Monday Meme ~ Christmas Version

December 10, 2007 /

We’re still in the wonderful week of Hanukkah, and we’ve eaten the Stollen for St. Nicholas Day. What a confusing family, huh? Basically, we just love to celebrate many differnt cultures, even if they are not our own. This coming Saturday we’ll be baking Christmas Cookies and so on, and it’s a most wonderful time of the year. How better to commemorate it than with a meme?

This one came from Scarlett, who started this meme herself just for us, and calls it “12 of my favorite things”. Here are her rules:

Please share 12 of your favorite Christmas things: they can be memories, traditions, songs, presents, beliefs, whatever it is about this season that you love.

Send it to 12 people, and be sure to link to them so that everyone can enjoy the many variations!

So, here are 12 of my favorite things about Christmas, and this time of year in general, which seems to start around Halloween, and extend through the New Year, which is why so many folks call it, “the Holidays”.

  1. I love that it’s such a great excuse to get together with friends and family. Everyone seems to want to connect at this time of year, so there are parties, and of course, Christmas Day with Ted’s family is always wonderful and fun.
  2. The spirit of giving. I don’t mean gifts so much as I do charity. The needy are among us every day of the year, and they are hungry every day of the year. But at this time, we seem to focus in on it a bit more. The food given to our local food bank in December keeps them loaded up until March!
  3. I love having a fire in the fireplace, and watching our favorite Christmas movies. We have many. My favorite kid ones are “A Charlie Brown Christmas“, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (Watched this last night!), and “Year Without a Santa Claus” (because I love those zany brothers, the Heat Mizar and the Cold Mizar. They’re too much!)
  4. Even though we try not to make Christmas be just about the gifts, I do love the gift giving. I enjoy shopping for folks, wrapping, shipping (too often, since so many of my loved ones live far away), and for the lucky local folks, seeing their face when they open their gift.
  5. Christmas morning. Maya waits until 7:00 to wake us up, and then we go downstairs. We start a fire, make some hot chocolate, put on Christmas music, and then start opening the gifts. It’s a magical time for just the three of us. We love it.
  6. Vacation time off from work. When I worked at Penn back in Philly, they used to shut down the week between Christmas and New Years, and everyone got paid days off, without going into vacation time. Cool, huh? I haven’t gotten that anywhere since then, but I do try to take that week off from work using my vacation days, if I can. Well, since Christmas is a Tuesday this year, we get Monday and Tuesday both as holidays, and the same the following week for New Years, so we’re taking 6 PTO days, and getting two whole weeks off from work. Delicious.
  7. Winter weather. I love summer, spring, and fall, but there’s something about the cold weather that’s so cozy and makes me feel Christmassy. Well, maybe not in late January or February, but at this point, it’s still lovely. We don’t get snow here in our part of California, but since we’re going to Portland for Christmas this year, perhaps we’ll get lucky and see some flakes falling from the sky. I would love that.
  8. Being a parent. Being a parent is usually a pretty good gig if you can get it, but at Christmas time, it’s even better. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping the night before Christmas, and it’s not for me. I’m excited for Maya. And there have been times, seeing her open her gifts, that are pretty great.
  9. Going to see a play. I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to this year, but we often go to San Francisco to see A Christmas Carol. I’ll never forget the look on Maya’s face the first time we went, and we walked into the American Conservatory Theater and saw the stage all lit up and the actors right there…it was magical.
  10. My favorite grown up Christmas movies. I love Scrooged and It’s a Wonderful Life best of all, and if I don’t see those at least once during the season, it’s a bad, bad year for me.
  11. Christmas music. I get tired of crap like ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas’, and ‘Grandma got run over by a reindeer’. Blech. I’m an atheist, but also a pretty sentimental type person, and the religious songs are the best for me, because there is such a feeling of love and joy in them. So much more depth and beauty. Love them.
  12. Christmas memories. Ted and I started dating at this time of year, lo those many years ago, and I have a lot of good memories associated with the many Christmases we’ve shared together. Also wonderful Christmases in my childhood, and those since we had Maya. Like I said, I’m kind of a smooshy, sentimental person, so I like to think back on all of the wonderful Christmases I’ve had so far, and look forward to the many more yet to come.

