A Holiday Survey!

[serious crayons]

Dinner will be around 7pm on Christmas Eve and I'll put up four dishes more
The guest rooms are Brokie- approved .
The kids also.
Hubby is the cook and the dog doesn't bite.

I'll bring a dessert! 

[jstephens9]

Is this a Brokie gathering or just an informal gathering 

[serious crayons]

Is this a Brokie gathering or just an informal gathering 

Well ... I was planning on bringing cherry cake! 

[Penthesilea]

Is this a Brokie gathering or just an informal gathering 

Well ... I was planning on bringing cherry cake! 

Of course cherry cake does make it an official Brokie gathering!

If only it were this easy, hunh?

[Dobie1018]

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  wrapping paper

2. Real tree or Artificial?  real

3 When do you put your tree up? a few weeks before Christmas

4 When do you take the tree down?  a few weeks after Christmas

5. Do you like eggnog?   Yum!! Love it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?   "Chatty Cathy" doll

7 Hardest person to buy for?  my brother in law in Jacksonville, FL 

8. Easiest person to buy for?  my sister in Connecticut

9. Do you have a nativity scene?   no, but would like to have one 

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?   mail!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? a glue gun.  I don't even do crafts.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie/Cartoon?  A Christmas Story   

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?   after Thanksgiving

14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present?    yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?    Christmas cookies!

16. Lights on the tree?   absolutely!

17. Favorite Christmas song?   Oh Holy Night
 
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?   sometimes travel, sometimes stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?   Dasher, Donner, Vixen, Cupid, . . . . . . guess not

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?   star

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning?   some Christmas eve, some Christmas day

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?     Crowds in the stores, and congested traffic

23. Favorite Ornament theme or color?   pets and/or animals

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?     turkey

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?   nothing in particular.  If I got a nice Christmas card from all my family members and friends, I'd be happy!

[Dobie1018]

Well ... I was planning on bringing cherry cake! 

I LOVE cherry cake.  My mom used to make one every Christmas, and it is the best cake!  Cherry cake always makes me think of Christmas, and now, of course, makes me think of BBM!!

[Ellemeno]

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?   Wrapping paper.  I usually wait til I have everything that I'm going to wrap and do them at the same time.  I like to wrap them all the same, so I can see "my" presents (the ones I'm giving) under the tree, sprinkled about.

2. Real tree or Artificial?   Well, real is nicer, but we have a very small artificial one I'm hoping Mr. and Mini Meno will accept.

3 When do you put your tree up?  This year, soon before Dec 16, when my mom arrives.

4 When do you take the tree down?   I don't know.  Some moment I feel well-rested enough.

5. Do you like eggnog?   Once or twice a season.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?    I don't know.  I'll think about it.

7 Hardest person to buy for?    My brother in law.

8. Easiest person to buy for?   Myself and my daughter.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?     Yes, what's not to love about them?  A little family, animals, visiting friends.  My love for them is not a religious thing.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?   Nope.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?    That one I do clearly remember.  The biggest effin disappointment I ever had was when I was about 12 and I had asked for a guitar, and there, under the tree, was a plastic bullshit piece of crap, toy guitar.  Still resentful, me?  Time to let it go? 

12. Favorite Christmas Movie/Cartoon?    The Grinch.  It's a Wonderful Life.  Some favorite Christmas scenes: Love, Actually.  Desk Set.  Little Women (the Winona Ryder one). 

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?    I don't really buy much.  Now-ish.

14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present?    Sure, some of my favorite presents were things passed to me by people who knew I loved something of theirs.  I've done the same.  If you're talking crappy tie that nobody wants, I've stopped giving unmeaningful presents, that kind of stuf just goes to the donation box.  I give very few people presents these years.  I try to look at it as who am I the main gift-giver to?  And that's where I focus most.  I focus most on my daughter (of course), and my mom (because my stepfather isn't around to give her gifts anymore, and he used to be quite generous), and my husband.  But with my husband, I give him stuff whenever I want to during the course of the year (same for my daughter, of course), and I know his family is going to give him stuff, so mostly MiniMeno and Grandma Meno.  And now this year, we have my sister's new baby in the family, but again, I've given him several things already this year, and he's well-covered by various other family members.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?    My stepmother's homemade German Christmas cookies from when I was a child. 

16. Lights on the tree?   Yes.

17. Favorite Christmas song?   I love Christmas songs.  I love a good mix of them, most of what's been named already.  It's my favorite part of Christmas.
 
