The Christmas Hoopla.

I see that I've been tagged for a Christmas Hoopla by Crooked Eyebrow where I have to list 12 things about myself that are related to Christmas. That seems like a lot! So here I go on my first attempt at a "meme" or should I say hoopla.

1) I do not particularly enjoy decorating my house for Christmas. Now before you get all "Bah-Hum-Bug" on me let me explain. I pretty much suck at decorating. Period. I don't have good ideas as to what looks good together and I like to keep things simple. I hate clutter. Nuff said.

2) It just wouldn't be Christmas without watching my favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story at least once if not more during the month of December. The movie Elf has become my 2nd favorite Christmas movie. Will Ferrell is hilarious and makes me laugh every time I watch him.

3) My birthday falls 3 days before Christmas, which yes, does stink quite a bit, but my family has always been so good about making me feel special on my day and not wrapping my birthday presents in Christmas wrapping paper.

4) I love the old traditional Christmas songs sung by Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Roger Williams, etc.

5) When I was a young tot my brothers and I had some very cool Christmas records that we loved to listed to. Such as Star Wars Christmas and Christmas Disco. Can you tell I was born in the 70's?

6) OMG! I am not even half way done yet and I am starting to struggle! UGH! Okay, how about this. One of my favorite Christmas drinks is spiced eggnog. I even have a homemade recipe that is from middle school home economics class. I just recently found a new recipe that I am looking forward to trying out called City Tavern Eggnog. I copied it from the Southwest airlines magazine when I flew out to Cleveland a few weekends ago. It calls for egg yolks, granulated sugar, heavy whipping cream and whole milk. It's not fattening or anything!

7) I enjoy sending out Christmas cards. This year we sent out ones with a family picture. They turned out good considering everyone smiled at the same time. Amazing! I have found the best way to display the cards we receive is to tape them around the 12 foot door frame opening between the kitchen and family room. See. Just picture them completely down the other side and the purple tree on the right is our backup card display which we have just begun to fill.

8) I was a firm believer in Santa until about the age of 10. My brother and I were being snoops. All of it was totally his idea of course. And we found wall calendars hidden in my parents closet. Mine was Alf and his was sports cars. When we opened them up on Christmas day the tags said they were from Santa. What a way to spoil it. But that reminds me of the time I found out the truth about the tooth fairy. As a small girl stumbling upon a box of little teeth I was scarred for life. I felt betrayed. My parents were impostors! I've since forgiven them and am now following in their footsteps.

9) One of the most memorable presents I received as a child was a 4 foot Barbie townhouse. Let me tell you, it was sweet! And it was complete with a pink elevator that would take Barbie and her friends from the ground floor up to level 3. I played with that for many years and wish I still had it to this day. But, I do still have my Pretty Ponies, or were they called My Little Ponies? Either way, they are in my closet and when my friends bring their daughters over, I bring out the box of ponies for them to play with. Brings back good memories!

10) Growing up, my family would always get a real tree to decorate for Christmas. The first few years I was out of the house with my own family, we did the real tree thing, but then decided to get a fake one. Less mess and less pain from being stabbed by dry dead needles. I do miss the fresh pine scent of a real tree, but Febreze makes a killer pine tree spray called Fresh Evergreen and Snow. You must try it! Plus it's a limited edition so don't wait too long.

11) Okay, this seems like it is going on forever. Bless you if you are still reading this and are still awake. What else can I bore you with? So, I am a fan of colored lights. I really do not care for white. They're pretty, but I like me some color - makes it more festive. This is the first year that I can remember that we actually did not put up any lights outside. I am very sad about this. It seems the weather snuck up on us and who wants to put up lights in an ice storm? Our neighborhood makes up for our lack of outdoor decorations. There are some fanatics around here and I will leave it at that.

12) Drum roll please! My last required entry. And what the heck is there left to say? I love to play in the snow with my boys. I have so much fun building snow forts and snowmen and snow angels and snow hills. Gosh, I could go on and on. I enjoy ice skating and sledding, but I do not enjoy downhill skiing. I have only attempted it once in my life back in high school and didn't really get the hang of it. Maybe I should give it another try.

Whew! I guess that wasn't too bad. Who can I tag next? How about Say Anything? Are you up for it?

The directions:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.
2. Please refer to it as a hoopla not the dreaded “m” word.
3. You have to specifically tag someone when you’re done, no leaving it open.
4. Do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over soon…