I lifted this (including most of the red and greenness) from Frank who got it from from Holly. It's the Christmas Meme.
Twelve Things of Christmas
1. Real tree or artificial? Not artificial tree. Last year we had a real one, but this year we have another person and more furniture, and the kids preferred my illusionish tree anyway. It's not an artificial tree, but it's not a real tree. We've used it four or five times before. I described it on this blog in 2005. Click the tree for more info on the tree you click. (It doesn't work for all trees, and oh yeah—that's not a tree anyway.)2. When do you put up the tree? Second week of December, give or take a week.
3. When do you take down the tree? Soon after New Year's when I'm lucky.
4. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Some of one and some of another, and sometimes cloth. Depends on the gift.
5. When do you start Christmas shopping? October.
6. Who is the hardest person to buy for? Me, probably.
7. Easiest person to buy for? Holly.
8. Angel on top of the tree, or star? Star. Two cardboard stars fastened together on the top half, open on the bottom, covered in foil paper, many years old. Homemade star. (Only in years of real trees.)
9. What is the worst Christmas gift you ever got? A microwave, because I don't think appliances should be Christmas gifts for moms. Appliances should be the everyday offerings of the supplicants who want their clothes washed and their food cooked and their dishes washed. It was a cool microwave, but it should've come out the day it was bought and been just a thang.
10. What is the best gift you received as a child? Tricycle.
(Frank's books looked quite like my books. Perhaps those were generic-ish photos, or perhaps I have generic-ish books.)
11. What is your favorite food to eat at Christmas time? Bizcochitos. I haven't made any for a few years. I've been buying them at Garcia's up the street, but I think I will make some soon. They take anise seeds, and if you're making your own they can have brandy. When I was little I used to see them very often made in the shapes of card spots (diamond, heart, spade, club), and I looked and looked for cookie cutters like that. Apparently they were common in grocery stores in the 1950's, but I didn't find any until just a couple of years ago, in an antique shoppish indoor fleamarket place. Woohoo! So this year, I think. And lard. They'll be little bundles of deadly sin with cinnamon and sugar on the top.| After writing this post, I found some cupcakes on Neopets that have directly to do with all this. Card spot cupcakes: |  |
12. What do you want for Christmas this year? Having just gotten a new phone, I'll be lucky if I get anything else, but what I'm really hoping for is that all my kids will like what I got them.
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Here's an old-time Friday Fill-In, from last year. The blog owner's dad was in the hospital last week, and maybe there won't be a Friday fill-in this week, so I've brought #51 from last year.
1. Snow makes regular things beautiful.
2. I'm looking forward to my oldest, Kirby, visiting in January, and most of the Sorooshian family, too!
3. Dark chocolate is the best gift ever!
4. One of my favorite old tv shows is WKRP.
5. I'm done with non-recovering alcoholics.
6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is The MUSIC!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to learning more about my camera phone, tomorrow my plans include a movie with Holly (if she's not working) and Sunday, I want to gather up all the little piles for the thrift store that are started around the house, take them in, and while I'm there look at some cloth (maybe yard goods, maybe bedspreads or tablecloths, maybe skirts or dresses with lots of cloth).
"Appliances should be the everyday offerings of the supplicants who want their clothes washed and their food cooked and their dishes washed."
ReplyDeleteThat really made me LOL! So true, so true. I would just add, "...and their floors cleaned," since I got a vacuum one year. ;P
Your weekend sounds like fun! Thanks for playing :-)
ReplyDeleteHooray, Sandra,
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing along. The book photo was a generic (Google images) one but it's pretty much what our bookshelves look like, except ours are arranged by genre and alphabetized, of course.
Okay, "little bundles of deadly sin with cinnamon and sugar on the top" is probably one of the best descriptions I've ever read. Really, hilarious. I hope you post a recipe -- they sound fabulous ;-)
ReplyDeleteI want to second the request for the recipe. Both of my sisters lived in New Mexico (one at UNM in Alb., one at St. John's in Santa Fe) in the 70's and I think they'd love to get some bizcochitos as a gift. They were just lamenting at Thanksgiving how much they miss real New Mexican food. (I'm already making Sopaipillas with honey butter for Christmas Day -- my UNM sister says, "no cinnamon!")
ReplyDeleteYour sister's right. Cinnamon is never put on sopaipillas here, but on bizcochitos, usually. When I pull that recipe out, I'll post the one I've used for years. It works. I'll post photos and recipe next week sometime.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that the cookies are intrinsically and objectively great, but when they smell and taste like Christmas to someone, they become a part of Christmas. That sounds lame, but I don't know how else to say it. Other people might taste them and then "Eh. Don't you like chocolate chip better?" And I do. Except at Christmas. :-)
It's an untree
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I think you're right. I hadn't meant it so, but there it is(n't).
ReplyDeleteOh I also really enjoyed WKRP! And so it was exciting for me to learn that Jan Smithers lived on the same street as my husband when he was growing up in LA. His parents still live there but she doesn't anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think this may be the last year we buy a tree that has been shipped across the ocean - although it will be difficult for me to give up having the smell of it in my tropical home - I love it because it reminds me of my hometown in WA state. My brother has started welding scultpural art (steelabilia.com) and I'm thinking of asking him to make me a steel tree. I guess I could get some scratch and sniff fir or some candles.