FUNNY THE VLOG
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
(a re-run from last year because we went to this party again last night)


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2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was growing up, Santa never wrapped presents.  By the time my children were growing up, Santa always wrapped packages, but he never put tags on them.  He had a convoluted code that only I had the key to.  Each package had a number and on Christmas morning I told everybody what their number was (it did cut down on the sneaking a peak at your gifts!)

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  Colored.  Thought I do like trees with white lights too.  Our tree has tiny flashing colored lights

4. Do you hang mistletoe?  No. 

5. When do you put your decorations up? Well, they aren't up yet!  The latest we've put them up is Christmas morning.  The earliest was last year when I had to have everything up by late November for the party I was hosting for my cousins.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Stuffing.  I love turkey stuffing.  I add more butter than my mother does and I like to toss in some craisins too.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? No one memory stands out, just the whole season which is so magical when you are a child.  The older we get, the less magic there is.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?  At Easter.  My sister and I were having an Easter egg hunt in the living room of our flat and I noticed that our parents were directing us where to look and I figured out that they had hidden the eggs.  I whispered "thank you" to them and my father said "Well, now that you know about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, don't tell your sister."

What????  Santa TOO?????  Until that moment, I had not figured it out.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No.  We used to let the kids open Santa gifts on Christmas morning and grandparent gifts on Christmas night, but now it all gets done Christmas night.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Haphazardly.  Things got a lot less regimented and fun since there are no kids around.  Used to be we had glasses of egg nog, put on Bing Crosby (you can't have Christmas without Bing Crosby) and oohed and aahhed over familiar ornaments.  Now Walt and I just throw them up until the tree is full enough.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Well...with the amount of snow we get in Davis, love it.  It has snowed twice in the past 30 years, where it actually stayed on the ground long enough to take pictures.  If I actually lived in snow country, I suspect my answer would be significantly different!

12. Can you ice skate? I used to be able to.  I wouldn't dare even think about it now.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Jeri always came up with wonderfully innovative homemade gifts.  One year she made us a dozen eggs, each painted as Gilbert & Sullivan characters.  Another year she gave me "Delicate Pooh," about whom I've spoken before.  A Pooh bear that had originally been a gift to Jeri when she was a year old, but who had been passed along to each of the kids, and loved until he had very little fur left, not enough stuffing to give his body any shape and then that year the dog ate his face.  Jeri made a new face for him and it was my Christmas present that year.  I think that was the best present I ever received. 

(The quilt that Tom gave me last year, with the huge photo of Sheila on it may rank a close second)

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?  Having the kids running in and out of the house again.  There is life in the house for a few days.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?  Pumpkin pie.  Is there any other possible holiday dessert?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?  My very, very favorite holiday tradition was the annual Egg Nog Gala, which went by the wayside years ago.  The kids all put on a show with skits, and music and lots of laughter.  How I loved those shows!  Now I supposed my favorite holiday tradition is sitting around the table on Christmas Eve playing carols on the kazoo with Ned's inlaws.

17. What tops your tree? A ridiculously garish gold-clad Santa.  I'm sure my friend Michael would find it fabulous.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? No question — giving.  I love shopping for people and usually go overboard.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?  "Silver Bells"

20. Candy canes?  Yuck.  Never liked 'em.  But when I was a kid I'd eat them because ... well... because they were there.

21. Favorite Christmas movie?  "Miracle on 34th Street," the original version with Edmund Gwen, Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood.  That was always a magical movie for me.

22. What do you leave for Santa? Nothing any more.  When the kids were growing up, we left cookies and beer because we had a suspicion that Santa didn't really like milk.

Cobb, from whom I stole this, added a few more of his own.

A. Fixing Bikes.  Any toys that needed assembling got assembled here.  I don't know that we ever had to deal with a bike.

B. Popcorn:  There were a few year when we strung popcorn, but it was never a huge part of Christmas tradition around here.

C. Caroling Door to Door:  That's something I always enjoyed doing and rarely did.  We caroled with The Lamplighters once on the cable car in SF, ending at the Buena Vista bar for Irish Coffee.  We caroled with the Davis Comic Opera Co. one year, going door to door, and I've sung carols in convalescent hospitals.  Last year we traveled around the neighborhood of Ned's inlaws and did some caroling.

D. Wearing Santa Hats in Public: Pulleeze.  No.

E. Wreaths:  I have a small wreath that I hang on the front door, if I find it and/or remember to put it up.  I also sometimes use a wreath as a centerpiece.

F: Outdoor Displays: No.  We had the "nu-nu lights" for several years, lights that draped over the front bushes and looked more like we were trying to spell "nu-nu" but after Paul died, I didn't have the heart to put them out again.