tag you’re it!

My blogger friend Lanaya, from Raising Reagan started this game of tag to learn more about the Christmas traditions of her blogging friends.  You are supposed to ask 5 bloggers, 5  questions about their traditions and then carry on the process.  Lanaya tagged Leslie of Violet Imperfection and Leslie tagged me so I am finally responding.  I am really pathetic because it took me a week to respond to my tag.  I told you I suck at games and am a poor sport but I can’t let my friend Leslie down, so here I go.

 

QUESTION 1

My favorite Christmas Memory: 

One of my favorite memories is the year Louie and I gave Tabitha a Barbie playhouse from Santa.  I saw the playhouse in an ad and was obsessed with getting it for her to put in the backyard.  I will admit that I really wanted a fancy wooden one, but after researching the cost to purchase one or the skill to make one, I decided she would love the pink and purple plastic one.  I actually didn’t give up that easy…..  I was so crazy I checked out a book from the library on how to build a house yourself but quickly returned it after Lou declared I was losing my mind.  I then drove to Anaheim to a place where they custom build the playhouses but found out if you move, you have to leave the house or take it out with a crane.  Since we were renters at the time I knew I was way out of my league.  I forced myself to buy the plastic one.  Well, I waited too long and they were sold out everywhere.  I called every Toys’ R Us in Southern California and finally found one in LA county.  I hid it in the garage and we put it together on Christmas Eve and placed it in the backyard.  I even bought flowers to put in the little planters in front so it would look even “more real”.   She was beyond thrilled when she woke up and I can still remember her smiling face even though it was 16 years ago!

 

 

QUESTION 2

Do you have a favorite Christmas Ornament? 

Well, I am not a sentimental person so I don’t have a favorite ornament, nor do I put up ornaments that don’t match my décor.  I have a box of ornaments in the attic from when I was a little girl that I can pass down to my daughters if they choose to use traditional ornaments.  My Mom used to have us make ornaments out of flour, water and salt.  We made bells, gingerbread people, and Christmas trees, etc.  Once we baked them, we painted them and hung them on the tree.  You can see where my craziness came from.  We spent days making those ornaments! 

 

QUESTION 3

What are some of your Christmas traditions? 

I love to decorate Gingerbread houses with my girls.  Every year the girls invite some friends over to decorate the houses and it is a blast and of course there is always a competition for best decorated house.  I hate to lose.

My other favorite tradition is adopting a family.  We have been adopting a family for the past 18 years and my girls love it.  Tabitha used to help me shop, now Trinity has taken over that role but both the girls help wrap.  The past few years I have asked some friends to help me with the family because of our financial situation I didn’t want to scimp on the adopt a family so each friend helps by taking one person.  My favorite year, I adopted a family of 17!  Tabitha was playing volleyball in high school at the time and her team was on the road to winning a state championship and I had the feeling it would be a great bonding experience for the whole team to help.  Of course everyone on the team signed up to help and a bunch of the girls helped me deliver the loot to the church.  It was really special and I am sure the family was shocked and grateful to see how much they received.

 

QUESTION 4

Do you have a big Christmas Dinner? 

I host Christmas every year and and yes we have a big dinner.  Christmas Eve is a fancier formal occasion we celebrate at my Mom and Dads, but Christmas Day is casual at my house.  Once again I mix up the traditional meal and add some fun stuff.  Last year I made salmon, portobello mushroom lasagna, roasted veggie salad, some other stuff I don’t remember, bread pudding and tons of my sweets.

 

QUESTION 5

Do you put candy canes on your tree? 

No way!  I only put ribbons sticks and balls.

 

NOW FOR MY QUESTIONS:

Ok, they are supposed to be different than the ones she asked me but I am going to steal one!   Clearly having a hard time with the game, UGH!  Oh, and I will answer them briefly.  Here are the ladies that are being tagged and need to answer my silly questions and link back to my site. Love these ladies!

Nikki from Dsyfunctional Dose 

Jamie Miles of South Main Muse

Stacie from Makeup Obsessed Mom

Gina Miracle

Jamie from Chatterblossom

QUESTION 1

What is your favorite Christmas tradition? 

See I am copying this question, but it is so good one, so I have no choice.

QUESTION 2

Do you have a real or fake Christmas tree? 

We used to have a real tree and it was a big tradition of ours until Tiara’s asthma started acting up.  Every time we brought in a Christmas tree we would notice she needed her inhaler more.  One year it got so bad we had to put the tree on the front lawn and view it from the inside. That was a big bummer.  The next year the same thing happened again and Lou finally said we had to go fake.  Since I am not a fan of fake trees I got the crazy white one which clearly screams “I am plastic and everyone knows it!”

 

 

QUESTION 3

Do you do a lot of Christmas baking? 

I love to bake and am rather famous at my hubby’s work and with my family for my baked goods.  I have three specialties I will share with you in the upcoming weeks when I go into my baking mode which is a serious event and lasts for at least 48 hours.

 

QUESTION 4

Do you put lights on the outside of your house and if so do you do it yourself or hire someone? 

I always do it myself even though Lou claims he usually does it.  I can only remember him doing it 3 times in our 20 years but that is better than none.  We have never hired anyone to hang our lights.  I only like white lights unless I decide to do individual strands of blue, pink, red, white, green and decorate different hedges.  I did that one year and it was a flipping nightmare but looked fabulous.  I have gotten lazier in my old age and only stick with white twinkle lights.

 

QUESTION 5

When do you open all your presents and do you let the kids open any before Christmas? 

The kids open all their presents from my parents on Christmas Eve which is a huge treasure chest so by Christmas morning they are already so happy and overwhelmed with gifts anything we give them is just topping on the sundae.  Thank God for grandparents.  If they receive gifts in the mail I let them open those right away, why not?  I feel like the whole month of December is a holiday not just Christmas day.  To be truthful by Christmas day I am pretty done with the holiday and ready to clean up and put everything away.  Oh and that is what I do the day after Christmas, tear everything down and put it all back in the attic.

Have a wonderful weekend AND HOPE my non-blogger friends weren’t bored with my game!

 

xoxo tiffani

 available on kindle

check out my sponsor, Prasad Photography