Getting to know YOU - Christmas style!

That cocoa sounds delish, where can I buy it???? If I know its going to be really cold and I love cocoa when I'm cold, I just brew a pot of ho****er in my coffee maker. I hate microwaving water too!!! You have a great Christmas too! Did you ever go to Hallmark and check out the Leilani stuff?!?!?!? Amber

Hello again, Amber - ...and YES, I did. VAIN thang' that I am, I even ordered several of the pillows. It had been $14 each and they had them on clearance (lol, tells you how much of a fad I am?) but the sales price was $5. So I should have FOUR of them in route to me. Not sure if this link will work, but here is a photo of them from their site: http://www.hallmark.com/wcsstore/HallmarkStore/images/products/gifts/saf3027b_xxl.jpg As far as the hot cocoa - I went and got one of my packages and here's all the info from it. It's called "Frank & Joe's Skinny Gourmet Diet Hot Chocolate" ...they have a lot of different flavors. The entire "diet" line is made with Splenda and they have more then just hot cocoa, I also bought some sugar free cappuccino and some sugar free margarita mix from them. They have a website if you wanna take a look? www.ronandfranks.com Thanks for the tip on the LEILANI products, can't believe I didnt get back to you on that, smack me the next time we're together! Hugs - Lei

1. Do you prefer Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I love me some egg nog! I make it myself. 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Because the kids are teens, we usually take them to pick out things they would like to have rather than put stuff out under the tree. 3. Colored or White lights on your tree/house? We have white icicle lights trimmed with blue lights. 4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, with my luck my pets would eat it and get sick. 5. When do you put your decorations up? Most of the house decorations go up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our house is very small so we have only a very small fiberoptic tree. 6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Candied yams. With marshmallows on top! 7. What was your favorite Holiday memory as a child? Cutting down our own tree when living on a 47 acre farm in upstate NY. Usually it was a really misshapen tree, but special nonetheless. 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was about 8...of course, the neighborhood bully told me. 9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No. 10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Nothing special...all of the ornaments are special and have stories behind them. 11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it...I am originally from Buffalo. 12. Can you ice skate? Yes, very well. 13. Do you remember your favorite gift? One year when my parents had no money living on the farm, I got a stuffed Garfield that I really, really wanted and I knew at that time what a sacrifice that was for them. 14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Reflecting on the year and all of the special music and church celebrations 15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fudge! 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going out to look at the lights on Christmas Eve, 17. What tops your tree? A fiberoptic star 18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving, hands-down. I drive myself crazy all year collecting things to give people at Christmas. 19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? "O Holy Night" and "The Night Before Christmas" by Amy Grant. Brings tears to my eyes every time. Also "Midnight Cry" by Clay Crosse. 20. Candy Canes -yuck or yummy? Yummy, if they are peppermint. I don't like the other flavored ones. 21. Favorite Christmas movie? "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" with Jim Carrey or "Elf"

G'morning Dawn What a special kid your parents raised - for you to have really understood the value and sacrifice behind GARFIELD at such an early age, speaks well of YOU and your upbringing. I betcha' you've instilled those same values in your kids! I can't believe I forgot the movie Scrooge with Jim Carrey!!!! Loved that movie - I watched the info-mercial thingie on HBO on the making of it. It's amazing how much Jim Carrey put himself through when it came to that FULL BODY transformation. Im guessing here, it's been awhile since Ive seen it. BUT I think they said it took EIGHT hours in make-up to get him ready. Can you believe that???? That's most peoples WORK day and he's only just ready to begin his day of work after sitting there for 8 hours getting made up. Like I said, might be exaggerating a tad on that, too lazy to go look up the stats. Have a wonderful Christmas - Lei Pssst... I'll arm wrestle you for that home made fudge and WIN!! ...I'm da FudgeQueen [aka PudgeQueen?] I love that stuff way back when and still do! lol

Afternoon, Lei! I love lili-koi cake too. I have a sister-in-law who is Hawaiian (her hubby is my exhusband's brotherand he was in the Navy stationed there when he met her) so she would cook the most delicious things when they came stateside to visit. Still does! I don't know which I like better, though...fudge or lili-koi! I'll definitely wrestle ya for some lili-koi! Thank you for your kind words! Indeed we've tried very hard to instill those same values in our kids, and even though they are in the rebellious teen stage we have seen the benefit of what we've shown them. Our family philanthropy has been to go to an assisted living facility and visit with the Alzheimer's patients a few times a month on Sundays...my son and I play musical instruments for them and my stepkids play games and talk with them. It means the world to these people, many of them with no family, to feel appreciated if just for a few short moments. Happy and safe holidays to you, and please extend my thanks to your hubby for sacrificing his holidays so that we can all feel safe from harm in this great country of ours. I hope soon I have the honor of meeting you along with all of the other wonderful people I have read about on this site!