OK, that’s 12 things I love about Christmas. I’m in a chipper mood, because I just got back from the post office, where I mailed my gifts to Alaska and Pennsylvania, so there’s a good feeling of accomplishment, plus the leftovers of Maya’s breakfast burrito from yesterday, both making my tummy feel cozy. Now, it’s time to tag 12 folks to participate. 12? Wow, that’s a lot. I don’t care, I’m going for it. Play along if you want to, tagged or not.

  1. Autumn’s Mom
  2. Cherry Extract
  3. Maya’s Granny
  4. Beenzzz
  5. LaLuna
  6. Gina
  7. Ms. Mamma
  8. Py Korry (gotcha honey!)
  9. Curiosity Killer
  10. Karen MEG
  11. Dewey
  12. Hello, Melissa!

Thank-you for the tag, Scarlett!  This was a fun one, and a groovy way to start off my Monday. 🙂

21 Comments

  • LauraH

    December 10, 2007 at 11:30 am

    That is a wonderful meme. It is terrific that you have such great memories associated with Christmas. Would you believe I wrote the word “wonderful” three times in this short comment before I edited it?

  • ann adams

    December 10, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Just put a Christmas background on my desktop. The Thanksgiving turkey had been up there long enough.

    I love the traditional music too. Ray and I were complaining the other night about t.v. downplaying Christmas and then we stumbled on the 3 Tenors doing Christmas in Vienna. I felt much better.

    I think “It’s A Wonderful Life” was rated as the worst Christmas movie of all time. I don’t care – I still watch it every year. My age is showing.

  • --Deb

    December 11, 2007 at 8:24 am

    I hope you enjoyed your stollen–I’m just glad to get mine baked and DONE this year. 8 full-sized loaves, 2 mini-loaves, and it took six and a half hours to get them all baked. (Which doesn’t include the mixing and shaping parts–just the in-and-out of the oven part.) Phew!

  • Autumn's Mom

    December 11, 2007 at 9:11 am

    I want to catch some of your christmas spirit J. You’ve really got it!! I love the movie Scrooged. And geez, I’ve still never seen It’s a Wonderful Life…is this the year??? Don’t I say that every year?? hahaha

  • Starshine

    December 11, 2007 at 9:39 am

    That’s a great meme. I enjoyed reading your list, too! What a wonderful time of year for you and Ted to have fallen in love. Now every December, you get to relive that falling in love feeling all over again! Yea, you!

    Merry Christmas, J! I love this time of year!

  • lalunas

    December 11, 2007 at 10:36 am

    Well, it is the most wonderful time of the year as the song says. Yeah there is something really nice about the holidays when you take away all the gift purchasing. Thanks for the invite.

  • kookiejar

    December 11, 2007 at 11:12 am

    That’s so funny. I’m an atheist as well, but I also prefer the religious Christmas Carols to the more secular ones. “O Holy Night” just blows me away.

  • ML

    December 11, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    I LOVE It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooged, and Christmas Story…oh and White Christmas. Boy, for someone who’s a bah humbug this year, I sure like a lot of Christmas movies!

  • Wanderlust Scarlett

    December 11, 2007 at 2:30 pm

    I love the photo! That’s the best!

    Great list… I was nodding and smiling all the way down, except for the ‘Maya WAITS till seven to wake us up…’ waits? till seven? I laughed out loud… don’t kids make the holidays wonderful?

    I hope you have a very merry and snowy Christmas.
    Thanks for playing!

    Scarlett & Viaggiatore

  • --Deb

    December 11, 2007 at 6:45 pm

    Okay, this one looked like so much fun, I borrowed it and played over at my knitting blog, Chappysmom.com.

    (It just seemed to “fit” better over there than at my writing blog, you know?) Either way, it WAS fun.

  • Shelliza

    December 12, 2007 at 5:27 am

    Fun meme! Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love Charlie Brown Christmas, too. Great! Now I have that song in my head (Christmastime is here)!

  • J

    December 21, 2007 at 4:07 pm

    Jimmy, I’m on my way! I’m bringing Autumn’s mom, Py, and Ms. Mamma along as well. Should be a party. I don’t drink the hard stuff, but I’ll bring some vino, k?