My Merry Christmas List!!

Why I love Amber Smith...She gave me something to Blog about after about a month of not blogging...man, we have just been CrAzY busy these days! But here goes...I love these lists!!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate: Umm, both actually, my NEW favorite thing is "Land O Lakes Cinnamon Hot Cocoa (available at your neighborhood grocery store) - It is SOOOO delicious! But you all know my LOVE for Egg Nog (Leslie) and I just had some left-over Peppermint-Eggnog Punch from a shower I had last week-DELISH because it has ice cream in it-what's not to love there???

2. Santa always wrapped presents but I am beginning to be a BIG fan of the NOT wrapping-that makes such good sense-however, I would have been out of a job there in college on X-mas break. One year my mom actually stuck me in the cold garage with a long folding table and had me wrap all the gifts! Burrrr!!! HaHa-I LOVE wrapping - the prettier I can make the bows the better!

3. ONLY, ONLY white lights for the tree/house! Because Brad wouldn't spend the extra dough for the pre-lit tree, I decided to "pre-lit" my own tree-now every year we just struggle it out of the box, fluff, and plug it in! What a miracle-it was just that first year that killed me to wrap a 10 Ft tree with 1200 lights!

4. I don't hang mistletoe but I have actually gone to the florist before to get some but the didn't have any-very disappointing.

5. We always decorate the weekend of Thanksgiving-this year we were babysitting my niece, Reid for the weekend and when she woke up from her nap the tree was all done and she looked up and then down and then up again and then got the biggest smile on her face-it was priceless!

6. My favorite Holiday meal is Christmas Eve at my parents house. As tradition holds it, we always have a huge Lobster dinner with salad, bread, lobster, and even sometimes crab legs! I LOVE this night most of all...I also love Christmas morning breakfast and "shrimp dip" another family favorite!!!

7. My most Favorite holiday memories include...unwrapping our Christmas pajamas each Christmas Eve, getting my Cabbage Patch Kid (I cried because mine had short blond hair like me and my sisters dolls had long hair-there started my obsession with wanting long hair-still don't have it though) I also remember the long hours of decorating the house from when I was younger. We put Christmas carols on the record player (complete with the "Chipmunks Christmas" and danced around the house decorating) We still do this every year-we just use the CD player or Dish Network Satelite Music Channel!!

8. I don't ever remember "knowing the truth about Santa" we used to sneak into my parents room and watch them put out gifts but I always thought Santa came after that. Dad used to set our burglar alarm and tell us if we came out of the hallway of our bedrooms it would set the alarm off-I knew it really worked like that and was scared to death that I would scare Santa away if the sirens were going off-so I never got out of bed!

9. We only were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve:it was always matching pajamas for us-we still hold that tradition from year to year and it is my favorite one!!!! We have even recruited the boys and grandkids in the tradition too.

10. Santa always got Chocolate chip cookies but I don't remember doing that very much...we do it more now as adults for my dad than anything.

11. Snow-I think it is beautiful and I like to look at it-sitting by the fireplace, drinking hot cocoa, wrapped in a blanket with flannel pj's on, etc...I really don't like to be cold most of all but if I am bundled up warm, I love the snow.

12. I cannot ice skate but I do have a good memory of a "father-daughter date to go skating at the old PrestonWood Mall. We weren't very good and we even got in free because they were closing soon, but it is a special memory with my dad.

13. Wow, my favorite gift...Brad proposed on Christmas night - the ring was in my stocking from his parents! I opened the last little gift tucked away at the bottom and it was a little box that I thought was like a paper weight-when I held it up to show Brad the top popped off and WOW there was a beautiful ring! He dropped on one knee, asked me to marry him, and I said yes! I was so happy-I didn't cry and he always gives me a hard time about that-I was just too happy to cry!

14. The most important thing about Christmas for me is being with my family and upholding our traditions. Our family only really has Christmas traditions : we ALL spend the night at my parents, eat our lobster dinner, open our pj's, play games in our pj's (Mexican Train, Uno, Farkel), wake up have Christmas morning, and have Christmas breakfast which is my mom's awesome breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, and orange breakfast punch! I just love when my whole family is together!

15. My favorite holiday dessert is Brickle Blonde Brownies (although I have been making them thru-out the year these days) and my mom's Peppermint Ice Cream Pie. My sister Amy and I used to have Vanilla Ice Cream and Ginger Ale every New Years Eve we were together-that is Yummy too!

16. I think I have mentioned all of my favorite traditions...I do have a new tradition that started this year...I went to the PrestonWood Baptist Christmas show and it was UNBELIEVABLE!! It was so beautiful and moving...I loved the "holiday festivities" at the beginning and was so touched by the story of Christ in the second half. It will move you to tears as Christ is crucified and then is raised-Angels are flying above Him and a 500 member choir is singing and it is just an amazing glimpse of Heaven. It was spectacular!!!

17. My tree topper is a big bow with funky beaded spirals spraying out-a little "untraditional" maybe but I love it.

18. I love giving gifts-especially when I know it is something they have wanted or something that is creative!

19. My favorite Christmas Carol: that is honestly IMPOSSIBLE for me to choose BUT here is a list of my faves...
Faith Hill's "Where Are You Christmas?" from the Grinch
TransSiberian Orchestra "This Night" (Cannon in D version-not really sure if that is the title)
Christmas CDs from Mariah Carey, SheDaisy, Aaron Neville, Kenny G, Celine Dion...Sirius Music Channel 6002 or XM Satelite Channel 23... the list goes on and on...I absolutely LOVE Christmas music...thankfully Brad does too - or he might go NUTS this time of year!! You should hear him singing to the SheDaisy CD!!!

20. Candy Canes...ummm, impartial...don't love 'em, don't hate 'em. I DO like peppermint flavored things though...I just wouldn't go sit and eat a candy cane!

Thanks to Amber for helping my in my busy, blogging slump! As y'all can tell I love the holidays and now some of you may know why! Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday filled with everything you love and enjoy about the season. I am thankful that our Savior was born and that we can celebrate his birth! That is the best tradition of all! Merry Christmas!