HOLIDAY HOOPLA

I was tagged by Des at Peeking Thru the Sunflowers to do the Holiday Hoopla which involves telling twelve things about yourself regarding Christmas. I saw this tag on other sites and there were a bunch of rules, but the only one I remember is that you have to specifically tag someone and the tagee ( a new word) must post quickly as the holiday is almost upon us.

So, without further ado here are my 12 Christmas "things".

1. My mother hates to wrap gifts and was apparently the first "green" wrapper as she would just plop our gifts in a grocery bag and write our name on the bag. Made for a less than visually stunning tree.
2. I found out about Santa from a distant cousin when I was only six years old.
3. We always got an orange in the toe of our stockings and usually some candy and some new underwear in them as well. We had practical Christmases.
4. My former MIL used to save UPC, labels etc and added the free stuff to the Christmas gifts. It made for a lot of presents. I still have the Morris the Cat totebag my son got one year and one year I got a "raisin cookbook" from the Raisin Council. The joke was that I hate raisins!!
5. Growing up, just the stuff in our stockings was from Santa. Presents under the tree were from my parents. I have continued that tradition. It was hard to explain one year when my son was six and he got the usual candy and small toys in his stocking from Santa and our neighbor got one of those battery operated drive around jeeps from Santa!!
6. I miss the Norelco Christmas ads with the Santas or elves riding the shavers around in the snow.
7. I like to put mystery gifts under the tree. For example: New sneakers and a bag of popcorn labelled "from the NBA". Silly stuff like that. Keeps 'em guessing 'til they open it.
8. We celebrate with a huge dinner on Christmas Eve with the extended family ( I'll blog about that menu next week) and then we play Christmas Trivia with a fervor.
9. My boys are "snoopers" and have been known to unwrap games, play them and then re-wrap the empty boxes. It has become a mission of mine to fool them. Alas, they seem to be over it now as adults.
10. We used to sneak in and reset my Dad's alarm clock for 4:00AM and we would be the first ones on our street to be up Christmas morning. Dad never had the heart to send us back to bed, though he did insist on eating his breakfast in a painfully slow manner. Even had extra toast.
11. I love all kinds of Christmas music, but only listen to it in my car. I don't have a CD player that works in the house.

1. Christmas day is relatively quiet after all the hoopla Christmas Eve. We open our presents while eating homemade cinnamon rolls and sometimes homemade donuts with coffee and then I make a big breakfast/brunch and the rest of the day we veg.

I am tagging Cassie @ Mockingbird Hill.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to one and all. I will be on the Home Tour tomorrow. Stop by and visit and have some cookies ( providing I get them made this afternoon)!

P.S. I am fine today, I just need to back away from the computer and organize the rest of my Christmas tasks. Thanks everyone who cheered me up!!
Later,
Janet