Greetings from the cave! 

A very merry Christmas season to you all! Before I bring my Yearly Wrap-ups, I'd like to publish these two Christmas tags....which have been waiting very patiently since LAST Christmas to be completed! 

The first Christmas Tag came from Sam @ Bookshire, and you can view the original tag HERE.

 1) A favorite Christmas tradition?

Christmas baking! Every year, my family and I make gingerbread cookies and cinnamon bread. Up until a couple of years ago, the baking was a family affair. Unfortunately, we have all grown up and so work schedules now wreak havoc on our traditions...

2) Say it snowed at your domicile, would you prefer to go out or stay curled up inside?

Oh goodness...I do like to go out and play in it for a few minutes (especially with Skye, she LOVEs the snow). But there are other days - more often than not now - that I would prefer to stay curled up inside with a book.

3) Tea or hot chocolate?

Oh now you're cruel. I love them both!!! Though, I really consider tea to be an "everyday" drink and hot chocolate as a specifically Christmas drink right now. I don't drink hot chocolate that often because I make it with milk and I can only take so much richness at a time....

4) Favorite Christmas colors (i.e. white, blue, silver, gold, red and green etc)?

...what if I like all of them? 

Seriously, I like all of them. I tend to be drawn to red and green schemes the most in my decorating and I suppose blue is the color I use the least, and everything else falls in the middle. 

5) Favorite kind of Christmas cookie?

Gingerbread and Italian Fig cookies are my two favorites. Gingerbread, I make every year, but fig cookies I only make every other year because of the amount of prep that must go into them. 

6) How soon before Christmas do you decorate (more specifically, when does your tree go up)?

Usually, the tree goes up around the 3rd Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday), and the house decorations are up a couple of days before that. They have gone up as late as Christmas Eve before, but that's not really that popular with my family members (much too rushed). 

I don't put up my personal decorations until closer to the 4th Sunday of Advent. I don't like the idea of waiting until Christmas Eve, but I don't like putting them really early. 

7) Three favorite traditional Christmas carols?

In reverse order: 

Carol of the Bells

Deck the Halls

Angels We Have Heard on High

8) A favorite Christmas song (i.e. something you might hear on the radio)?

Mine is "12 Days of Christmas" by Straight No Chaser. That song was my family's first introduction to the group, and they have been great favorites of ours ever since. 

9) A favorite Christmas movie?

It's the classic Irving Berlin's White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Never a Christmas season goes by without watching that movie at least once.

10) Have you ever gone caroling?

Yes, my Girl Scout troop did, ages ago. We went to a nursing home where one of the girl's relatives was living. I remember it was pretty well received. 

11) Ice skating, sledding, skiing, or snow boarding?

Gracious! I've only done the former two, and I haven't done them for several years! 20, in fact, for ice-skating (!)(gosh am I OLD). 

I would like to try ice-skating again though. I love roller skating, and oddly enough, I learned how to roller skate because of my ice-skating....

12) Favorite Christmas feast dish?

We tend to change our "Christmas Feast" meal every year. This year, we did a "Turducken" which is a combination of turkey, duck and chicken all rolled into one. I quite liked it, but I think I would prefer goose or duck by itself. 

Christmas Tag 2020

Praecepta

1. Put on your favorite Christmas Playlist to listen to while answering! 
2. Have a Christmas drink and/or snack while writing 
3. Thank the blogger who tagged you and link to their site. Oh no, I didn't record it!! I'm so sorry! Normally I'm really careful about recording who gave me the tags, but it's been a year now, and I lost it...
4. Answer the 9 original questions
5. Answer the questions set by whoever tagged you
6. Ask 2 questions of your own
7. Tag 6 bloggers to take part. 

1. When do your decorations go up?

My personal Christmas decorations...if I remember to put them up...are usually put up in late December. 

2. If money were no object, how and where would you spend Christmas?

I would still spend it at home, with some additional food items and decorations. I'd use the extra money to bring in family members instead, lol. 

3. What Christmas film do you have to watch every festive season?

White Christmas, with A Charlie Brown Christmas falling in second. 

4. Who do you find the hardest to buy presents for?

DAD. My father is not a hobby person, so finding stuff for him is harrrrrdddd. Lately, religious items have been the ticket. 

.

Would you rather buy lots of little presents for a hamper, or buy one big/main present?

We've never done hampers, so I guess a big/main present! 

What did you leave out for Santa when you were a child?

Cookies and milk, like any other good little kid. The kinds of cookies always changed every year. Some years we also left out carrots for the reindeer. 

Where did you spend last Christmas?

At home. We don't travel for Christmas. 

Which Christmas song makes you cringe?

"Last Christmas" and "All I Want for Christmas is You". 

If you could be a character in a holiday movie, who would you be and why?

I would say Betty from White Christmas. I always felt a connection to her, that practical, no-nonsense older sister just trying to make her way and not letting love in (ugh, that's definitely me). 

Have you ever had a White Christmas?

Yes, but I don't remember what year it was. White Christmas's are actually pretty rare in my area....especially since these past couple of years, we've been getting a warm spell over Christmas....like this year, when we got three inches of RAIN. Gross. 

Is your tree real or fake?

Fake! It's 50 years old and still going strong! 

Choose a holiday drink: Spiced Apple Cider or Eggnog?

Spiced Apple Cider, if I have a choice. Eggnog can be really rich (but I have discovered that it is sooooo much better spiked with rum!) 

My two questions:

1. What does your family usually do on Christmas Eve?

2. What are some of your favorite Christmas books?

That finishes it! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas season! 

Scribblingly yours, 

Catherine