I'M BACK....

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog, go ahead and spike it a little too!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Usually not wrapped. Santa only brings one special gift in our house, and fills the stockings!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Usually white icicle lights, but DH got them out today and many were burnt out and too much hastle to figure out. I think this year we may get new ones!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but it might be fun!

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually as soon as possible right after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Party Mix and a bowl of "shell on" nuts that we get to crack with the nutcracker!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Me and my little brother trying to fall asleep every Christmas Eve night and not being able to. He'd get to sleep in the basemenet bedroom with me sometimes so that Santa could visit.

8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? What are you talking about? I guess I don't understand the question!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Growing up we always got to open the gift from our sibling on Christmas Eve. We do that too, but let the kids pick one gift of their choice, and usually something we know they will have fun with.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Too funny, I like Sarah's answer better than mine. We use lots of ornaments collected over the years. Back when we were in college and I waitressed and had money (the sad truth), I bought a bunch of fancy ornaments from Pier 1. Most of them have broken by now and we have tons of homemade ornaments that the kids have made over the years.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love the snow, but hate the cold! Skiing has become a family activity that we all enjoy. I'd take snow over mud and slush and rain any day though!

12. Can you ice skate? Yep, but it's been a long time!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Back in the very early 80's Santa brought us our very first computer. It was the Tandy TRS-80 (Color, even) Computer and I spent hours and hours making BASIC programs that would do silly things like flash "HI...HI...Hi" across the screen. No CDs, DVDs or even floppy discs, we saved all the data by pushing record on a connected tape player. Wow! That's strange hu? I guess I knew I'd be a computer nerd all the way back then.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family time, no doubt about it!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pecan Pie or Peppermint Ice Cream

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Morning! The kids wake up so darn excited (and way, way too early!!!). Jeff and I make a pot of coffee and pop the breakfast casserole in the oven (a passed down tradition in my family), and dig into the gifts. Then we hang out all day in our jammies and play!

17. What tops your tree? A Fiber-Optic Santa! LOL!

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving!!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? As a kid I loved "Drummer Boy" but Bare Naked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan have a one that I heard last year, it's a version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" which is so awesome!!!

This was added just for the chat on Sunday, sorry to make you all search way down here, had to make the scavenger hunt a little challenging! I'm also in a time crunch, hope I didn't make any typos!!! LOL!!!!

First Off
I've been so so busy with this new collaboration kit with Sarah VanDyke! It's called "Winter Dreams" and we are so proud of it. Look how gorgeous these kits are! We both just love the "Cozy" kit, and I have to say these colors are so HOT right now! I went out shopping over the weekend and Red, Black and Cream were EVERYWHERE!!! So I guess Sarah predicted the season well with this gorgeous palette! What do you think?

Join Sarah and I this Sunday, December 3rd at 10 p.m. (Eastern time) at Digiscrapshak.com for some chatting, a contest announcement and a freebie addon just for coming! Hope you can all make it!

A Great, Relaxing Vacation
O.K. I promised some photos of the last weekend so here they are. We had such a great time and it was extremely nice to just get away from it all for a few days and have some fun with family! I got to spend a lot of time with my two nieces that I hadn't seen in a long time and the four kids had a great time together. I think Grandma and Grandpa were a little tired after the weekend was over!!! I promised Uncle Oscar I'd get one in of him and I at his new house outside of town (during a beautiful sunset no less!) OH, and Max, finally lost that top tooth! Grandpa, being the expert tooth puller he is just gave it a little yank and out it came! He was quite thrilled as you can see and now we've got a whole different smile to look at!