Christmas Rules

Our Prep for Eternal Marriage teacher talked a lot about being from "the true family" and how a lot of times both people in a marriage think they are (from the true famly) and that puts a strain on things. So, Josh and I decided that rather than decide which one of us really was from the true family, we'd just make our own true family.  We're smart like that.


Here is how we do Christmas in the True-Egbert family.


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I never learned how to properly wrap a present until the year Jamie was homesick and we wrapped all of the empty light boxes (36 of them to be exactish) from the gazillion lights I put on our tree. We put those empty boxes under our over-lit tree. Filled the stockings with grocery sacks so they looked full and had the best decorated Christmas the Business College Dorms have ever seen. We were/are cool like that.

This year I wrapped all of the presents from Black Friday on the same day, and I'm REALLY trying to use up this Christmas Paper, so they are all the same. Hopefully next year I can introduce some variety.

2. Real tree or Artificial? This year: Real. A tradition that I really hope carries on forever and ever.

Please ignore the smith's bag and roll over cellophane on the floor. I was in a hurry to take the picture, and as a result...well it's not beautiful. Get over it.

3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible after Thanksgiving. Friday is consumed with shopping, Saturday is the Reilley party, hopefully it's up by Sunday anyway.

4. When do you take the tree down? "I CR-YYYYYYY the day that I take the tree down". OK that has to be the ugliest song on the Forgotten Carols and every time it comes on Josh and I put on our best ugly-opera-singer voices and try to out sing each other. Nobody wins in that game. 
Anyway, we take it down after Christmas when we get around to it. Again with all the family parties and stuff we hope it's down by New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? No thank you. Josh will drink it diluted if someone offers it to him. I can't handle it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Amy: Light Bright they weren't as cool then (see the lower pictures for an 80's lite brite)  as they are now..... Josh: a bike. (hehe. did you click that link? Yeah, he answered Teddy Ruxpin first, then I told him it was going on the blog and he picked a bike instead. I guess Teddy Ruxpin isn't manly enough for "the public" to read. he he he. He doesn't know about the full disclosure rule on my blog.)

7. Hardest person to buy for? Egberts. All of them. They already own most things they want.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Toss up between Tato and Cami (Josh's younger siblings). Everything is cool to them, so even if you got them something lame (like a paperclip holder) they'd think it was AWESOME!! (yes with 2 exclamation points.)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. This is one of my all time favorite traditions. Every year my mom gives us another piece for our nativity and we open it on Christmas Eve. I figure by the time I die my Nativity will be too big to fit on the top of my grand piano in the "sitting room" of my mansion. I heart Fontanini.

10. Best Christmas gift you ever received? Josh: a lump of coal and an onion. He's not a very good kid most years and we already talked about the bike.... Amy: OK I know it's cheezy, but the year before we got engaged Josh got me a children's book that makes me cry every time I read it. He loves me and I love it.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Ummm....I'm going with that same book that was my best Christmas gift. But that's just because it wasn't an engagement ring. At Christmas time we had been dating for ever (read: 4 months) and had been ring shopping more than once. I really wanted to get married (everybody else was!) and Josh was just having a hard time asking me.....I wasn't feeling very patient. As for Josh? one year he only got the coal - he wasn't even good enough for an onion. (This is funny because Josh comes from a gift-giving family. And he's the angel child of his family. So really he never got any bad Christmas gifts at all. Ever.)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie (s)? The Grinch, Elf (I could watch that a million times a year), A Christmas Carol, of course A Christmas Story is classic.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August. ish. The best part about December is that EVERYTHING we buy (with the exception of perishable food) gets wrapped and put under the tree. Everything. Razors, shampoo, deoderant, food storage, chapstick, shoes, clothes, books, movies, music, EVERYTHING.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have. I figure that the gift was I didn't have to find a gift to give to _______. For me, that's a pretty good gift.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mmmm...everything. Probably my mom's broccoli cheese soup in her homemade breadbowls.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes. The more the better.

17. Favorite Christmas song? This year it's Josh Groban's Angel's We Have Heard On High. I also love Baby It's Cold Outside, and a million others. However, there are also 10 million Christmas songs I hate (Oh Holy Night being one of them...I'm a horrible person, I know I know!)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Well, if you call the annual trek to Lindon/South Jordan/West Jordan travelling.....

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes. but I almost always have to sing it to get it right.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have an angel. I want a star. I silvery, sparkely, beautifully perfect star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning. Except Fontanini and jammies.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds and lines. I'm bad at crowds. I'm not patient. Or loving. And I HATE waiting in lines. And traffic. And parking. I hate Walmart between November 20th and January 14th. If I'm not good, that's how I'll spend eternity: folding archive boxes, in Walmart, on the Saturday before Christmas, while listening to Oh Holy Night. And being forced to spend the day with someone new every day. OK, maybe that's not what hell is like, but I'm going to be good just in case.

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We don't eat dinner on Christmas Day, just the soup thing on Christmas Eve.


24. Do you send Christmas cards? No. I think blogging all year makes me exempt, right? I'm pretty sure that's in the blogging handbook....

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A Happy Family.