Friday.

Heaven In Belgium, AKA Jientje, tagged me for this hoopla awhile ago. I sorta forgot about it, and I neglected it, and now Christmas is over and I still haven't done it...


List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word
3. 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 Blog-o-sphere. 4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it.

So I don't want to save it til next year, so I will do it anyway.

1. I once was so excited about getting a toy dish set I wet the floor. (I was four, and wearing a dress, and my parents have a photo of the damp spot.) These days, I don't think I would get that excited about dishes, unless perhaps they were full of all my favorite foods.

2. My mom used to write numbers instead of our names on the Christmas packages...so all my presents might be number three, but I wouldn't know for sure until Christmas Eve, when Mom would finally tell us whose were whose presents.

3. We open our presents on Christmas Eve. Always have.

4. I don't make a big meal on Christmas Day. We have soup and appetizers and snacks and drinks and leftovers, but nothing that requires that I spend hours in the kitchen. Christmas day is my day to relax and goof off too.

5. My sister Marilyn will hate this next one...I was really good at figuring out what my presents were. I didn't look at all of them, but I would try to figure out a couple of them pretty much every year. What can I say...I was a very curious kid.

6. When we lived in the Netherlands my parents and siblings and nieces and nephews all came for Christmas. It was amazing and fun and rainy and crowded. But awesome.

7. We went to Christmas Eve services in a cave outside Maastricht, the Netherlands, in a cave where American soldiers spent Christmas eve during World War II. Many of the soldiers who were there were later killed in the Battle of the Bulge. A group of Dutch people set up and arrange and run the services each year.

8. I took a photo of the box of Guitar Hero III I got for the boys for Christmas and wrapped up the photo for Christmas, because they so totally would have guessed exactly what it was if I had wrapped up GHIII itself.

9. I have three kneecaps. Okay, I made that up. I am running out of ideas...I was really really sick two years ago at Christmas, and went into the hospital right after Christmas Day. That's when I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease.

10. My dead dog Theo has an ornament on the tree, but I don't think we have ornaments for Mojo or Abe, our current dogs.

11. I loathe a couple of Christmas songs -- The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. I cannot over-emphasize how much I hate these two songs.

12. Geez. Um...I haven't sent out my Christmas cards yet. Oops.

I am not going to tag anyone with this one, because Christmas is over...Sorry, Jientje, this took me so long to do.