Old School Blogging, Holiday Edition

I am thrilled to be hooking up with Elaine of The Miss Elaine-ous Life and Kir of The Kir Corner for this month’s Holiday Edition of Old School Blogging!  And yes, I know it should be “linking up” and not “hooking up” but I can’t pass up any opportunity to be a little bit inappropriate.  You’re welcome.

If you’re unaware of Old School Blogging, it’s where bloggers revive blogging memes that went around years ago when blogging was in its infancy and I was still giddy about finding all my old high school and college buddies on Facebook, whenI spent most of my time filling out questionnaires and passing around Facebook notes.  Maybe you aren’t aware of Old School Blogging or Facebook notes at all and this is your first time with old school internet anything.  To this I say welcome, Mademoiselle.  You’re in for a treat, and by treat I mean that you are about to read some more about me.  Irresistible, right?  No?  Okay then.

So how do you feel about the holidays?  Do you love ‘em?  Hate ‘em?  Do the constant shopping, holiday music, insane expectations, endless celebrations, and kids hopped up on sugar and Santa make you a little bit crazy like a fox? 

I love the holidays and all the stuff that goes along with them, although I would like it if the period of celebrating was extended and we either got the whole month of December off from regular life things or that we took two months to celebrate, because is it just me or does the holiday stuff require at least 8 weekends?  Or am I a slacker who needs way too much time to do everything my goodness why does it take me so long to do everything?

Want to know more about how I feel about the holidays?  Read on.  Welcome to Old School Blogging, Holiday style.

First things first: One Holy Night or Eight Crazy Ones? Do you Celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or both?

Christmas.  We celebrate Christ’s birth all done up with a pretty bow and a suspect Christmas tree.  We also believed in Santa once upon a time, which was cool when your kids are little because OMG the magic but then they get older and smarter and Santa becomes this big ol’ lie that I simultaneously perpetuated and hated myself for.  Amazingly, my kids never hated me for all the lying when they eventually found out the truth and yours probably won’t either, so stop worrying about it.

Twelve years old, and Santa still makes him smile.  

Peppermint or Chocolate?  Chocolate is the champion of the world.  Don’t try to appease me with Chocolate Mint anything.  Although I will snarf a bag of Mint Milanos if we’re out of chocolate chips.  Don’t tempt me.  I will.

Sing us into the Holiday Season.  What is your favorite carol this time of year?  I love a good jazzy Sleigh Ride (no lyrics, please) and the Johnny Mathis classic We Need A Little Christmas.  If you want to see me cry like a baby, come with me to church on Christmas Eve and wait until all the lights go out and we raise our candles while singing Silent Night.  I pretty much live for this moment every Christmas.

Tell us about a favorite family or personal holiday tradition.  A personal holiday tradition is where I lock myself in my bedroom and crank out the holiday wrapping.  I love gift wrapping.  No bows, no fancy tags – just a pair of scissors, tape, a couple of rolls of wrapping paper and some Food Network to get me through it all.  Our family always helps out in the nursery at church on Christmas Eve.  All the kids wear fancy clothes!  It’s the cutest thing ever.

Come on, you remember your favorite Christmas or Hanukkah gift.  Tell us all about it.  I am so not a gift person, and ask for nothing for Christmas, so this is hard.  One year my husband wrote each of our kids and me a letter, and put them inside beautiful wooden keepsake boxes.  It was very touching and meaningful.  He continued to write letters to us, and we store them in the boxes!  Another time I got a gift card to the liquor store.  I wonder why more people don’t do this.

That magical moment: your favorite scene from a holiday movie.  Because I’m from the area where Jimmy Stewart is from, it’s in my DNA to consider It’s A Wonderful Life the best holiday movie ever.  That part of the movie where the gym floor opens up and all the party-goers fall into the pool?  Hilarious.  You thought I was going to pick the scene at the end, didn’t you?  Well, yeah.  That part’s good too.

Kissing under the mistletoe.  Who do you hope is standing underneath (we know it’s normally your spouse, but if it did not have to be, who would you choose)?  My love of Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale are well-documented here, so it would have to be one of them.  Or both.  Yeah, both.

Swans a swimming, lords a leaping, golden rings: which gift of the 12 days of Christmas would you like most?  The golden rings.  ALWAYS the golden rings.  Hello, there are five.

Play Secret Santa.  What inappropriate gift would you love to give this year?  A date with Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale.  To myself, of course.  Okay, I'll stop now. 

Martha Stewart or the Grinch? What is your decorating style? I’d love to say Martha Stewart.  But alas, it’s probably more Grinchy than I’d like to admit.  I am bound by my own creative limitations and the fact that all of our holiday decorations are old and a jumble of styles.  We have a patchwork Christmas tree skirt.  Need I say more?

I'm aware that I need help.

What is ONE WORD that defines the holiday season for you? (Examples: Believe/Wonder/Bah Humbug?)  How about frantic?

 If Santa could assure its delivery, what’s the first thing on your holiday wish LIST?  I need a new car.  I know it’s selfish, but in addition to the fact that there’s always a chance that my car won’t start on any given day, now I have reason to believe that the heater is on the fritz.  Which is so cute given that the last time the climate control needed to be fixed was the last time it was 100 degrees outside and the air conditioning stopped working.

So there you have it, my Old School Blog Holiday Edition!  Click on over to The Miss Elaine-ous Life or The Kir Corner to read more old school blogs, and then write your own and hook up with them, too.  Don’t forget to tweet it out using #OSBlog while you’re at it, and have a wonderful time celebrating this holiday season!