Christmas Past

Christmas Trivia  as seen on the  Memories on Clover Lane blog

1. Best childhood gift from Santa:  books!  I remember getting Nancy Drew books, Black Beauty, Little Women and my all time favourite Heidi!  I was a huge reader (still am) and had my nose in a book all the time :))

2. Best childhood memories:   The Sunday School Christmas Eve service at church.  We had practiced for many Saturdays before hand, learning verses and songs.  Costumes were assembled and the church was packed with people to the top of the balcony.  Often as the children came up from the basement, each one dropped a Kleenli Kit in a box at the front, to be sent to kids in other countries.  (I have no idea how many of those kits my Mom has assembled over the years!)  After the program, all the kids got a brown paper bag with an orange, some nuts and hard candy.  We weren't allowed to open that bag until we got home!

3. Favortie Christmas cookies:  Pinwheel Cookies - I've never made them - they are my Mom's.  And Shortbread would be a close second.

4. Icky Christmas memory:  not going to Christmas Eve service a few times.

5. It's not Christmas without:  family!  It doesn't have to be Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but it's really Christmas at our house when they are home.  We will definitely miss Melinda, Tyler and Samuel this year :((

6. Our Church Service: Christmas Eve candlelight service at 7:30 p.m. led by the youth group.  Near the end of the service they will come down the aisle with lighted candles and soon everyone will be holding a lit candle, the lights go down and we sing Silent Night.  The building is always packed and it's a wonderful holy evening.

7. Christmas Pet Peeve: Spelling Christmas as Xmas!  When this happens, Christ is gone from the whole celebration - and I made sure that the kids I taught at school knew this too.   I really feel strongly about this.

8. Favorite Christmas CD:  This year it's Andre Bocelli's "My Christmas", especially track 6  "What Child Is This".  Definitely Amy Grant, Josh Groban and Rita MacNeil are at the top of the list too.   

9. Real or Fake:  Real!  The first 20 years we were married we had an artificial tree (long story about 2 different family traditions) but these days it's a real spruce tree, dragged home just a week before Christmas and decorated by myself since the kids are all in their own homes now.

10. I spend Christmas Eve :   going to church, coming home to enjoy some appetizers and music.  This night is all about the birth of Christ, the one we've been preparing for the last 4 weeks.  When our family was little we always opened our gifts this evening since chores in the dairy barn took up the next morning (which is the way I grew up too) but now we wait until everyone comes home to open presents. 

Now it's your turn!