Christmas Meme

OK, I stole this Christmas meme from Carrie, but her answers are much funnier, so you have to go and read them! Do it if you want... Christmas is my personal favorite holiday, and today is also St. Nicolaus Day, so of course I had to.... 1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift bags, of cloth, or recycled from gifts I have gotten, or maybe a cool dish towel or something else re-usable! 2. Real or artificial tree? Real, I mean getting a tree is part of yardwork around here! 3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the second week in December or so... we keep it up about a month total, until Twelfth Night though. 4. When do you take the tree down? see above 5. Do you like eggnog? Oops, THAT's what I forgot tonight at the store... it's practically a staple around here while in season. 6. Favorite gift received as a child? A set of 40 colored pencils that my dad got me when I was around 10... I treasured them and used them until at least my thirties. 7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a small one with pewter figurines. I started needlepointing one back in the 1970s then later cross stitching one in the 1980s, but never finished either. 8. Hardest person to buy for? Probably my BIL, who has become kind of minimalist, and already has everything. 9. Easiest person to buy for? DH. He collects lots of things and I am always finding something I know he would love. 10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? This one's pretty tough... I must have blocked out the bad memories... maybe the time I got polyester gloves and scarf... you knitters will feel my pain. 11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Well, I try to mail some every year... 12. Favorite Christmas Movie? "A Christmas Story" 13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I find something I know would be a treasure. 14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yep, I'm big on recycling:) 15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge. Oh. Yeah, I guess I can get that anytime.... well, how about cranberry sauce? 16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?. Bubble lights! 17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night, because I can still usually remember how to play it on the piano, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas, because I can remember all the words. 18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. 19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?! Yes. come back next week... I'm busy trying to answer all these questions! 20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither...I like those pointy ball thingies... 21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? On Christmas Eve while growing up....on the 'designated day' while raising a blender family, and usually on Christmas morning lately. 22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I agree with Carrie on this one... its the shopping malls. Although it's kind of a year round thing. 23. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Now, here's where Carrie and I strongly diverge... you see here at Slate Range Camp, there are more than ONE tree.. there's a little tree upstairs in my studio with tiny knitted sweaters and mittens, another small tree with woodland ornaments, and a huge tree in our parlor (this IS an older-than-Victorian house) with a collection of German-style glass ornaments in all kinds of fantastical shapes and forms. Of, and of course that's where the bubble lights live. 24. What do/did you leave for Santa? Cookies and milk!