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?   This year, stay home.  Usually we go to my mom's, and were going to this year, but decided to save that trip til January.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?     Probably.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?   I don't know what we'll do this year. 

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning?   Christmas Eve with my husband's side of the family, Christmas morning, just our little family this year, I think. 

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?   The emphasis on "stuff" I guess.  I'm pretty sheltered from it now, I don't go to malls usually, and I don't watch TV, other than a couple shows I TiVo, so I'm not exposed to it as much as I used to be.  Mini-Meno doesn't know about material over-consumption yet. 

23. Favorite Ornament theme or color?   Unlikely to break.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?     I don't know.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?     I told Mr. Meno I only really want one thing, but it's sort of big.  I want professional window washers to wash every window, in and out, upstairs and down.  We've lived here 5 1/2 years, and there are upstairs windows that have never been cleaned on the outside in all that time.  Other than that, I'm pretty set. 


Thanks, Chuck!

[Monika]

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?    That one I do clearly remember.  The biggest effin disappointment I ever had was when I was about 12 and I had asked for a guitar, and there, under the tree, was a plastic bullshit piece of crap, toy guitar.  Still resentful, me?  Time to let it go? 

 

[serious crayons]

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?     I told Mr. Meno I only really want one thing, but it's sort of big.  I want professional window washers to wash every window, in and out, upstairs and down.  We've lived here 5 1/2 years, and there are upstairs windows that have never been cleaned on the outside in all that time.  Other than that, I'm pretty set. 

I've had that done about four times in the past few years, in preparing various houses for sale (two of mine, one of my mom's*). And it really does make a big, bright, noticeable difference. I've vowed that in the future I won't wait until I'm selling my house to have it done.

I don't know if you've priced it for your house, but for mine I found it really wasn't as expensive as I would have thought (about $150 for sort of
average-sized four-bedroom houses). You can usually tell the window washer the number of windows and s/he'll give you Mr. Meno a price on the phone. Not that money is a concern when it comes to a Christmas gift for Mr. Meno's lovely wife! 


* Not that anybody is probably dying of curiousity, but just to show I'm not totally innumerate -- four window washings, three houses -- it's because I had it done twice to one of the houses.

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the gift. If I can't find an appropriately sized box for it, or if the shape is awkward, I'll use a gift bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? After a lot of thought I have decided to take issue with the very distinction, real vs. artificial, with regard to Christmas trees. I have decided to go with natural (or maybe even organic) vs. man-made. What makes a Christmas tree real has nothing to do with whether the tree is a formerly living natural tree or whether it is a man-made object from a factory somewhere. That said, it's against city ordinances to have a natural tree in high-rise in Philadelphia, so my tree is man-made.

3 When do you put your tree up? On or around St. Nicholas Day, December 6, give or take a few days depending on available time.

4 When do you take the tree down? Sometime between New Year's Day and Epiphany (January 6), inclusive/

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes

6. Favorite gift received as a child?  My Tyco "Official" Petticoat Junction electric train set.

7 Hardest person to buy for?    Just about anybody. I'm terrible at thinking up gift ideas for people.

8. Easiest person to buy for?   Myself 

9. Do you have a nativity scene?     Yes, a ceramic set made by my grandmother.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?   Christmas cards

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?   I think I must have blocked it from my memory because it was so bad, because I don't remember. 

12. Favorite Christmas Movie/Cartoon?  A tie: The original cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I watch them both on video every year. 

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?   September-October

14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present?   Yes, but only when it was something that I knew the recipient would really want or could really use, not as a means of getting rid of something that I didn't want or couldn't use.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Homemade molasses-ginger snaps 

16. Lights on the tree?   Yes. Lights are the soul and essence of a Christmas tree.

17. Favorite Christmas song?  Secular: "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."  Sacred: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."
 
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?   Travel a short distance to be with my dad, and then we travel about the same distance to have Christmas dinner with his cousins.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?    Since before I could read. And I do not include Rudolph.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?   A star. Always. 

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning?   Since it's just Dad and me, we've taken to opening them on Christmas Eve. 

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The fact that Christmas stuff started appearing in stores before Halloween.  

23. Favorite Ornament theme or color?  Red and gold ornaments with a clear glass bead garland.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?   Doesn't matter whether it's turkey or ham, as long as there is stuffing and gravy. 

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?   A boyfriend would be nice.