FMM: Christmas questions

Two posts in one day -- wow!  I loved today's Friend-Making Monday topic, so thought I'd share.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Christmas Questions

1. How will you celebrate the holidays this year?  We go to visit my family in Wisconsin, as we do every year.  Christmas Eve is a dinner of snacks like fondue, dips, crackers, etc., followed by cookies, then late caroling and then church.  Christmas morning is presents, breakfast, packing, a drive to Milwaukee (last year I had a car accident on this very drive, as shown here, and described here, and more generally about the entire trip, here), then another Christmas celebration with more presents and a visit from Santa in Milwaukee.  This year, we'll be in Wisconsin for an entire week -- Thursday to Thursday, but I will be working remotely Thurs, Fri, Wed and Thurs since I used all my vacation for the year in October to go to China. 

2. What’s the weather currently like where you live?   It's crazy right now.  Yesterday was our big local marathon -- I was not running it, so I went out to cheer on my friends.  I was on the curb at 8:15 a.m. waiting for them, and I stayed out there until probably 10:30.  I wore short sleeves and I wasn't even a bit cold.  Today, there was a dusting of snow and the high is only 43.  So yes, our high temperature dropped overnight by about 30 degrees.  Crazy.  Hopefully it will be back to normal soon, which is tolerable for me -- lows in the mid-40s, highs in the mid-60s.  But we actually spend Christmas with my family about 6 hours north of Chicago.  Their highs are between 20 and 30 for the next week, lows getting down to 12.  Yikes!  Very cold but I love it for one week per year. 

3. Do you decorate your home for the holidays? If so, share a picture please! Yes, but I don't have a picture available (last year was similar, and it's here, ooops, can't find a link!).  We do the tree of course, and for the last couple years, some garland with lights on our mantle, plus I have a few other accessories that are displayed. 

4. What is your favorite Christmas movie?  I think it has become Elf.  Odd for me to like something so new so much, but that movie is just hilarious.  We already watched it this season. 

5. What is your favorite Christmas songs?  Probably Silent Night and Angels We Have Heard on High. 

6. Do you have an advent calendar?  Haha, yes, but it's from last year.  But I didn't finish eating all the chocolate, so I'm working on it this year -- it's surprisingly still good. 

7. Do you prefer color lights or white lights?  The colored ones are kind of tacky, but they're what I love.  We live in a condo and don't do outdoor lights, but our tree is a multi-colored artificial beauty. 

8. What is your favorite food to eat over the holidays?  Probably stollen, a German Christmas bread that my mom makes (I posted about it with pics two years ago here on the bottom half of that post).  But I love Christmas cookies too.  My mom usually makes about 5 kinds, and I usually make about 5 as well (one recipe overlaps between us).  Her cookies are also featured in the post I linked about stollen -- man, she's a good cook! 

9. Do you display a live tree, or do you prefer fake trees? Artificial.  Since we're gone for the week of Christmas usually, artificial works well since we can put it up right after Thanksgiving, enjoy it for a few weeks, and don't have to worry about it drying out or catching on fire while we're gone. 

10. What would you need to make your holiday perfect this year?  Both of my youngest brothers and their wives being there to celebrate with us on Christmas morning.  It's questionable for both of them (and my third younger brother definitely won't be there, but we always celebrate with him Christmas night).  One is now living in Cali, and plane tickets are expensive and they haven't bought them yet and are bracing everyone in the family for the fact that they might not be there.  And my baby brother's wife had surgery shortly after Thanksgiving -- so for her, it's a double question -- will she be well enough to be there for Christmas morning, and if so, will she be so well that she can't be there because she has to be at work (she's a nurse and technically, she's working that day, but she could still be on leave from her surgery).  I'd love so much for both of them to be there. 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday!!!!!