A Quiz

Courtesy my pal Susie, here's a little Q&A on the recent holiday... Anybody feel free to add YOUR answers in comments section!

What you want(ed) for Christmas (given NO price limit): New throw pillows -- all silk and yet indestructible, four white pillowcases, bookshelves, and an end to all house projects.

What you got for Christmas: Some apricot jam.

...No kidding.

My child bought me jam. And it gets sadly worse from there... But, if I can count gifts for the whole family, my mother-in-law sent me GREAT kitchen towels, plus deep red candles and a completely cool, scroll-y iron candle holder. Oh, and my sister-in-law sent a serving tray I almost bought for myself at Target a few weeks ago -- ye-ha for coincidence!!

What you want for Christmas... in abstract: Time and peace. Succor for all who ache and seek. Good will among men.

Year of the first Christmas you can remember: My second cousin Amy was a crawling baby, and I was about 5. I crawled after Amy all around my great-grandmother's ancient, fire-hazard living room, snagging my green taffeta dress on one of the gas jets in the floor and smudging my white lace pinafore. Pictures were taken and my damp brow and droopy cocker-spaniel hair tell me I was having all kinds of untidy fun.

Ever in a holiday play? When?: I'm pretty sure I was Mary once. I think I've seen the photos. Either I was much milder as a child, or the play organziers were doing a little wishful thinking!

An early Christmas memory? Teaching Shannon how to undo the tape on the sides of packages in order to peek... Seeing an Easy-Bake oven next to our over-stuffed stockings on the log cabin hearth and knowing, for sure, that Santa was REAL... (The Easy-Bake probably came before the snooping, chronologically.)

Favorite holiday ornament (Past and present): I have a rocking horse from Hallmark that says 1976. It's wonderfully outdated.... I also have a red-headed toddler ornament from Hallmark 2002. It's a boy stacking blocks that will unstack themselves when you press a button in the base.

Classic Christmas song you never get tired of: Hark the Herald Angels Sing... Oh, and O Come All Ye Faithful.

Classic Christmas song you loathe: The Holly and the Ivy -- it does not even rhyme, by crimminy!!

Modern Christmas song you never get tired of: What are You Doin' New Year's Eve ("Maybe it's much too early in the game/ Oh, but I thought I'd ask you just the same...")

Modern Christmas song you loathe: Anything that cats sing.

How many languages can you say "Merry Christmas" in? Does Noel count as not English?

Naughty or Nice? The only "naughty" I can lay claim to is decidedly NOT the fun kind, so nice it is!

Favorite Christmas Ghost: Mine? Christmas Future. Ebenezers? Christmas Present.

Favorite Misfit Toy: A soft snowman with a felt carrot nose. Oh, how I wish I had the strength to jettison this cutesy junk. But, alas...

Can you wrap presents well? Oh, yeah, baby!

What tops your tree? A star, a red orb (we have more than one tree) and, close underneath, a tin angel from Fredericksburg.

If you were a Christmas elf, what would your name be? Something with "Peppermint" in it. Peppermint Albemarle, maybe.