Christmas Tag

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. It just isn't as fun to open a present when it's in a bag.
2. Real tree or artificial tree? Real this year but we've used a fake one in the past.
3. When do you put up your tree? We don't have a specific day we get tree up every year. We usually try to get it up sometime during the first week of December.
4. When do you take the tree down? Between Christmas and New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only in small increments and it has to be "watered" down with milk.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I was four or five years old and it was a Strawberry Shortcake doll that gave off a strawberry smell from her mouth when you squeezed her stomach. So I guess it was a burping doll?
7. Hardest person to buy for? It's a tie between my dad and my brother.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have two of them but only one is out. It's a Fisher-Price one and the kids love it. I don't have anywhere to put my other one where my kids can't get to it.
10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? I have mailed Christmas cards in the past but I'm not very consistent with it. Probably not going to happen this year.
11. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story; you know, the one with Ralphie.
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually do it all in December. Maybe one of these years I'll be organized and get it done early.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so but I know we recycled some of our wedding gifts.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pumpkin cookies. But they are a year-round favorite for me. So...my favorite thing to eat at Christmas would have to be...homemade toffee. I also really love Christmas cookies and my mom's almond poppy seed cake with orange glaze. Mmmmm.
15. Lights on the tree? Actually, at the moment we don't have any lights on the tree. Our tree is a lot bigger this year than the one we had last year and we need to get some more lights for it.
16. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay Home
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen; and, of course, Rudolph. Yup!
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? I want a star for the tree but I haven't found the perfect one yet, so right now we don't have anything on top.
20. Do you open Presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? We let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve but everything else is saved for Christmas Day.
21. The most annoying thing about this time of year? People's intolerance of those not of their religion celebrating a holiday.
22. Favorite ornament theme and color? Simple, classic, old-fashioned. I like the tree to be really colorful but I especially like the way red ornaments look against the green tree.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? My brother makes a fantastic deep fried turkey injected with spicy seasonings.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Snow
25. Favorite Christmas tradition? It's so hard to decide, definitely something with the kids; maybe making Christmas cookies or going to see the Christmas lights. (I may come back and change this one if I think of something better.)

I'm going to tag my cousins on this one. Tiffanee, Mckelle, Monica, Pam and Carlye

PS: Did anyone else notice there's no question number 8?

Manic Monday: Harvest

I have a few things I've been wanting to blog about for a while now but I don't quite know how I want to write them. I still need some time to harvest my thoughts and put them into words. (And I think harvesting them is the perfect description for what I need to do. When I saw that the Manic Monday word was harvest, I looked it up. Not only does harvest refer to gathering something, it also involves the post harvest activities like handling, processing and delivering.)

So while I harvest my thoughts about a few things, here's a tag I received from my friend Jill.

Hubby Tag:

*What is your husband's name? Casey

*How long have you guys been married? Nine Years

*How long did you date? From the time we met until we were married it was six months. Three of that was our engagement. It didn't seem too fast at the time but now I see how crazy we must have looked to our families.

*How old is he? 33

*Who is taller? Casey is by about 4 inches

*Who can sing the best? Casey will openly admit that he was "diagnosed" by a doctor as being tone deaf. Since I never have been, I guess I'm the better singer.

*Who is smarter? I asked Casey what he thought the answer was to this question. He immediately said I was, but I am always asking him questions about stuff too, so I think it just depends on the subject.

*Who pays the bills? Casey does and I appreciate it so much.

*Who does the laundry? I usually do.

*Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. We tried to switch sides once pretty early on in our marriage and it just didn't work out.

*Who mows the lawn? No lawn yet. When we get our yard done Casey will mow the lawn even though he'll tease me that I should do it since I wanted a house with a big yard.

*Who cooks dinner? Most of the time that's me, but Casey cooks dinner on nights that I work.

*Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? I just can't stay mad or hold a grudge. It's too much work and I hate the way I feel inside when I have any kind of negativity.

*Who kissed who first? He kissed me first. It was quite unexpected but I was pleasantly surprised.

