I promise that I will find something besides Christmas to talk about, but AJ has got me in the mood. We just finished decorating our tree and you�d think it was Christmas Day, given how excited he was about unwrapping each and every ornament. He is currently running around with no pants on and a sleighbell on a silk cord around his neck singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

So, while I�m still feeling holidayish, I will indulge in this meme cribbed from readersguide.

Holiday meme?

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog. The homemade kind where you separate the yolks and make the whites all fluffy and then stir together and sterilize it with a boatload of booze. Although I�m all for hot chocolate after a snowball fight.

2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just set them under the tree? Both. Most things are wrapped, but there are always a few little things in stockings and one big thing under the tree that are unwrapped.

3. Colored or white lights on the tree/house? White this year, but it�s a huge argument every year. AJ wants all colored. Mr. Spy likes all white. I usually try to stay out of it. We do have colored lights on two tabletop artificial trees, one in AJ�s room and one that is usually in the guest room but, since we are not expecting any guests this year, is sitting on the bar in the family room instead. And I�m hoping to sneak outside and put colored lights on the railing of the balcony that runs outside AJ�s window. But shhh, don�t tell.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? We used to, but when AJ was a baby, he was a little too interested in it and I was convinced he was going to be poisoned so we stopped.

5. When do you put up your decorations?We usually get the tree up a couple of weeks before Christmas, but we start putting out other decorations a little before that, usually around December 1 when we pull out AJ�s advent calendar.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?We don�t have any big holiday meal traditions. My family growing up never did Christmas dinner. Between the opening of the stockings and the opening of the tree gifts, my dad would make scrambled eggs in an old electric frying pan that made everything taste like bacon. So that�s kind of one favorite. But I love baking cookies at Christmas, and also my fruitcake, which I didn�t make this year (it has to be made a month in advance so it can soak up all the brandy or bourbon you pour on it). I�m going through fruitcake withdrawal.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?Wow, there are so many to choose from. It might be our annual Christmas caroling on Church Hill in Connecticut. Or it might be the Christmas we lived in England and visited my grandparents for the holiday. There was a blizzard Christmas Eve and no one thought my aunts and my great grandmother would make it in � my aunts had driven all the way to Detroit to pick up granny at the airport. But about two in the morning, I heard them all downstairs. I was sleeping in my aunts� childhood room directly over the living room. One of the heating vents was over the sofa. I padded out of bed and peered through the vent and could see my great grandmother�s white hair and I knew we were all going to be together. But my favorite was probably the Christmas I was three. I can�t remember where we were living � we moved three times to three different states between my second and fourth birthdays. But we spent Christmas at my grandmother�s house in Michigan. I remember having seen a giant stuffed Snoopy in a store and put it on my Christmas list and also a white rabbit�s fur muff with a little kitten head on top that I thought was the most beautiful thing I�d ever seen. On Christmas morning, I came down to my grandma�s living room and there was Snoopy under the tree and there was the muff around his neck. I was totally convinced that Santa Claus was real based on that moment. I slept with Snoopy every night for years. He was my favorite childhood toy. He sadly succumbed to mice, who decided to take up residence in him a few years ago. But the muff lives on and it gives me great pleasure to see my nieces pick it up and play with it every time they visit my mom�s.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don�t remember. I think it was more of a slow awareness. I do remember feeling like I needed to keep up the illusion for my parents� sake and, as I wrote about a few days ago, I worked hard to make sure my brother believed as long as possible. And my brother and I put out milk and cookies for Santa every year until�well, actually, we still do it at my parents� house. I wonder if they do it in our absence?

9. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? When I was growing up, we always got to open one small gift right before bed on Christmas Eve. It was supposed to tide us over until morning, but it usually just served to pique our interest and keep us up all night. Since I married Mr. Spy, we go to a huge family party on Christmas Eve every year � my mother-in-law, all her living siblings and spouses, all her and siblings kids, and all of their kids. It�s a big Italian/Polish Catholic family and it�s a lot of fun. Santa always makes an appearance (played by whatever male relative can be conned into putting on the suit), so AJ gets to open one small gift, whatever Santa brings him.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I didn�t realize the process was so complicated that it needed explanation. Well, first we argue for a while about whether the tree is straight. Mr. Spy always thinks its leaning one way or another. I always think it�s straight. At some point Mr. Spy will say he�s going to leave it alone and then will fiddle around with the tree stand and the tree will lurch one way or the other while the air fills with sounds of cursing. Eventually, we�ll decide it�s straight enough and we start in on the lights. First there is the annual white vs. colored lights debate. Someone usually makes a joke about Brown vs. the Board of Ed and eventually one side wins. This year it�s whites. Then Mr. Spy puts the lights up and I complain about them until we come to a consensus. By then we�re all sick of looking at the tree, so we save the ornaments for another day. AJ gets up the next morning and wants to put ornaments on immediately. We usually let him put on a few and then we do the rest that evening while playing Christmas music of some sort or another. AJ unwraps the ornaments and plays with them and hangs a few. I pick up all the ornaments AJ has thrown on the floor and lay them out on the coffee table. Mr. Spy hangs most of them � he is the most particular about their arrangement. By the time we�re done, the cat has fallen asleep on the tree skirt. AJ will ask her if she�s a present and she will not answer, despite his badgering. And then we will make him go to bed even though he is still singing Jingle Bell Rock for the 400th time.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it. I like skiing in it, making snow men, sledding, snowball fights and even shoveling, within reason. It makes my yard look like a Christmas card. Four deer were sleeping in the snow behind the house for most of the day. What�s not to love?

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. AJ and I go skating every Friday.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift as a child? I already told that story in number 7. Snoopy with the muff.

14. What is the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family, family, and family. None of it means anything without the family.

15. Favorite holiday dessert? Fruitcake. Love it. And no one else does, so more for me.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Making a gingerbread house with AJ.

17. What tops your tree? An angel made out of a clothespin that I bought at Marshall Field�s day after Christmas sale the December before we got married � I remember the year, because I went with a friend who went every year and after we finished with the ornaments, she took me upstairs to try on wedding dresses.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. Especially to AJ.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? The Coventry Carol, which AJ seems to think is called, �My favorite lullaby.� But it no longer feels like a Christmas song because AJ wants to hear it every night of the year. �Once in Royal David�s City� as sung at the beginning of the King�s College Lessons and Carols service each year is a close second and pretty much always makes me cry.

20. Candy Canes! yum or yuck? Eh. But they�re pretty. And I love them in hot chocolate.

21. What is your favorite holiday movie? The original version of The Bishop�s Wife with Cary Grant and Loretta Young or We�re No Angels with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and�I can never remember who the third guy is.

[Second entry today. Don't bother clicking back, but send me your favorite cookie recipe.]

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