Christmas Survey

This came from Allison... I'll answer here since it is so fitting to the season.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Wrap. But it certainly isn't any wrapping paper you've ever seen before!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Right now? Colored. I thought I was a white light girl... but I'm liking the colored lights. Don't tell my husband.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Mistletoe is not native to Ohio, so no.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
December 2 this year.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Can fudge count as a dish?

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
Hmm... there's a lot to love. Our family friend dressing up as Santa and coming by on Christmas eve... getting up before everyone else to check out the goods... opening one present on Christmas eve... etc.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
It sort of evolved. I still hate to think there's not a Santa.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yep.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
With collected ornaments and lights. Next year I'm toying with an idea for some garland. And I REALLY need to get around to sewing the tree skirt I have in mind!

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love the snow. Everyone get where you're going and then bring it on!

12. Can you ice skate?
Yes, but I can't stop.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Hmm, hard to say. I had a favorite doll growing up and I'm pretty sure she was a Christmas gift.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Being healthy and with family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Let's go ahead and use fudge again!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Putting up the tree.

17. What tops your tree?
A gold star with lights.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving... I wish I hadn't slept through November so I could have made more gifts this year.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Silent Night

20. Candy Canes?
They're awfully pretty and they taste ok, too.

21. What do you want for Christmas?
Relaxation.

do you hear what I hear?

So what are you listening to this Christmas? I have TONS of Christmas music. I LOVE it. I loaded it all back onto my iPod and have been jamming away since the first of December.

The first one I've listed is my favorite from when I was a kid. My mom had the record. Yes, a RECORD was my only source for this album until several years back when I found I couldn't live without it and got it on cd.

I'm also a big fan of the Nutcracker Suite. It's probably the only classical music I can actually hum along to. I won't be asking my husband to accompany me to the ballet any time soon, though. He went with me the first year we were dating and aside from it not being a great performance, he just didn't like anything about it. Oh well... I'll take Nana and our little munchkin in the future. We'll have a blast. I remember it being magical when I was like 10. And of course, the Ohio Theatre was nothing less than an amazing work of art... I couldn't believe they would even let people like us sit in their seats!

So here is a short list of what's playing on my iPod this Christmas:

• Favorite Christmas album ever: Merry Mancini Christmas by Henry Mancini, his orchestra and chorus.
• Favorite Album from last year: Martin Sexton's Camp Holiday.
• Favorite New Album this year: Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong.

What are you listening to? Anything new I need to know about?? :-)

Last night I got home from work and plugged in the Christmas tree.

tada!

Then I lit every candle and oil lamp in the living room. Next it was off to the kitchen to start dinner before John got home. Hamburger Helper taco something-or-other. (Hey, he bought it, not me.) So I made dinner and we ate. John cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher.

We needed to work on a photo project for Christmas, so we sat down at the table in the dining room where I had the laptop and scanner set up. So we were plugging away scanning photos... when what to my super sniffer did I smell?? (Mind you, in pregnancy, I can smell everything.)

FIRE!!!! "John, something's on fire. Check the candles." He looks in the living room.... nothing. Gives me the look like I'm crazy and paranoid. I keep sniffing. "No, something is definitely on fire. I smell burning." I sniff the dishwasher. It's suspect. The dry cycle is on. I open the door and smoke billows out. Aaaah... the smoke alarm is wired to notify the fire department.... open all the windows and turn up the fan!

Turns out the bamboo spatula had fallen from the top rack and was laying on the heating element. Kids, don't try this at home... it's very dangerous.

But what are the chances that this would happen when we are sitting RIGHT next to the dishwasher? On a normal day we would start the dishwasher and he'd go upstairs to play video games and I'd go downstairs to scrap. The dishwasher seals pretty tight, so we might not have figured it out for a while.

Oh, and the spatula happens to be one of my favorite kitchen items. It's for the wok. It was a set of two - for left and right hands. How would you like to tell the left hand bamboo spatula his brother died in a firey accident in the dishwasher? It wasn't pretty, I tell you.

And about that super sniffer.... I got out of my car at the fitness center at work last week. It was the day that it snowed. I was getting my stuff out of the back seat of my car and thought, "I smell a chai latte from Starbucks." I start heading into the building and there he is across the parking lot with his holiday Starbucks cup. He's lucky chai has caffeine or I might have tackled him for it, it smelled so good.

Have a good weekend. And whatever you do... don't run your dishwasher unattended.

magical day!

Ok, maybe not unicorns and fairies magical... but a really good day anyway. I was excited for today more than Christmas. I know it's useless to worry... but when your symptoms are few, it's nice to have a peak in the womb to know that everything is ok.

This may not be the best picture to see JT (or his sister). But I like that you can see his whole silhouette. We're going to find out if it's a boy or a girl, but that won't be obvious until maybe February. In the meantime, I'm referring to "it" as "he". It makes my husband happy when I do that... so I go with it. We'll adjust later if he is really a she.

He was moving around like crazy this morning! John said he looked like the running man... Flailing his legs and arm buds (aka flippers). There are two arms and two legs. And I swear I could make out some toes! He's looking just perfect so far.

His little heart isn't much bigger than a poppy seed and it was beating away at 158 beats per minute. (For reference, my normal pulse is 60ish and my pregnancy pulse is around 70.) We got a printout of the heart rate and we got to hear it.

We are a happy mommy and daddy today. :-)