Christmas/Winter Tag ✽ Only Two More Weeks Til Christmas!

How are we so close to Christmas?! I'm enjoying the season, but feel like it's been really short... I'm glad it happens every year ;).

I'm here to fill out the Christmas/Winter Tag started by Belise from Sparkle for Jesus, thanks to Maddy from Little Bit of Sunshine!

The rules:

Thank The Person Who Tagged You.

Thank you again, Maddy! This looks like so much fun!

Answer The Questions And Tag At Least Three Other People.

1. DO YOU CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?

Yes :)! I love the time to remember our Savior's gift of love to us, the chance to spoil those around me with some extra love, the cozy smells and sights, and the time together to do things (such as look at Christmas lights) that you can't do the rest of the year! We celebrate Advent every year, and read Christmas books together, and watch Christmas movies and drink lots of hot chocolate ;). I love Christmas!

2. DO YOU CELEBRATE ANY OTHER FESTIVE HOLIDAYS OTHER THAN CHRISTMAS OR IN ADDITION TO?

Our family celebrates St. Nicholas Day each year. We make a special breakfast, open a few gifts, read about the legend of St. Nicholas, and either go to the zoo and look at the lights there, or make some hot chocolate and take a drive around the nearby neighborhoods and look at the house lights. VA's lights are awesome... everybody goes all out for the "Tacky Light Drive", and the involved neighborhoods are SO bright and colorful at night! This was our substitute for the zoo while in VA, but we enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it here, as well, after we moved back to SC... the first attempt was a laughable disaster, haha. Let it suffice to say, we went too early in the season... but besides that, an entire. neighborhood. lost power as we got to it (of course one of the ones that was supposed to be really good). Hahaha! We went again later that season, and it went much better, so we tried again this year, and had a really fun time!

3. WHEN IT COMES TO WEATHER, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 1O DEGREES?

Ehhhhh...  well, 70 degrees does NOT feel like Christmas. But if it gets too cold, I freeze, because I'm cold in the summer anyway half the time, and my family just stares at me in disbelieve when I randomly shiver. So, maybe 60-30 degrees? Because starting at 30 we get our small chance of snow ;). One year (2009?) it snowed 8 inches here in SC... that was a red-letter year for us, haha!

4. RAIN OR SNOW?
Snoooooowwwww. My Gramma got snow while we got rain the other day, and rain in summer and spring is beautiful, soothing, and delightful... but rain falling on the month's dead leaves and making everything brown soggy just makes me sad. Snow is so much prettier at this time of year! And we take fun snow days when it falls, since that's so seldom, so that adds to the appeal ;). 

5. ON THE PERFECT WINTER DAY, WOULD YOU GO SHOPPING OR STAY HOME?
"Winter Day" to me implies blankets, hot chocolate, a book, some knitting, and soups, whether snow is involved or not. So obviously, I would choose to stay home, haha!

6. TRIP TO THE MALL OR WALK IN THE PARK?
I've been to the mall once in the past 18 months or more, haha! I would definitely choose a walk in the park, with people I love and good conversation! (You really can't hear each other in a mall...)

7. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE?
Don't make me choose. I can't.... Lol. I like "It's a Wonderful Life", and "The Fourth Wise Man" (though sometimes we save that for closer to Resurrection), and "The Christmas Shoes" still makes me cry. The "Muppets Christmas Carol" also holds a very special part in our traditions, as it's been our Christmas Eve movie for as long as I can remember. And VeggieTales "The Star of Christmas"... haha!

8. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TRADITION?
Y'all, I can't choose for this one either! The first night of Advent? Meeting up with family? Walking the zoo? Making Christmas candies? Actually, that tradition really sped by last year. There are so many of us working on them now, that it doesn't take long for all the treats to be knocked out... kind of like when we went apple picking last year, and because there are so many of us, we had picked a many as we could use within ten to fifteen minutes. It was sad, haha.

9. WOULD YOU RATHER SAY "HAPPY HOLIDAYS!" OR "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
I'm laughing right now because we just watched "Christmas With a Capital C" last night, while we stayed up and ate ice cream until I was shivering, per tradition, and yeah. Lol. I say Merry Christmas, and I hear the chair rant from this movie every.time. I hear Happy Holidays ;).

10. WHAT DOES YOUR CHRISTMAS MORNING LOOK LIKE?

We get up and eat cinnamon rolls while we watch a documentary on the Christmas Story together. The rest of the day is then spent making dinner and opening presents, because we typically open the gifts one at a time, youngest to oldest, in rounds... and that takes... a lot of time, hahaha!!! But it's really fun to get to experience it with each person, rather than rushing through it thinking only about yourself ;).

11. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONG/CAROL?
I love so many Christmas Songs... "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel", "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", "Once in Royal David's City", "Angels We have Heard on High"... but my favorite might be one we listen to from Todd Agnew's "Do you See What I See" CD (the one we listen to while putting up the tree), "In the First Light"...

"In the first light of a new day no one knew he had arrived
Things continued as they had been while a newborn softly cried
But the heavens wrapped in wonder knew the meaning of his birth
In the weakness of a baby they knew God had come to earth

As his mother held him closely it was hard to understand
That her baby, not yet speaking, was the word of God to man
He would tell them of his kingdom but their hearts would not believe
They would hate him and in anger they would nail him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken as the song of life arose
And the firstborn of creation would ascend and take his throne
He had left it to redeem us but before his life began
He knew he'd come back, not as a baby, but as the Lord of every man

Hear the angels as they're singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will our song be when he comes again to earth
Hear the angels as they're singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will our song be when he comes to rule the earth!"

Have you noticed I'm not that great at choosing favorites yet? Cause yeah, I'm not. 

12. HOT COCOA, PEPPERMINT TEA, PEPPERMINT MOCHA, PEPPERMINT MILKSHAKE? 

None, thanks. *sips the hot chocolate that I made specifically for doing this Christmas Tag.* Did you know Hot Cocoa is made with water and Hot Chocolate with milk? I think I might actually have like peppermint tea when I was younger, but I don't remember it very well, actually. Never had the other "peppermints", and I really don't care for "true" cocoa very much unless there's marshmallows.

 I'd like to tag my sister Tori from The Book Wyrm (!!!), Ashley from Precious Moments, and Grace Anne from Totally Graced to do the Christmas/Winter Tag next :)! It's so fun to see all the different answers and hear about everybody's different traditions and favorite moments!

(I just at this moment received another order for the music chalkboard in my shop. Again. I've got 4 going out this week... anyone else want one while I'm at it ;)? Lots of music lovers are getting a great gift this Christmas, if I do say so myself ;)...)

Bethi as she puts Noah to sleep: *plays really brisk, happy music*

Me: "Bethi, try something SOOTHING, like 'Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" or something. It worked for me last time." *gives her a couple other options to choose from, because it always takes me two songs to see him asleep*

Bethi, 3 times in a row on different occasions: "Didn't work. He didn't go to sleep until I turned on (insert some brisk, happy song or another again)"

Me as I was finishing up this blog post: *turns on one instrumental version of "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel"... then another*

Noah: *asleep beside me before the second is over*

Love that silly guy <3. But why?! Lol! Personally, I think Bethi gets restless during the more soothing songs, and it keeps him awake, haha...

Have you filled out this tag? Share the link with me! What would the perfect snow day hold for you? What did you think of Tori's new blog :)?!??!?!! Go follow her for the best sarcastic jokes slipped in in the most natural way. It's wonderful.