"Stink. Stank. Stunk."

I was as cuddly as a cactus, I was as charming as an eel. I had all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile. I was a total Grinch last night. It started at 8:30pm and by 10:30 I was mentally biting my husband's head off and chewing it with a side of sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich. I'm glad I kept my Grinch mouth shut but I'm sure he felt some of my laser beams melt his soul as I glared at him for daring to try to snuggle me after I had just wrapped 20 presents ALL BY MYSELF. Can you hear the martyrdom dripping from those words? Yes, I had taken the liberty of using my quiet time to watch a fun movie (Bourne Ultimatum) while the kids napped, therefore leaving me no time to wrap presents again until they went to bed in the evening. Well, just because I used my time to watch a full length movie shouldn't mean that my husband should be allowed to play a computer game (the first one he has played in weeks) to wind down after his long 10 hour day at work! Luckily I was smart enough to realize that I was overly tired and mostly wrong so I went to bed; and in my grumbling I vowed not to do anymore Christmas work after the hours of 9pm for the rest of the year! Even if all of my husband's presents have to be wrapped in plastic grocery bags on Christmas morning (just kidding). After all, Christmas doings should be done cheerfully, with joy in the heart and and a song on the lips (and with plenty of holiday goodies to munch on). So, on with the Spirit of Christmas and off with the fuzzy green Grinch hair!

In honor of my refound Christmas Spirit, here is a fun tag I got from Simple Life At Home.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

1. I love really weird Christmas tree decorations. Among some of my favorites are a Ringo Star doll, a glittery gold boot, and my tinfoil Jesus Star that I made when I was 4.
2. I like to stay up really late on Christmas Eve and I am always the first one awake.
3. It really bothers me that I wake up before my kids do.
4. I will lie awake in bed for one and a half hours on Christmas morning and then I wake the kids up and have them wake DSSH up.
5. We carry on my parents' tradition of having dear friends over and making homemade pizza on Christmas Eve.
6. I have to watch Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas every year. This year I almost had a heart attack because it is an old VHS that my mom recorded off TV and it is starting to get fuzzy.
7. I start quoting from the movie Christmas Story as soon as the tree goes up and I don't stop until it comes back down.
8. The first bite of my mom's homemade Almond Rocca brings with it the first true feelings of Christmas for me.
9. When we were kids our parent's always had us do 12 days of Christmas drop offs to certain peoples' homes. The best part was trying to hide before the person answered their door. One year, I was 7 and my sister was 10, the snow was especially deep. My sister and I snuck up to the door, picked a tree to run to, and rang the bell. The person answered the door WAY to soon so we had to improvise. I jumped behind a bush and my sister just lept off the front porch and did a full body slam into the snow. She instantly disappeared under several feet of snow and proceeded to just lay there, face down, in the snow while the person looked around saying, "Is anybody there?" and looked all over for any sight of us. My sister rocks!
10. Growing up we had a fake Christmas tree and it had to be weighted down so that it wouldn't tip over. To secure it my dad would send us little girls down to his gun shop to get his bags of metal pellets. Those bags were H E A V Y and we had to drag them all the way upstairs. It was a test of toughness for us, though, and we loved it. Each of us gloried in the year when we were finally big enough to pick the bag up and carry it the entire way. I'm sure I will suffer some back problems when I'm older because of it.
11. My sister (same one who jumped in the snow) loved peeking in the presents. I don't think I've forgiven her yet for peeking at all of mine one year and telling me what they were. The whole point of wrapping paper is so you DON'T RUIN THE SURPRISE!!!
12. My most special Christmas was the year that my dad was very sick with cancer. We didn't have a lot of money in our family of 9, and were trying to focus on being cheerful and enjoying our time with our father so were we very surprised to wake up and see so many presents under our tree that they overflowed into the living room. As we opened each gift (and they were really nice gifts) we kept asking everyone who had done this. Mom and dad interrogated each of us but no one had any idea who had done this or even HOW they had done it. It really was as if Santa had snuck in and delivered all these wonderful things. It wasn't till many years later that my oldest sister finally confessed that she had unlocked the back door for a dear friend of ours so that he could sneak in and leave all the gifts that his family had bought for us. I'm crying now even as I type this because I don't think we've ever been able to fully thanks them for what they gave us that year. it was one of our last magical moments with our dad and it was beautiful.

If you want to participate, I'm tagging:
La Donna
Misty
and In The Life Of A Child