Holiday Memories

I received this email from a friend and thought I would share my answers here as well...

Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill... If you feel up to it, highlight, copy,and paste (not forward) and change my answers to your answers. Be sure to send back to me. Enjoy!! Everyone has time for a few moments of fun! Don't be a scrooge!!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Egg Nog (even more so if a little rum is added)
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
A little of both, but wrapped with only one certain kind of paper.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
tree = white, house = coloured
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No
5. When do you put your decorations up?
As late as I can without getting yelled at by Cameron (our house isn't pretty yet...)
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
stuffing
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Our large family get togethers in my grandparents basement
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
An older cousin blabbed at the above mentioned gathering
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Nope, save it all for the BIG day
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights and all our family ornaments (my Mom gives us all one each year)
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it, but hate having to travel in it
12. Can you ice skate?
Yup.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Probably would have to be the year I got my guitar
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Seeing family that we only see around the holidays, and how excited the kids get!
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Grandma Leakey's Christmas cake with butterscotch sauce...YUMMY
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Baking and leaving cookies for Santa
17. What tops your tree?
A white and silver angel
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving, especially homemade gifts.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Let it Snow
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yummy, crushed, with chocolate sauce on vanilla ice cream
21. Favorite Christmas TV special?
The Polar Express
22. Do you go shopping the day after Thanksgiving?
No
23. How do you display Christmas cards?
In a Christmas basket on the hall table.

Flooded basements and puffy eyes

We have had a large amount of rain here in the last week, and we found out the hard way on Thursday night that our sump pump was not working in the basement. I checked the "hole" on Thursday night after supper and there was just a little tiny bit of water in the bottom (as much as is normally there)...when I went to go down and fill Tasha's dish (the dog) before we went to bed, there was over an inch across THE WHOLE basement. Now, the basement isn't finished totally but it does have carpet in 90% and we do have a lot of "stuff" stored down there. Curt took a whole truck load of soagy, stinky wet stuff to the dump yesterday. I'm just glad that we had all the boys clothes and the extra blankets etc. that were down there, stored in plastic rough totes or bins. We rented two giant (AKA noisy) construction fans yesterday and are now in the process of lifting carpet sections, drying under them and then moving on. Which means moving everything in the basement about three times. Oh well, at least we didn't lose anything of great value. Now if we could just get things dried out and the stink gone I would be happy. I think my puffy eyes (I can hardly get my lids open) are from all the dust and damp getting blown around in the house. We have the woodstove burning as hot as we can and the windows open upstairs it is so hot. Anyways, off to move some more things and flip more carpet and move the fan again.