Another Christmas Meme...

Good morning (or afternoon for you probably)!  Are you ready for Christmas yet?  I am not, so that's why I'm late in posting.  Lisa from All That and a Box of Rocks tagged me for this Christmas meme and since it's different than the one I did previously, it's the perfect easy post for a Monday!

Here goes...

1. Have you started your Christmas shopping?
Yes - if I hadn't by now that would be a little scary!  I do have a few more things to take care of this week though.

2. Tell me about one of your special traditions.
We do always like to drive around and look at the Christmas lights.  This year, we're going to do that on Christmas Eve - I'm looking forward to it!

3. Are you a Black Friday Shopper?
NO way!!

4. When do you put up your Tree?
Um...in December...before Christmas.  We did manage to get the tree up a couple weeks before Christmas this time, but the decorating of it still isn't finished - LOL!!

5. Do you Travel at Christmas or Stay home?
We stay home and have a fairly quiet Christmas which I enjoy.  We usually have 2 of the brothers-in-law over on Christmas day.

6. What is your funniest Christmas memory?
A couple of years ago, my son and I made my hubs go searching around the house following clues to find his big gift.  We put little gift boxes in each spot that he had to open only to discover notes from my son like, " Oh BUMMER, this is still not your gift!  Guess you better go look in the bedroom."  We put 1 of the clues waaayy under son's bed, so hubs had to lay down and scoot under to get it.  Oh so very amusing to watch!!  Don't worry - he got a good gift to make up for it!  We all had a good laugh!

7. What is your favorite Christmas Movie of All time?
Well I really love It's a Wonderful Life!

8. Do you do your own Christmas Baking, what’s your favorite treat?
That's all I've been doing the last few days!!  Things like Dried Cranberry Biscotti, Christmas Mocha Balls, Vanilla Party Mix, Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars, and a couple recipes from blog friends: Chocolate Raspberry Crumb Bars from Frugal Creativity and Lace Cookies from Knit1Kids4.

9. Fake or Real Tree?
I love real trees, but after a few years of spending a fortune on trees that ended up crispy and ugly by Christmas (no matter what tricks we tried), we decided to go with a fake tree.  I miss the smell, but don't miss the needles everywhere!

10. What day (as a mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
My panic is always the night before my son's last day of school and Christmas party!  I am always trying to put together all the homemade teacher gifts and goodies for son to give to classmates.  Hubs' office party is usually around the same time so I have the coworker gifts and dessert for the party to get ready.  After that, nothing seems as stressful even if I don't have it all done in time!

11. Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
Yes, we usually still have a couple things to finish wrapping that evening, but not much (we don't give each other a lot of presents so there's not too much to wrap).

12. What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas?
Seeing lights, making & eating goodies, and just enjoying son's time off from school!

13. What Christmas craft do you like the best?
Besides baking, I'm not that crafty.  But this year I was in charge of a craft for son's party.  I used my friend Kim's puzzle wreath craft, but made it into a magnet. I made a little kit for each kid.  Here are a couple pics:

 

 

My wreath is on the left; son's on the right!

14.Christmas music. Yes or No? If yes what is your favorite song?
I love Christmas music!  My absolute favorite song is Oh Holy Night.  I love all the hymns, music from The Nutcracker, and also like songs like White Christmas and Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree!

15. When do you plan to finish all your shopping?
In the next day or 2.  I want to be all done before I have my lovely filling/possible root canal on Wednesday!

That's it!  I'm not going to officially tag anybody, but if you want to play along - go right ahead!  But do come back and let me know so I can come see your answers!

Also, forgot to mention that there will NOT be Chocolate Friday this week (Christmas!) and no Dessert Friday the following week (New Year's Day!).  So the next Chocolate Friday will be on 1/8.  If you need chocolate fixes before then, you can always stop by and click on some links on my sidebar!  :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and not stressing too much!  Merry Christmas!