1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Hot chocolate. With malt powder is even better. With some booze (amaretto? Creme de menthe?) is happy, too.


2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Santa doesn't exist, but if he did, he'd delegate this task to the wrapper elves (not to be confused with da rappa elves, yo).


3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

White lights on wherever one might put lights. Rope lights, if possible, for fun and safety.


4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Never have. It tends to put everyone off, considering that they think I would just kiss them if I wanted to. Mistletoe feels too coersive for the hippy place I live in. Someone might get their new-age feelings hurt.


5. When do you put your decorations up?

Never. I don't decorate. Well, I might do lights, but that will happen once I go on Winter Break, around Dec 21.


6. What is your favorite holiday dish?

Green bean mushroom soup casserole (savory); really good homemade fudge (sweet).


7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:

The year my sister opened her presents, and then asked my parents, "Where's the rest?!" We didn't have Christmas after that, and my mother became a Jehovah's Witness. I'd like to think that the tantrum and the conversion are mostly unrelated, because if not, I would have a little more baggage about my sister's childhood shenanigans.


8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

Don't remember. I think I was always a cynic, and it didn't come as much of a surprise to me. Most likely I listened to everything everyone said on the subject, and came to my own conclusion around age 6.


9.Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?

No, because there aren't any. If I am at a friend's house, I do whatever their tradition is.


10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?

My what?


11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?

I love it when I'm not on the road. I live where snow is a danger due to its rarity (Seattle area). People see snow and think several erroneous things:

a. I have a Subaru/4-wheel drive/insanely large and heavy vehicle, so ice won't be a problem

b. There is an inch of snow on the ground, so I better stay home and break into that survival cache in the back yard

c. There is an inch of snow on the ground; I might be able to make a snow man if I get out there now before the snow melts in an hour

d. Two inches of snow is tantamount to Blizzard 2006, requiring intensive all-channels new coverage and minute-by-minute traffic information. Folks, the way people drive when it snows here, just stay home. Have a hot chocolate or an eggnog and enjoy your well-deserved smugness.


12. Can you ice skate?

Yes, moderately well, without jumps. I can skate backward, too.


13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

No. I've been given many wonderful gifts, just not at Christmas.


14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?

Taking time to slow down and enjoy the time off from work. Being quieter than normal. Taking walks on the beach. Feeling superior for not buying into the commericiality of the season. Feeling lonely because I'm not hooked into an automatic holiday routine. Remembering what the lonely is for.


15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

The aforementioned homemade chocolate fudge. If someone makes a Grasshopper Pie, yay, too. Creme brulee is also nice.


16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

School is closed and I have time off. Some places don't have extended breaks, as districts experiment with full-year school, so I cherish this tradition.


17. What tops your tree?

I don't have a tree, but I have the antique, hand-blown, hand-painted Father Christmas that my grandmother brought over from Norway about a hundred years ago.


18. What is your favorite Christmas/Holiday Song?

O Come, O Come, Immanuel.


19. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

Yum for the first five minutes, then yuck for the rest of the year.


20. Fruit cake! Yuck or Yum?

Yuck. Yuck. And did I mention yuck? Who eats this stuff?

Here endeth the meme.