Thanks for a great year of questions to the Friday Fiver!
1. Do you have any holiday plans? - We have so many plans that it's hard to remember everything. I need charts and line graphs and visual aids to keep holidays straight anymore. We were planning a nice, quiet Christmas Eve with my mom and (my ex-husband) mom ... but it's grown bit by bit. It's no big deal ... the more the merrier. Well, except that I desperately need to upgrade the meat and cheese tray today or Christmas Eve at my house is going to look at lot like a Whooville kitchen after the Grinch got through with it.
2. Will you be traveling? - No, everyone's coming to our home this year. Which is a doubled edged sword ... because on one hand, you're so happy to spend the holidays at your own hearth and home ... but on the other hand, you're stressed trying to make the house presentable for guests.
3. What is the worst thing about this time of year? - The stress we put on ourselves. There's no reason to think that your house has to be spotless or that Christmas dinner has to be a Roman feast ... but yet we break our backs every year trying to make everything just right. The kids won't remember that we scrubbed the house down each year ... but they will remember that their dad read them "The Night Before Christmas" each Christmas Eve ... even if it was over the phone.
4. Do you have any favorite holiday foods? - My favorite Christmas food used to be ham and au gratin potatoes ... but since our kids hate ham with some kind of unnatural passion, I haven't had it in years. We usually go with turkey or Cornish hens or something like that. Maybe Santa will bring me a turducken this year? Does anyone know if Santa brings poultry? Somebody look into this for me.
5. Is it a Christmas tree or a holiday tree? - Oh Lord, there goes the vein in my head again. It's a Christmas tree ... a Christmas tree I tells ya! Listen, I am all about unity and diversity and understanding. I, personally, think greeters at Walmart should say "Happy Holidays" so that they're welcoming everyone equally. However, nobody is going to the store to buy a festive Ramadan hedge. It's a Christmas Tree ... get over it.
He took the Who-pudding! He took the roast beast!
He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash.
Why, that Grinch even took their last can of Who-hash!
Dr. Suess - The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
12/28/05 - Update: In a Christmas twist fit for O'Henry himself, (my ex-husband) agreed to switch out the Christmas turkey for a ham. However, the ham and au gratin potato dinner that I used to adore as a kid had, surprisingly, lost it's charm. I missed having turkey with all the fixings ... and the ham, while okay, was a terrible disappointment to me. So, once again we prove that old saying to be true. Be careful what you wish for (even if it's in a blog) ... you just might get it. Next year, good ol' Tom is making a comeback.
