Yet Another Holiday Meme

Old Lady (who is not as "old" as she'd like to portray herself!) had this sweet little meme up at her place. I saw this a few days back, and figured I would feel no shame at all in stealing and ruthlessly copying it here.

I'm sure that OL wouldn't mind a bit if you all played along!

Favorite Seasonal Movie- Got to be "A Christmas Story." Of course, I'm not going to go in for the 24-hour love-fest that TBS does every year, but I do love it.

Song You Most Enjoy This Time of Year- I have a CD I've been listening to at school, and in my car, and I think it's absolutely breathtaking -- "Mary's Song (Breath of Heaven)" by Amy Grant.

Holiday Greeting- I use them all. I say whatever is appropriate to people, if I know their affiliation.

Decorate, inside, outside - Inside, with a passion! I'm not on the scale of my mother yet, but she has much more experience than I do at the collecting and displaying. :) We normally do decorate outside, but we didn't this year. Not by design, I just think we ran out of time.

Do you make a list, if so how many people are on it? Lots. There's Offspring and JF, naturally, and all of our parents (and their spouses), my grandmother, my nephew and JF's little four-year old cousin, my brother, JF's brother and his wife, coworkers, Secret Santas....the list goes on and on....

How up to the last minute do you shop? I like to be done in a reasonable amount of time. I finished up on Dec. 16th this year, and that was cutting it close for me. I hate the actual shopping part -- the mall when it's not crowded is a little slice of awful for me, so it's like hell personified during the holidays. I would much rather spend the time up until Christmas making gifts, which is what I'm doing now.

When do you open your gifts? It depends. We typically go to my mother's house on Christmas Eve, where we open all of our gifts then. We have our own family opening on Christmas Day here at our house, and then about 1pm or so, we head over to JF's mother's house for Christmas with her. We fit in our fathers whenever we can. My dad lives out of state, so the time varies with him -- sometimes we go there, and most times he gets his gifts when he comes down here to celebrate Offspring's birthday on January 9th. JF's father is more problematic. We get to them when time allows.

Holiday food you most savor? I'm most fond of all the sweets, but I love the big holiday meals -- all of it is always so good! A tradition that we've continued for many years now is that JF's mother, JF, Offspring, and I head out for Japanese on Christmas Day. Sometimes, we have other people join us, sometimes not. This started because JF's mother does not cook, and the Japanese place was the only thing open. It has evolved into a much-loved and anticipated tradition with us.

Favorite Holiday Book? Hm. We have to read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" every year at school, and in the past few years, we've also read "The Polar Express", but in my own family, I don't think there's anything specific that we have to read. I read whatever moves me, really.

Here's a category or two of my own devising:

Favorite Holiday Decoration? My personal ones would have to be the penguin tree skirt that I made a few years ago. (I love this!) I'm also very fond of the brass Queen Elizabeth I that I was given some years ago as well. Offspring has made us several things at school that I hold very dear, and lovingly place on the tree each Christmas.

Favorite Holiday Activity? I love making things for the holidays. It could be the cards I've made this year, or the stitched tree ornaments, or the quilted table runners and place mats that I've made in the past. I used to look so forward to the cookie baking each year, but I've begun to anticipate the crafty part so much more that I often forget about the baking until it's too late. Right now, I'm making my Secret Santa's gift and some stuffed felt ornaments.

*********************************************************************************
Feel free to swipe this meme for your own, should you so wish. I look forward to all of your answers!