I got this from Suzanne, who doesn't know I read her blog, which may be a bit creepy because our kids are friends, but I've never mentioned to her that I found her blog and read it regularly. Is that creepy? We're also on a knitting website together and I'm not sure if she knows that or not. I'm so anti social...I should really talk to her more. lol


1. Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags?
I have a love/hate relationship with wrapping gifts. I LOVE wrapping gifts elaborately. I hate the fact that I have so many gifts to wrap that I just can't afford to do it the way I want to.

2. Real tree or artificial?
I wish we had a real tree. Sadly, Drake is allergic to...well...life, so we can't have a real tree. I remember when we were little, my parents put this pine smelling thing in the middle of our fake tree...it didn't make the tree seem any more real. It was kinda sad. I dream of one day taking my kids out and cutting down our own Christmas tree. I have fond memories of doing that. Our fake tree broke last year and I opted to buy more presents rather than buy a new fake tree, so we're not even putting one up this year. How sad is that?

There's my Christmas tree randomness.

3. When do you put up the tree?
When I put a tree up, it goes up on the first of December. All holidays get decorated for on the first day of the month of which they're in. I'm particular like that. I don't think my husband knows that though. He'd rather I not decorate at all. What a grumpy gus.

4. When do you take down the tree?
The tree comes down the day after we get home from my mom's.

5. Do you like Egg Nog?
LOVE it...as long as it's nice and thick. I don't like watery egg nog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My mom got me a German Christmas thing when I was a senior. I forget the name of it. It's this carousel thing that when you light the candles, it spins. I didn't appreciate it when I got it. In fact, I'm afraid I may have even made a face when I opened it. I wanted money. Now, however...I love it. I know my mom thought it was something I would really appreciate. I had taken German for three years in highschool and LOVED that class. I loved the teacher, I loved the language...that class made school enjoyable for me. It means so much to me that my mom bought me a gift that represented something I really enjoyed in my life. I may not have appreciated the gift when I got it, but it is by far the best Christmas gift I ever got.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
No, but we have a baby Jesus in a trough that the kids put pieces of "straw" (small yellow strips of paper) in every time they do a good deed. The goal is to cushion baby Jesus by Christmas.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My nieces and nephews...although their parents just tell me what to buy, so it's really not that hard. lol

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Drake. He says, "Honey, this is what I want," and I buy it.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I can't think of a bad Christmas gift I've received. I'll tell you a funny story though. One year, my brother bought my sister the movie, "Labyrinth," and she cried when she opened it because she thought the gift was so awful. We still make fun of her for it. There have been a few gifts she's gotten since then that I wonder if people bought her just to see her reaction when she opened it.

11. Mail or email Christmas Cards?
I'm terrible with cards. Just terrible. I always write them all out, but never mail them. I don't know why.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
A Christmas Story

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
The day after Thanksgiving...I should really start earlier because I always end up shopping on Christmas Eve.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes. If I can't use it and someone else can, why not?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My dad used to make the BEST breakfasts Christmas morning! Everyone looked forward to Christmas morning...not only for the presents, but for the huge, amazing breakfast. Great...now I'm crying. Stupid surveys. lol

16. Clear lights or coloured?
Clear. Period.

17. Favorite Christmas Song?
O Holy Night.

18. Travel or stay home at Christmas?
Travel. We visit my mom and siblings for Christmas. Hopefully next year will be the last year spent traveling!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer?
Of course.

20. Angel or Star on the top of the tree?
Angel Moroni.

21. Open Christmas Eve or Morning?
Christmas morning. It always seemed strange to me that people open gifts on Christmas Eve. We do open one gift on Christmas Eve though...jammies. The kids are allowed to tear into their stockings as soon as they wake up on Christmas. The rest of the stuff has to wait until the parents stumble out of bed.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
"Mommy, I thought of something else I want for Christmas," ten times a day as they watch television.

23. What’s the corniest family tradition you do or miss doing?
We don't do anything corny! It's all fun!

24. What’s the worst thing you’ve seen related to Christmas?
I've seen some pretty horrid decorations.

25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees?
Homey trees...definitely. Theme trees make me sad.

26. Gingerbread or Sugar Cookies?
Yes please.

27. Do you like fruitcake?
I don't think I've ever actually eaten fruitcake.


Okay, so if you read this, take the survey on your blog as well!

Oh my goodness...my friend, Laura (Can I call her my friend? I only know her online. Am I a loser for having "friends" online? I've never even spoken to her on the phone...just online through a message board. I still consider her my friend though. Yes, I just may be a loser. *cues the song "So Much Cooler Online." (Give me about an hour and I'll have the song in a playlist on this blog :) ) ) (Can I really have a perenthesis inside of a perenthesis?) (Can I really have this many things in perenthesis one right after another?) (I'm a bit parenthesis crazy today.) Anyways, so as I was saying, my friend, Laura, introduced me to Chore Wars a couple of days ago. Trust me when I say I feel like I have tried just about EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE to get my kids doing chores. It just doesn't work. My children are the most stubborn people I know. I love them for it, but man...it's frustrating. Anyways, Chore Wars allows you to start a "party" and each character that is a part of that party can go on "adventures." Adventures are chores that they can do. For example, the adventures my party can go on are "clean bedroom," "make bed," "wash bathroom sink," "mop bathroom floor," etc. When they complete these chores, they get to claim the adventure and gain XP (experience points) and sometimes fight a monster while doing it, and once in a while earn a treasure. The treasure that I set is anywhere from 10 cents to 1 dollar, depending on how difficult the chore was. At the end of the week, I'm going to go in, see how much money they've earned, then put that amount of money into their bank accounts.

Oh my goodness...my kids are CLEANING!!! They LOVE to see their name at the top of the list as having the most XP. They fight over who gets to do the chores! Cole gets out of school the earliest, so from the moment he gets home until Emma gets home, he is cleaning, trying to get ALL of the chores done so there are none left for the girls to do when they get home from school. LOL I did make it so there are some chores on there that Cole can't do, and they're worth a lot of XP because they're a lot of work, so the girls still have things to do like do the laundry, wash the dishes, etc. I'm wondering if I can make it so I don't have to lift a single finger all day long. See, I knew there was a reason I had so many kids!

your child does something that makes you so unbelievably happy and proud that you think, if only for a moment, that you might actually be doing something right.

A couple of days ago, Caitlin came home from school and told me that she needed to talk to me. She told me, "I know you said I should never keep important secrets from you, so I need to tell you something." She then went on to tell me something a friend of hers told her and told her not to tell anyone. She said that she didn't want to betray her friend's trust, but felt like this was one of those secrets that I wanted her to tell me.

I told her that this was definitely one of those secrets she needed to tell me and how proud I was of her for coming to me about it. I know she felt awful about betraying her friend and that she doesn't fully understand why it's important to tell me these things, but she did it because she felt it was the right thing to do. Then, I told her that I was going to have to tell someone else so they could take the appropriate steps to keep her friend safe. She was SO upset. She was DEVASTATED...thinking that her friend was going to find out that she was the one who told and that her friend would be mad at her. I sat her down and explained to her that it was more important for her friend to be safe than it was to worry about her friend being angry with her. I promised that I would try my best to make sure her friend didn't find out that she was the one that told, but if she did and her friend was angry, to just remember that she did the right thing and sometimes doing the right thing isn't the easy thing.

I am so unbelievably happy that Caitlin came to me and confided in me. As I mentioned in my last post, she drives me unbelievably insane at times, but when it comes to the truly important things, she has proven to me time and time again that she is a mature, responsible, and intelligent child with an amazing amount of integrity.