*Who wears the pants? Usually we both wear pants; except on Sunday. Then I wear a skirt or dress for a little while. ; )

One Word Tag

My friend Wendy blog tagged me. This one is short and sweet but not as easy as I thought it would be. One word answers:


1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Where is your significant other? Work
3. Your hair color? Blond
4. Your mother? Generous
5. Your father? Grandpa
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your dream/goal? Peace
9. The room you're in? Dining
10. Your hobby? Blogging
11. Your fear? Unprepared
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Shopping
14. What you're not? Prideful
15. Something on your wish list? Clothes
16. Where you grew up? America
17. The last thing you did? Hair
18. What are you wearing? Hoodie
19. Your TV? Dusty
20. Your pet? None
21. Your computer? Laptop
22. Your mood? Mellow
23. Missing someone? No
24. Your car? Ford
25. Something you're not wearing? Jewelry
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Fantastic
28. Love someone? Deeply
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Forgot

Since it was all one word answers I'm just going to tag one person: Katie


Smiley List

-Jace did his homework without complaining today.
-The cute way Camden plays with and talks to his baby brother.
-Alek's one tooth grin.
-Casey took me shopping and out to dinner last night just because.

All About Me Tag

I was blog tagged my my friend Clancy so here goes.

Disclaimer: This is the very first blog tag I have participated in. Early in my blogging "career" I declined several blog tag invitations. I wanted my blog to have only what I wanted to blog about on it and not have my blog posts dictated by others. I thought it made me unique to decline those invitations but now I realize that I was being a total stick in the mud. (I wonder where that expression came from.) I think I was also afraid to share information about myself. But I decided more recently that this blog needs a little more of my personality in it and a little more about me. Since "blog tags" are usually about the author I decided that I will play. So bring on the blog tag's.

7 Things about me

1-I only sluffed school once (one class, not one day) and I didn't even like it. I was in high school at the time. I was with a friend and neither of us had never cut class before so we didn't know what to do. We were both afraid of getting caught so we went to her house and hung out/hid. But I felt guilty about it the entire time, and I'm pretty sure I even told my mom later that day what we did. I think she laughed at me.

2-I am a serial email checker. I probably check my email at least four or five times a day. Many days it's more than that. The sad thing is, I usually only get an email or two per day if I'm lucky. I'm not sure why I expect so many more than that. At least you know that if you need to contact me via email I will receive it quite quickly.

3-I am also a blog stalker. I love to look at all the blogs listed the sidebar of a blog of someone I know. And then sometimes I look at all of the people on that person's sidebar. I have found quite a few people I know that way, and now I follow their blogs but they don't all know it. I even set my sister (Carolyn) up with a guy I found that way. A friend of a friend of my sister (Katie) had a post on her blog about her brother and how great he was and that she was looking for someone to set him up with. They actually went out once so far and probably will again.

4. I have a habit of counting things. It's not intentional and I don't have to end on a certain number or anything. I just find myself automatically counting things sometimes. Like when I go up or down stairs, chop vegetables, or take forks out of the dishwasher. Once I realize that I'm counting I make myself stop but sometimes I get pretty high before I notice what I'm doing. I attribute it to my nursing background. I count heart beats and breathing all day long at work so counting comes automatically to me.

5-I can't stand to eat with a metal fork or spoon if the bowl or plate I'm eating off of is also metal. It makes the fork or spoon taste...um...like metal. Weird, I know. But I don't know how else to explain it. So when restaurants serve their food in pie tins or on skillets I have to request an actual plate or use plastic eating utensils.

6-I hate replacing batteries in the kids' toys. I think it's because of the stupid childproof battery cover that has to be opened with a screwdriver. We usually have the right kinds of batteries around but I hate replacing them. When one of the kids' toys needs new batteries I always have Casey do it. And if he isn't home, the kids have to wait for him. I think the kids must think I'm pretty dumb to not know how to put new batteries in their toys but I don't care.

7-I was a published author in the 5th grade. I bet you'd never guess that by reading my blog but it's true. We had to write something for a standardized writing competency test that year. Everyone had to write about a childhood experience they learned something from. I wrote about jumping off a diving board by myself and how I wouldn't always have someone there to hold my had all the time but I would still be ok, blah...blah...blah. Anyway, my teacher liked it so much that she submitted it to a children's literary magazine and it got published. I always felt kind of guilty about it because I felt like I was making the whole thing up. Of course I had jumped off a diving board but it's not like I ever made that comparison until I wrote it for that assignment.

I know at the end of a blog tag post you're supposed to tag others to do the same but I don't know if anyone will want to since I may have previously declined their blog tag invites. I will simply leave it open to anyone who reads my blog and wants to participate. That was fun, thanks Clancy!