I am participating in reverendmother's Seasonal Survey. I wanted to post about my trip down to the Mayo Clinic Hospital today, to visit my friend (age 35) who suffered a heart attack a few days ago, but I'm still mulling over the day. This survey is a little easier on my weary brain.
1. Egg nog - yum or yuck?
Yum! (But just one or two swigs per day is all I'll allow myself.)
2. Stay up until midnight on New Years?
Stay up; and this year we are going to adopt / adapt Glady's Taber's tradition, which is, as follows:
And what do we do after dinner? We sit around the open fire and talk about what has happened the past year and what we hope for the coming year. We listen to some music, choosing records with care. Around eleven we have our binge, which is popcorn, liberally doused with butter, well seasoned, and accompanied by mugs of hot coffee. An apple is at hand, and a slice of Port Salut cheese from Wisconsin, and a plate of crisp crackers. By this time it is getting latish, so the cockers and the Irish have a last race in the snowand we lend an ear to the weather report as to snow or clearing tomorrow. And then we simply go to bed! We have seen the old year out comfortably and serenely, with time to think, and we are ready to look toward the new one.
How to adapt? Popcorn much earlier in the evening, while we play board games with the boys in front of the fire; a special plate of cheese, apples and crackers brought out after games, while we sit and talk and ring in the New Year. Carry one sleepy boy up to bed and that is all.
3. Prefer white or colored lights?
White, this is a backlash against the funky '70's all-white fake Christmas tree with the multi-color lights and blue bulbs we had when I was growing up.
4. Favorite holiday song?
secular: The Secret of Christmas
religious: O Come, All Ye Faithful
5. What is your tackiest holiday decoration?
A pair of fake blue tin nutcrackers that can't open their jaws or really crack any nuts.
6. Do your kids have too much and you wonder just WHY you are getting more??
Kipp definitely has too many action figures and little bitty Lego pieces. So all week long it's out with the old, some to toss, some to donate. Kids grow and change, so too must the toys, books, etc.
7. If you celebrate Christmas, when does your tree go up and come down?
Goes up around December 10th. Comes down around January 6th.
8. Open presents on Christmas eve, morning, or other?
Christmas Eve, with one on Christmas morning. But I'm going to save out a board game or two for New Year's Eve. My husband and I have decided to give our gifts to each other privately, in the days leading up to Christmas; otherwise too much gets lost in the deluge.
9. Favorite holiday tradition?
Christmas morning Song Service at church.
10. What do YOU want for Christmas?
The only extravagant, frivolous thing I have requested is a Zen Alarm Clock, one that wakes you with a gentle ping--and then pings a little more loudly and more frequently over time.
10:37:01 PM 
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