Holiday Hodgepodge

 

Thank you to Joyce for our questions. How would you answer the questions? Please join up with us at From This Side of the Pond or answer in the comments!

1. What does it mean to have the 'holiday spirit'? On a scale of 1-10 how is yours this year? (10=off the charts, 1=still looking for it) 

I am not "not in the spirit," but I am low on the scale right now. I have a wreath on our door and our naked tree is up in our family room. When you work for a church, Advent is packed. I will have some more Christmas spirit each day as we approach Christmas. When I walk out of the door at 5:15 on Christmas Eve, THEN I will hopefully be totally in the spirit. We set out date to celebrate as a family on the Saturday after Christmas so that should be fun! Both of our kids, their spouses, and our granddaughters will be here for a meal and time together.

2. What's your favorite character from a (December) holiday-themed movie, book, or TV special? Tell us why. 

We have two movies we watch every year -- Christmas Vacation and Four Christmases. There are some true "characters" in both of those movies and some of them I equally love and detest haha!

3. Do you like gingerbread? Are gingerbread houses part of your holiday tradition? 

I love gingerbread - cookies are just so/so - I love more of a gingerbread muffin or cake. The houses aren't a tradition, but we have made them with our oldest granddaughter. These Pounddropper Gingerbread doughnuts (mine look more like muffins) are my favorite go-to right now! 

4. Much of our vocabulary is determined by where we live or where we grew up. What say you-

sprinkles or jimmies? lightning bugs or fireflies? soda or pop? I guess I say soda, but neither really. We tend to use the word "coke" for lots of fizzy beverages. I don't even drink coke products - I'm a Diet Pepsi person!! sneakers, trainers, or tennis shoes? sub, hoagie, grinder, or hero? freeway, highway, or motorway? We say "interstate" a lot! I never use motorway, but do use freeway and highway, too. frosting or icing? sauce or gravy? I'm assuming you are talking red sauce, right? If so, I say sauce. We live in a neighborhood with a lot of Italian Catholic families and they say gravy!

5. Share a favorite holiday memory from your childhood. 

One year I received a doll for Christmas and a doll clothing trunk (still had the Western Auto tag on the trunk). My oldest sister, who died a year ago last week, made a trunk full of clothes to go along with the doll that Santa brought. I was probably in at least the third grade. One time Santa brought a new bicycle and he left a note on the tree to go look in the garage. I remember the whole family tramping through the backyard. I remember Christmas Eve dinners at my paternal grandparents; house, and it would too hot in the house! There would be lots of laughter and good food and since I was a kid, there was always this feeling of "anticipation/magic" in the air. I think you only wanted "one" memory, but all three of those popped into my head!

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  

I need to finish blogging about our trip. I have Day 9 and Day 10 . . .and just a few words on our travel home day(Day 11). I didn't mean for it to take soooo long to recap and I apologize for all of my lengthy posts lately.