Have yourself a merry little meme

Here it is…my first meme on the new blog. Hope it helps to make your season bright(er)!

HOLIDAY MEME:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate with a few miniature marshmallows…and stirred with a candy cane, if we have any.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Santa always wraps them unless they’re big and bulky (like a bike or the desk I received one year). Big and bulky gifts just get a big ribbon.

3. Colored or white lights on tree/house? When I was little we had those old-fashioned (i.e. BIG) colored lights on our tree (you know, the ones that were painted glass that flaked off after a while) and I loved them. Now I have thousands of little twinkly white lights on my tree (the years I decide to have a tree.)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? And the point would be?

5. When do you put your decorations up? Again, the years I decide to decorate, I normally do it the weekend after Thanksgiving…just because that’s when I have enough time. And because I want an entire month to enjoy it because it’s a LOT of work!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Hmm, my Grandma used to make the best homemade noodles for the mashed potatoes. But since she’s no longer with us, I don’t know that I really have a ‘favorite’. We don’t always have the same menu any more.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? My Dad was even more excited about Christmas morning than my sister and I were so if we weren’t up early enough to suit him (like 4 AM or so), he would come wake us up, tell us Santa had been here, and then make us stay in bed until he went and turned on the Christmas tree lights and made sure everything was perfect. Then he would come back and lead us down the hall with our eyes shut and then count to three and watch our faces as we opened our eyes and ran towards the tree. I will never think of Christmas without thinking of my Dad and how much he loved it.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I was about 7 or 8 and I came home from school and told my parents that some ‘mean kids’ were saying that Santa didn’t exist. And I think I just came right out and asked them if it was true and they decided to tell me. I was crushed for a little while but then I really enjoyed being in on things with them and watching the excitement in my sister on Christmas morning.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No way! Christmas morning is the proper time for gift-opening. And the earlier the better. (See #7)

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? My tree is covered in thousands of miniature white twinkly lights, gold and cream-colored ornaments, and gold and cream-colored ribbons.

11. Snow – love it or dread it? I’m sorry, have we met? LUV IT!

12. Can you ice skate? I can fall on ice without the benefit of blades, thank you very much.

13. Favorite holiday movie? Yikes – I have to watch It’s a Wonderful Life once each year and I try to catch Miracle on 34th Street…but my absolute favorite holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. (Think less of me if you must but that’s the truth!) My favorite holiday TV special? Hands down, no contest — How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? I really want to say the week off work between Christmas and New Year’s — but since you already think less of me because of my movie choice, I’ll say seeing my family and friends. (but we both know the truth)

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I’m really not a big ‘pie person’ and that seems to be the most popular holiday dessert around. So I’m going to say my sister’s homemade toffee bars. YUMMY!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I don’t think I have any traditions any more. Oooh, this might count as a tradition. Every year, my Dad buys my sister and me a few gifts that are identical and we have to open them in the following way: First we are to hold them to our foreheads and guess what they might be (an homage to Johnny Carson’s old Karnak the Magnificent routine – don’t you miss him?) and then rip into them and race each other to get them opened first. Because we’re still 3 and 6 years old when it comes to Christmas, don’t ya know?

17. What tops your tree? When I was little we had (what had to be a freakishly ugly) white star with a different colored light bulb on each of the five points — but oh how I loved it. Now I have an angel.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving — wait a minute, we didn’t change topics, did we?

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Silent Night, The First Noel, and O Holy Night are my favorites and I’ll Be Home for Christmas almost always makes me cry. (And I love Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah songs.)

20. Candy Canes, yes or no? See #1.

I tag: Let’s see, how about anyone who wants to play along…and I hope that includes Alissa because I know she’s in the holiday spirit over on her blog.

Negative doesn’t have to be…well, negative

(Run-on sentence alert) You know when you’re really worried about something and you know you’re really worried about it because you can’t even bring yourself to talk about it with the people closest to you because you fear if you talk about it you’ll somehow give more credence and validity to whatever it is you’re worried about and then…well, you don’t even want to think about “and then”? Yeah, me too.

My sister had to undergo outpatient surgery and a biopsy last Tuesday and today she finally heard that all the tests came back negative. (yea!) Her pathology report gave her the ‘all clear’ so she doesn’t have the big C. They did find a polyp, which was removed, and she’s back to full-speed already.

Who needs turkey? This is my Thanksgiving Day.

Park

One of my best friends in college was a guy who we called Park. We were in the same Management classes for a few semesters but I don’t remember how our friendship started. We were probably put together on a project or traded notes or something. I don’t remember how it started but I do remember him. Very well.

He was one of the most gentle, kind, and considerate people I’ve ever met. He used to stop by my office during work hours just to say hi and ask how my day was going. Sometimes he would bring me a gift — often a flower, sometimes a little trinket he picked up around town that reminded him of me. We would meet for dinner or hang out between classes and I just remember feeling incredibly comfortable with him. We would talk for hours and marvel at how similar we were given our disparate upbringings, cultures, and experiences. He would listen to my daily dose of drama and I would ask him about his childhood, his home (he was from South Korea), and what his dreams were.

I’m thinking of him because today is his birthday. I hope all his dreams are coming true. No one deserves it more.

And for my next number…

Remember that one episode of Friends where Phoebe had a cold and she thought she sounded really sexy when she sang with her raspy voice? I am so Phoebe today. I was trying to sing in the car on the way to see a friend and frankly…I was HOTT. Well, sometimes the sound didn’t come out at all…but the words that actually came out sounded SEXXXY.

I wish I knew all the words to Smelly Cat.

Here comes Santa Claus…tomorrow

I actually left the house tonight! Don’t get too excited…I just ran to the pharmacy to refill my prescription. I can’t believe how bad this bout with my allergies has been. I haven’t had an episode this bad in years. I’m feeling better now but the coughing fits and headache continue. I can talk for a few minutes at a time now (before either losing my voice or starting to cough again) so that’s better than a couple of days ago. I get worn out doing the simplest things though. I vacuumed the downstairs yesterday and collapsed on the sofa afterwards. So much for my ‘fun’ vacation.

Dad and Grandpa are coming over tomorrow. Dad wants to bring my Christmas gift now since we don’t know if/when we’ll get together for the holiday. Mom gave me her gifts Monday (which she thought made sense since I was there with her when she bought them) so I guess the whole build-up/anticipation/wonder part of the holidays is pretty much over for me. I know as an adult that shouldn’t bother me, but that was always the part of Christmas I loved the most. Oh well, reasoning wins out over sentimentality, I guess.

And of all the times to run to Walgreens tonight, I chose fifteen minutes before the East Peoria Christmas parade. It was quite a trick to even get to the pharmacy, what with the closed exit ramps and one entrance to the store being blocked by police barricades. How could I forget that this is the FOLEPI kickoff weekend?

But it was very cool driving down the hill into East Peoria and crossing the bridge as the fireworks went off. I pretended that the whole community was celebrating my return to the living. Hey, it made me feel better so let me have that.