set. We weren't married yet so I couldn't get mad at her for how much it cost (we really are tightwads). It was completely unexpected and wonderful. My older brother made me a dresser that is probably second on the list. It wasn't done in time for Christmas so he put a copy of the plan in a large pickle jar and wrapped that up. When he finished it he asked me about putting handles on the drawers, but I couldn't decide what I wanted so they never got put on. That dresser has lived in Logan, Laramie, Denver, SLC, Pikeville, Yakima, Cedar City, and now South Bend. It still doesn't have any hardware.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Slovakian Christmas (This one only my siblings will understand)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Grinch and the Santa Clause series.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever Melissa can force me to do so.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Sure, We have a tradition of getting a 2L bottle of soda each year. The container gets put in the recycling bin and the soda gets gets returned to nature following an extensive water purification process, unless we happen to be tubing up the cabin when the soda is consumed then it just gets returned to nature in it's alreay pure form.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Sausage rolls. I'm not sure Melissa has ever made them, but she will most likely learn this year just to make me happy. She is such a good wife. I also enjoy eating lots and lots of chocolate truffles. I was introduced to all of these by Melissa and she has continued her mother's traditions since we have moved away.
16. Lights on the tree? well duh. Who doesn't have lights on their tree? If you reply and say you don't have light on your tree or have seen a tree without lights on it I will delete your comment.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Currently it's 12 days by Straight no Chaser.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel whenever we can, but this year will be at home.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? If you can't name all the reindeer you don't deserve to celebrate Christmas. Are you kidding me here? Who can't name all the reindeer? It's in the song! A better qestion would be can you tell me how many candles are on the menorah (now be sure to comment if you aren't sure what the menorah is). Let's go back to number 16 and ask if you light your menorah.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel on the upstairs tree, Elf hat on the downstairs tree. I'm told we will be replacing the hat with a star when they go on sale after Christmas (have I mentioned how cheap we are?). The two tree thing is not something I had planned for. We bought a 6 foot tree for our first Christmas together. It was a cheap (that keeps coming up) little thing from Big Lots. We have always intended on replacing it, but never got around to it. This summer I found a nice 8 foot tree at a garage sale so I snatched it up and parted with my $2. I was so excited to show my wonderful purchase to Melissa (she happens to be a Christmas junky). When the moment came her response was, "wonderful now we can have an upstairs tree and a downstairs tree". Whoa now, what did I just do!?! I shouldn't have been surprised because for a few years Melissa's mother had 3 trees in her house, but I was totally blindsided and I fear I may never be able to get us back down to one tree. We keep talking about getting a prelit Christmas tree (after Christmas of course, or maybe at a garage sale), but if the point of a prelit tree is to lessen the work of Christmas I'll be nixing this plan. Three trees is just unacceptable!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One present on Christmas eve then the rest on Christmas day. Unless you have my sister who opens up any present she can get to long before Christmas then tries her best to wrap them back up so no one knows. I hope Heather grows up the same way.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The cold, I think the time we've been above freezing since November is better measured in hours than in days. What is this Canada? I'm plotting to spend a few Christmases in Hawaii or Mexico in the future.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Since I only have one to choose from I'm going to have to say Turkey and Ham (I've never had a Christmas without both). I'm thinking that we may start a tradition of having Filet and Lobster for Christmas, but first I have to perfect my culinary skills (Melissa doesn't grill and she's not to keen on cooking shellfish). Maybe I'll try marinating in an eggnog sauce, my mouth is watering already.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Apparently I wanted a new starter for the minivan. What I really want is to not be called into the hospital that night.