Oh Leilani, I missed doing this with you!!! I hope you have a super wonderful Christmas with many new happy memories!!!! XOOXOXOXO Getting to know you - Christmas style! 1. Do you prefer Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps em unless it's a family cruise...........then he just sits his ass in the North Pole jealous as HELL!!! Hee Hee Hee 3. Colored or White lights on your tree/house? White on my tree and in the house. Hubby does color outside and I hate it!!! 4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope 5. When do you put your decorations up? Day after Thanksgiving of course. 6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? BEER!!! LOLOL 7. What was your favorite Holiday memory as a child? Waking up the whole family EVERY SINGLE year. I never could sleep on Christmas eve.....too excited. 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was prolly like 8 and my big sista told me!!!!!!! 9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Open 1 on Christmas Eve, then the Santa ones and whatever is left on Christmas. 10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Prelit fake tree. All my decorations are rustic country. A lot I made myself and a lot of my precious ones that my kids have made throughout the years. I like to show off my ornaments as each have special meaning to me. 11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I'm a Montana girl.........LOVE IT!!!!!!!! 12. Can you ice skate? Yup, just took the kids on Dec. 6th!!! Had a blast, didn't fall even 1 time!!! WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!! 13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Well, since I know I answered this last year with my fav adult gift I'm gonna do my fav kid one this year. One year when I was about 6, I got a barbie RV camper. It even had popouts!!! It was AWESOME!!! I can picture my bro and I playing with it still. It had lawn chairs!!! 14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? My kids and making those precious memories that last forever!! I want my children to be so excited about it that they pass it on to their kids too. 15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? BEER!!!!!??? LOLOL 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? We do our stockings on Dec. 6th. It's a German tradition that my parents used to do with us that I thought would be way cool for my kids. It takes a little chaos out of Christmas morning too, and puts more importance on the stocking. FUN FUN! 17. What tops your tree? I have a "raggy angel" that my best friend in NJ gave to me like 10 years ago or more. I love it!!!!!!!!! 18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving, absolutely. I am very hard to buy for, and hate that disappointed feeling, so I'd rather just give and receive nothing. 19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night 20. Candy Canes -yuck or yummy? OMG, me and my kids LOVE EM!!!! 21. Favorite Christmas movie? The Year W/O a Santa Claus. I'm Mr. COLD MISER!!! . Leilani, thanks again, that was so much fun and brought back so many fun memories for me!!! OXOXOXOOXOX Love ya girly!!!!

I love the DECEMBER 6th Stocking Tradition! How cool - I'll have to look up the "German heritiage story" behind it. LOL, shame on me for NOT knowing, considering I'm half German (well, Austrian ...close enough). ...it's funny, when I read question #18, I thought WHO in their right mind would answer that they'd rather REC'V! LOL, even if that were true, don't think I'd be able to admit it, so far, it would appear that "giving" brings more joy. Of course, if my man were home and there was some mistle toe that I trapped him under, Id be answering that differently!!!! GIMME GIMME GIMME!!! Love you sweety - have a wonderful Christmas with your family, it sounds like their will be FOUR children around the tree that morning, when we count YOU - love it. Pssst.... if you really want a YUMMY sugar free hot cocoa TREAT? Read my post to Amber (in this thread) ...it includes a link to a company that sells some of the bestest variety of flavored s/f cocoa. I bought some at the Christmas Festival at the beach and got enough to also give away as stocking' kinda gifts - um, well, less and less people will be getting them in stockings, lol, I liked the one I tried so much that Im finding reasons to keep more of it for ME! The Toffee Bark and the Peanut Butter are two of my favorites, the Buttered Rum Cocoa is also great, and it's all made with SPLENDA!!!!

Getting to know you - My Christmas style! 1. Do you prefer Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?- I like both, what I choose depends on the "moment" . Egg Nog sans the alcohol, for happy times, hot chocolate for mushy/ mellow times 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa does both. 3. Colored or White lights on your tree/house?. Because we love X'mas, we tim several trees, therefore we have amber and white (combined) on the trees. 4. Do you hang mistletoe? No 5. When do you put your decorations up? We begin a week before Thanksgiving. 6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? I am blocked... 7. What was your favorite Holiday memory as a child? All of them, but mostly the lights, the sounds, the smells, being a child... 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? A cousin told me the day before x'mas. I was 7 years old 9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No 10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Every one has a theme: 1) angels; 2) birds; 3) Three Kings; 4) kids mementos; .... 11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? LOVE ITTTTT; dread the ice 12. Can you ice skate? No 13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No... 14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The smells, the sounds, the lights, being with my family 15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Coconut Flan 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? January 6- The Epiphany 17. What tops your tree? 1) angel; 2) Birds around a nest; 3) butterflies; 4) stars 18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving definetly 19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? White Christmas 20. Candy Canes -yuck or yummy? Yuck, aggravates my GERD 21. Favorite Christmas movie? I saw once this movie... many years ago, where a mother died during christmas and the father makes the decision to left their kids in front of town people houses. I only saw it once... but it moved me and impacted me.

G'morning Irma - WOW - I bet your house is absoutely breath taking with ALL those beautifully decorated trees. I love seeing YOUR overflowing enthusiasm for the Holidays and Christmas. I bet it's very contagious and every one around you ends up feeling the excitement and joy of the season as well. If you get around to taking digitial photos of your tree(s) ...yes, ALL of 'em, I'd love to see it, so be sure to post them here, okay? How pretty they must ALL be, and the themes are actually very unique, which makes them that much more special. Enjoy your Christmas, how could you not...? Lei

I answered this and then lost it somehow. God knows what should be lost though, and my response was sorrowful, so I will leave it in the trash can in the sky. Suffice it to say I haven't celebrated Christmas in several years and this one will only be worse, regardless of what I like/prefer. I just wish others would respect my choice not to celebrate, and stop trying to force gaiety and "the Christmas mood" on me. I am NOT referring to this thread, btw. Holiday Hugs to you who need them, Lois