Christmas Personality Questionnaire

I got this forward a couple of days ago, and I thought I'd put my answers on my blog. I enjoy reading blogs where people have put these kinds of questionnaires, and this one is Christmasey, so here you are!

Tis the Season to have a little fun!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Jeez, that's a hard one. If I have plentiful tissue paper options, I'll use gift bags, but since I'm usually out of tissue paper, I go with wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? I love the smell of real trees, but having an artificial tree is really easy.

3. When do you put up the tree? A few days after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take your tree down? A few days after Christmas. I've already taken mine down, because my new puppy thinks it's a fun chew toy.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, it makes me yack. I prefer wassail.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting our Barbie mansion. That was so exotic and exciting.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have two - a simple white one with just Mary, Joseph, and the baby, and then I have another "unbreakable" one that looks like it's carved out of wood. For the "unbreakable" story, see my blog under "Nativity Display." :)

8. Hardest person to buy for? Usually, my dad. But this year, he told us exactly what he wanted, so it was really easy!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Nat - she always tells me exactly what she wants, and I get it. Sooo easy.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? Um... this new puppy! Just kidding! He's difficult right now, so I've contemplated sending him back to Santa, but I think I'll stick it out.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Oh, totally Christmas cards!! There is nothing like the rush of getting a Christmas card in your mailbox. I love it. So that's why I send them.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf. I still laugh so hard when I watch that, and I've seen it a million times.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Like three days before Christmas. I always wait until the last minute, like waiting that long will magically make money appear in my wallet or something!!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. I usually get stuff that I like, so I haven't had to do that yet.

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

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Mary, Did You Know?" Also, "What You Goin' Be"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Staying home

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

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I've never found an angel or a star that didn't look so cheesy, so right now we have a large bow that matches the small bows all over our tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning, definitely!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Lack of money and time!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Playing Loaded Questions

Another family tradition we have at Christmas is that we always open one game on Christmas Eve and play it. This year, we realized that we have a lot of games that we have only played once or twice, so we didn't open a new one - we played one that we got a couple of years ago, called Loaded Questions. It's a really funny game. So here are some shots from doing that. Pete:

Mom:

Dad:

Nat:

And Ben, re-enacting the scene from Seinfeld, where Seinfeld was scratching his nose in the cab, and his girlfriend was in the cab next to his and thought he was picking his nose:

The kids kept themselves occupied while we played. Sadie spent most of her time coloring:

Dylan and Jake, also coloring:

Troy, hanging out with the adults, as usual:

Jake and Brock were running around my parents' couches, and they ran right into each other and ricocheted right off each other. Brock ricocheted onto the ground - no harm done. But Jake ricocheted into the corner of an end table. You can see the beginning of a shiner on his right eye. It's nice and dark now:

Luminaires

Another tradition my family has always had is putting out luminaires on Christmas Eve. Our neighborhood just always did it, and my parents took the tradition with them when they moved into their new neighborhood a few years ago. Nat and I were just trying to figure out what luminaires signify. We've never thought about it before. She said she heard something once about lighting the way for the wise men? Anyways. Here are the photos of the sack preparations. Nat:

Ben:

Pete:

Dad:

Mom:

And, of course, Troy. Troy always wants to be in on what the adults are doing. The kids will be downstairs playing, but you can always count on Troy to be where the adults are, trying to get in on the action:

While we were busy with our preparations, Dylan and Jake had a little coloring fun with one of Mom's markers. They gave each other facial tattoos:

Then it was time to take the luminaires out. The kids were very careful and did a good job. Dylan:

Dad and Brock:

Ben:

Sadie:

Brock - it is sooo hard to get a picture of Brock's face. He always ignores me and ends up turning his head at the last minute. I have a million shots of Brock's head, but not of his face. At last, I got my shot. He wouldn't look right at me, but I'm happy I got what I got:

This is Dad, trying to unearth his snowman from the foot of snow that had fallen that day:

