Wednesday Hodgepodge - 12/21

I'm still finalizing this whole car thing (though I have put my down payment on one), so I didn't get to blog yesterday.  But I couldn't miss the Hodgepodge!!

1. Are you cooking Christmas dinner? How many will be round your table this year? What are we having?

 

I think we have firmly established that I don't really cook independently.  However, I am trying to fix that.  I will not be fixing it via a major event, like Christmas, though.  For Christmas Eve, we all go to my mom's side of the family and have lots of finger foods and goodies (including my grandma's German potato salad), and there could be 30 to 35 people there.  We will have dinner with my dad's side Christmas Day at my parents' house and I will probably help Mom put some things together.  We are having a more traditional meal (turkey and all the fixings) then.

 

2. What is one must-have Christmas cookie in your house?

 

Russian Tea Cakes (some people call them Mexican Wedding Cakes).  But no matter what you call them, they are basically butter pecan cookie balls rolled in powdered sugar.  How could you have Christmas without that??

 

3. Santa likes a glass of milk with his cookies. Do you? What kind of milk is on tap at your house-skim? almond? soy? full fat (Gasp!)

 

I am a skim or 1% kind of girl.  I don't care for soy or almond milk and thankfully don't have any issues with dairy, so I don't have to drink them! 

 

4. Time magazine recently named their 'Person of the Year' for 2011. This is the person the editors believe had the greatest impact, for better or worse, in the past year. This year they chose 'The Protester'. Your thoughts? Who would you name Person of the Year for 2011?

 

This selection annoyed me.  I do believe that the protests in various countries (including our own) have had an impact, but is that impact really greater than that of someone like Steve Jobs?  I don't know.  It's really hard to tell.  I think my person of the year would have been Gabrielle Giffords.  Her story is about taking something that could have been completely earth-shattering and not letting that moment rob you of the rest of your life.  She is an inspiration, and I always prefer the positive to the negative.

 

5. December 21st is National Flashlight Day... when was the last time you needed a flashlight and did you know right where to find one?

 

I have two flashlights stashed at my house and I do know exactly where they are.  The last time I needed one was last month when a sudden stormed knocked the power out for a couple of hours.

 

6. candy canes...yum or yuck?

 

Yum!  But it has to be a real peppermint kind and not one of the weird flavors.  (Those are totally yuck!)

 

7. What Christmas carol lyric means the most to you?

 

I've been singing a lot of Christmas lyrics lately, so I had to really think about it.  I mean, obviously, the ones focusing on the birth of Christ would be the most signifcant to me, but I think the lyric that I think of the most is "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light..."   I love this because, to me, it's about the choice.  The holidays can be a hard or stressful time, but I don't think that's how it would be if we allowed our hearts to do the choosing.

 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

 

I will feel so much better when all this car stuff is over.  I am thrilled to have a car, but this whole thing has completely stressed me out and put a real dent in my Christmas break plans!