Ten on Tuesdays

Time for a Christmas themed Ten on Tuesday!!


1. When do you put up and take down your Christmas decorations?
I put them up the 1st or 2nd weekend after Thanksgiving. I take them down after we celebrate Epiphany - which is usually about the 2nd weekend in January.

2. What do you do to simplify the holiday season?
What does simplify mean? Ha. Kidding. Um, I don't really do much to simplify the season, in my opinion. I put more and more stress on myself and expect myself to get way more done than I really have time for. I should work on that whole simplifying thing.

3. What do you do to remind yourself and your family what the Christmas season is all about?
Spend time with family and friends, read the Magnificat each day (Catholic publication with daily prayers/meditations), focus on the peace of this season. It is easy to get caught up in the hustle & bustle of the season, but I try my best to focus on what we are celebrating - the birth of Christ.

4. How do you spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
Christmas Eve is spent with my immediate family. We have a huge seafood feast, open presents, and then have homemade ice cream for dessert. The homemade ice cream is to die for. If you've never had it, I feel very sorry for you because it is AMAZING.

Christmas Day is spent with my dad's side of the family. We have a meal that is similar to what you'd have on Thanksgiving. I always thought of it as a smaller gathering when I was growing up since my dad only has 3 siblings (doesn't seem like much since my mom has 7!). But this year, there are going to be about 40 of us! That is not a small gathering!!

5. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
Our Christmas Eve meal. As I've gotten older, the evening is more about sharing an amazing meal with family. The present opening is fun, but the focus of the evening is definitely enjoying each others' company while preparing a meal.

6. Did you do the whole Santa thing growing up? What do you like/not like about continuing the tradition?
Yep, we did. He usually came while we were opening gifts. My parents were pretty clever. My dad would inevitably get a gift of clothing that he would just HAVE to try on immediately. So he'd go into their bedroom and on his way, he'd ring the doorbell (he was able to do this from the hall with some odd contraption we used to have where you could set your doorbell to be a song). So the doorbell would ring, us kids would all run down to the front door - no one would be there, and we'd get back upstairs and there would be a bag of gifts on the deck.

The Santa tradition is still alive and well in our family, but it's different now - Santa now comes at night for the kiddos and then us adults get fun stocking stuffers. I love that the tradition is alive - there is nothing that I don't like about it!

7. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
This is a sensitive question for me. :( Now that I am gluten free, I can't have any of my favorites from the past - like sugar cookies, kiss cookies, or gingerbread men. But those peanut butter balls are pretty fantastic so they make a great substitute! But my heart does ache a little bit for my mom's sugar cookies. They are to DIE FOR. Well, anything she bakes is, but especially her cookies.

8. How do you take your egg nog?
Um, not at all. I am not a fan of the stuff!!

9. What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?
Probably Silent Night. It is a beautiful hymn and its an easy one to sing in harmony. I'm more of a harmony person v. a melody person. Some songs are easy to sing the harmony to, and this is one of them!

10. When was the last time you had a white Christmas?
I have never NOT had a white Christmas - at least not one that I could remember. And I am glad about that! Since I grew up with snow every Christmas, I think it'd be sad to not have it.