Sledding

On Christmas Eve Day, we usually always go skiing as a family, but because Nat and I are both preggars, we went sledding instead (don't worry - the hill was really, really mild - no jumps). We went to the Country Club to sled - I haven't ever sledded there before - I thought it was against the rules. But Dad asked permission and got it. They said we could sled there, as long as we didn't go near the greens. Here are Ben and Sadie. I love the look of terror on her face:

Here's Jake, Nat's oldest son:

Here are Nat and Dad:

Dylan:

Pete (Nat's husband) with all three of his boys at the top of the hill:

Pete with all three of his boys going down the hill:

Dylan:

My cute mom:

Pete with Troy, his youngest son:

Sadie and I:

Pete and Jake:

Nat holding Sadie (while I had photography duty) and Mom holding Troy:

Benny:

Eastern Idaho was hit with the biggest snowstorm that we've had in eight years, and it basically started while we were sledding. It started to get pretty nasty, so Mom and I took the youngest kids to the car while the others finished playing. Here's Mom and Troy:

And Sadie and I:

Dinner on Christmas Eve

My family got together for Christmas Eve festivities, and we had a blast. Two of my sisters couldn't come up, because they had to work, so it was Nat and her family, me and my family, and my parents. Mom made a fabulous pork roast dinner. Yum. Pete (Nat's husband) decided to play photographer at this time, so we have an absolutely gorgeous picture of me...

...of Nat, Mom, and Troy...

...of Dad...

...and of himself, making his usual weird hand signal:

Temple Square

After Bethie's performance, we walked around Temple Square to see the lights. We probably didn't spend enough time there, but it was sooo cold, and the kids had had it. Bishop (Pooh's oldest son) and Dylan walked with their arms around each other. It was so cute. They kept trying to put their weight on each other, thereby causing the two of them to fall down on the icy ground. I don't think falling on ice is that much fun, but apparently, they thought so.

We brought the stroller for Sadie, but of course, she wasn't interested in riding. She wanted me to hold her the whole time. Sigh. Judge, Pooh's youngest son, happily took her place:

We all thought this was the prettiest tree to pose under. You could see this tree from all over Temple Square, it was so huge. Pooh's friend from her gospel choir, Tatiana, was with us while we were walking around. You can see her to the left of Pooh. Tatiana accompanied the men's chorus for one of the songs.

This is Sadie, Dylan, and Bishop in front of the reflection pool. There were hundreds of little glass votives (is that the right word?) with candles in them, floating on the pool. It was so pretty:

While Mom, the kids, and I were walking back to the car, the kids wanted to see the fountain that is near the Conference Center, so this is mom with the kids there:

Mom had gotten Dylan a Power Ranger earlier that day, and he wanted me to take a picture of it. So here you go, Dylan:

Bethie's Performance

Mom and I did have a chance to go up to Temple Square one night while we were in Utah. My best friend, Pooh's, mom, Bethie, conducts a men's barbershop chorus, and they were performing in the assembly hall on temple square that night. So, before we walked around to see the lights, me, my mom, my kids, Pooh, and her kids all went to see Bethie conduct the group. They were pretty good. I've become a little barbershop afficionado because of Pooh and Bethie. I've seen a lot of national and international champion choruses, which are amazing, but these guys weren't so bad, either. These pictures are awful. They wouldn't allow flash photography, so I did my best. You can see the back of Bethie's head as the third head in from the right on the bottom row.

And, on this shot, she stood with the men while there was a little barbershop quartet singing a song.

My favorite part of the concert was when Bethie got to sing a solo, the beginning part to White Christmas, the part that says, "...in Beverly Hills, L.A....But it's December the 24th, and I'm longing to be up north..." Bethie (and Pooh) has a gorgeous, gorgeous voice. I hadn't seen Bethie in probably 2 1/2 years, so it was nice to hook up with her after the performance.