Only 13 shopping meme days left until Christmas. In an effort to further stall my Christmas shopping, I created this meme instead.
1. What’s the best gift you have ever received? And the worst?
My favorite gift was this:
The year was 1983. Mothers were beating each other up at toy stores across America to score one of these dolls for their daughters. My mom, completely unaware of the hype, ordered a Cabbage Patch Kid from a catalog and got lucky. I still have ‘Leslie Marilyn’ (and her adoption papers).
The worst gift I ever got was an American Tail sweatshirt/skirt set when I was in the 6th grade. I thought I was (and let’s face it, I was) too old for a cartoon outfit of Fievel the mouse. I didn’t tell my mom this because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She found me crying about it a week later, and readily exchanged it for an extremely mature sweatshirt with puffy paint animals on it.
2. What is your favorite Christmas movie moment.
My favorite moment has to be in It’s a Wonderful Life when George Bailey realizes at the end how important he is to everybody in his life. I love it when he’s standing by the Christmas tree surrounded by his family and friends totally disheveled with a huge smile on his face. This was also the moment I could finally relax after the whole crazy-Uncle-Billy-lost-the-cash fiasco.
3. What is your favorite version of a Christmas song?
If I had to pick just one (I think I’ve already established how much I love Christmas music), it would be Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. She made this song famous when she was the first to sing it in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis.
4. Describe an ornament that has special significance to you.
My grandma Hazel had a gift for making adorable Christmas ornaments like the ones pictured below. I always think of her when I see them…especially the angel with the blue bead eyes.
Since I’ve already exceeded the one-ornament “limit”, I’ll keep going.
Okay, these may not be Christopher Radko creations, but I lovingly decorated them in 1983 with magic markers and sparkles…not to be confused with glitter. Sparkles are much classier than glitter. Note the green sparkles on the elf’s flower, the blue sparkles on Santa’s hat, and the white sparkles on the boy’s snowball.
5. Have you had any traumatic Christmas-related experiences?
I once ate a whole batch of gingerbread men because of the irresistible candy decorations, completely unaware of the laxative properties of ginger. I no longer make or eat gingerbread cookies.
6. What is your happiest Christmas memory?
I have many happy Christmas memories, but the one that stands out the most in my memory is making cookies and fudge with my mom while listening to Christmas albums. I’d have to run into the living room between batches to switch records.
7. Favorite Christmas picture:
Wonder
8. What’s on your grownup Christmas list (besides world peace, of course)?
9. What Christmas TV special do you look forward to all year long?
This special had everything (with the exception of the original Cindy)…deception, Alice, flashbacks, a tidy ending.
10. What famous person would you most like to encounter under the mistletoe?
Ryan Gosling (The Notebook style, of course).
11. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
Anything but gingerbread men (see #5 above). I like iced sugar cookies (preferably topped with candy sprinkles of some form), Mrs. Hoover cookies, and Santa’s Whiskers.
If pressed to pick a favorite Christmas cookie, I choose Candy Cane cookies! (Click here for the recipe.)
12. Favorite Christmas quote?
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. The the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”- Dr. Seuss
If you like this meme, consider yourself tagged. If you tag yourself, please link back so that I can read your answers.
10 Comments
December 12, 2008 at 12:02 am
I might steal this meme. Our answers will be the same for #10.
The Brady Christmas rocks!!
December 12, 2008 at 11:07 am
It does Virginia…..it means so much more! Love the quote! And I LOVE that show! My most favorite Christmas special ever!
And I love people like you who know that, and propagate the magic, love and joy of holidays, as well as so many other days of the years!
Such a wonderful place to ‘bounce’ back into the world from, reading a blog from someone who ‘gets’ why we are here on this earth! Not to see how much money (or things) we can amass, not to bitch about why everybody else isn’t doing it the way WE are (which is oh so much better than the way anybody else could do it), not even to make life some ‘ideal’ way or ‘perfect!’
Instead, it’s to love, to feel joy and excitement, to look at the picture of a precious one, with Christmas tree lights reflecting from her precious face, and remember how wonder-FULL it was to experience Christmas at a young age……and to bring some of that back into our lives again today.
Thank you.
December 12, 2008 at 3:19 pm
This is tomorrows post on my site – you make deciding what to write so easy!
My number 10 will be the same too. That would be some Christmas present!
December 13, 2008 at 9:14 am
That picture of you with the Cabbage Patch doll may be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’m not saying that just because you look almost EXACTLY like me — hair, outfit and doll included.
It’s almost weird.
December 14, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[...] of Christmas, stuff about me, Christmas favourites I am tagging myself to participate in Allison’s meme (is it wrong to love doing these so much?) – anyway, the 12 Questions of [...]
December 14, 2008 at 3:29 pm
What a great idea. I kind of did something like this, but its the 12 posts of Christmas and everyday I post a list of that number’s Christmas songs, movies, etc. Just like your questions! I am only on day 11 so far..
I hope you get #8! What an awesome gift!!
December 16, 2008 at 11:39 pm
[...] under Blogs, Food, Holidays, Photography | Tags: Christmas, gifts, meme, Movies | Thanks to Allison for the great Christmas meme! I am in full Christmactacular mode, I shopped. I trimmed a tree (well, halfway). I forced my [...]
December 17, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Thank you! This was very helpful so I could post while in the midst of moving!
December 18, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Great posting! I always enjoy going back home just to see these ornaments Grandma Hazel made. Good memories!!!
June 2, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Ah, those handmade ornaments–they’re the best of all! The best Christmas I ever had was spent at my grandparents’ guest-cottage, near Franklin, North Carolina. Here, in this mountain paradise, we got our own Christmas tree from the woods! And we decorated it with all-handmade ornaments!