(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

Rain, all day. Work sucked, enough said; no point going into details. Dentist tomorrow morning.



1. Colored lights or white lights?
On the tree? Wax candles - white ones are okay, but I prefer red ones.

2. Real tree or fake tree?
I don't have a tree, mostly due to space issues, but no plastic tree is going to cross my threshold. Ever.

3. What is your least favorite thing about the holidays?
My job, the near-obligatory family quarrel.

4. What is the one thing that you would like to see under the tree this year?
A nice surprise present. Won't happen, though.

5. What is your favorite thing to do/build in the snow?
Skiing.

6. What is your favorite holiday drink?
Mulled wine, rum punch.. anything alcoholic, spicy and hot. I'm easy.

7. What is your favorite holiday smell?
Fir tree and candles... there is a reason for my strict 'no plastic tree, no electric candles' policy.

8. Who is your favorite reindeer?
I'm really not familiar enough with the American Christmas mythology to have a favourite reindeer.

9. What is your Christmas Eve ritual?
Decorate the tree with my mother, the usual Christmas family thing in the evening - lighting the candles, unwrapping presents, hoping my father won't be having one of his inexplicable mood swings, dinner (nothing fancy, because anything stressful is likely to increase the probability of a quarrel) - go home, offer prayers of thanks if it was actually pleasant and relaxing, be dead.

10. Are you a Friday after Thanksgiving shopper?
Um, what? Again, not American here.

11. What is your favorite holiday food?
The left-over Brötchen (canapes? is that the right word?) on the next day.

12. How did you find out that Santa wasn't real?
I honestly can't remember a time when I believed the Christkind was real, and I certainly don't remember any specific moment when I realised it did not exist. I guess my parents just never put any effort into actively creating a fiction beyond the colloquial 'the Christkind was here' (and I'm not sure I ever believed that), and with the Christkind (unlike Santa Claus) being such an elusive creature without even a distinct iconography, it apparently was neither hard nor traumatic to abandon any belief I might have held.

13. Who do you want to be under the mistletoe with?
There's no one, really.

14. Have you bought all your presents yet?
No. None. I already know what I'll get for two or three people, but I haven't bought anything yet. I can't shop for Christmas in summer, and suddenly it's November, and before Christmas work related stress always catches up with me... and then there is baking, and, this year, dentist appointments...

15. Do you spend Christmas with a lot of family?
No more than strictly necessary.

16. Do you still make snowmen and snow angels?
Not really.

17. Do you still have snow ball fights?
Ditto.

18. What's your favorite Christmas movie?
I don't have a specific favourite Christmas movie, but I always stop to watch if they re-run the Sisi movies...

19. What do you plan to do for New Year's Eve?
No plans yet. If it doesn't involve depression, I'm already satisfied.

20. What's the weirdest thing you've ever got for Christmas?
This plastic thing you can hang into your cupboard to store your socks in, from my aunt. Both my sister and I got that - it was a certain WTF moment, also rather amusing. Granted, in my family it's not usual to give practical presents (unless specifically requested), but still... ::chuckles::

21. What's the most expensive thing you've gotten for Christmas?
Unsure. Perhaps the DVD player; My parents tend to give money, rather than expensive presents, and there's no one else I'd be likely to get anything expensive from.

22. How early do you wake up on Christmas morning?
As late as possible. We celebrate on the 24th, and the 25th I can finally let exhaustion catch up with me, no work, no family, just quiet and peace.

23. What do you usually get in your stocking?
Stockings aren't part of our Christmas tradition.