'Tis the Season Polls, Week 3

The official results of last week's
'Tis the Season Poll:
Does Santa Wrap Your Presents?

Yes - 13 votes
No-7 votes
Santa who? - 1 vote

I have a feeling that most of the no votes came from my family members.

Now onto this week's poll:

Do you like eggnog?

The poll is open for voting in the top right corner. Please discuss below. Poll will close around noon on Friday.

And dear friends, being the egg nog fan that I am, and having three children who have guzzled the stuff since the first moment it touched their lips - I would like to know this:

If you don't like eggnog, when was the last time you actually tried it?

'Cause I kind of have this thing about adults who don't like foods that they haven't tried since they were, like, five.

Original eggnog poll can be found here.

'Tis the Season Polls, Week 2

First, the official results of last week's poll: Which do you prefer - artificial or real Christmas trees?

Real - 7 votes
Artificial - 10 votes
Neither - 1 vote (*cough cough Roy*)

I was pretty surprised by these results! In my heart of heart I vote for real....but my practical side votes with artificial. I think someday I will return to real trees, but for now, for the same reasons I don't have a pet, it's all fake for me.

So, onto this week's poll:

Does Santa wrap your presents?

He did not wrap my presents growing up, he did wrap Chad's. We have carried on my tradition. How about you? Are Santa's gifts in your house wrapped?

Vote in the poll in the right corner up there before noon on Friday!

Original poll found here.

'Tis the Season Polls, Week 1

Holiday Traditions-gotta love them.

We all have some different ideas about just what makes the holidays special.

Let's revive some old holiday polls, starting with the great debate:

REAL CHRISTMAS TREES
VS.
ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREES

Vote on the right, and feel free to add any comments/arguments on this post. Voting ends on Friday at noon (my time)

Original Fake Vs. Real Poll found here

Candy Corn Anyone?

As a part of Family Home Evening tonight, our kids got to choose some candy at the store.

When Gabe grabbed some candy corn, I said, "Good choice!!"

Colin and Chad said, "Yuck."

How about you?

The Great Debate: Twizzlers or Red Vines?

Which do you prefer - Twizzlers or Red Vines?

I noted to Chad the other day that Red Vines are cheaper per ounce than Twizzlers, which surprised me because I consider Red Vines soooo much better. He said that although he likes both, he thought Twizzlers are considered more "high end." HUH?!

Does anyone out there actually prefer Twizzlers over Red Vines?

(and if you do, do you also happen to enjoy chewing on plastic swim toys?)

Does Santa Claus wrap your gifts?

When I was growing up, Santa did not wrap our gifts. Santa did wrap Chad's when he was a boy, so we had to decide which tradition would carry on in our own family. I won out, probably mainly because I am the one who does most of the Santa stuff, and Chad doesn't really care about stuff like that as much as I do. Here are my reasons for not having Santa wrap my kids' gifts:

1. I think it is fun for the kids to walk into the room and immediately see what Santa brought them. It has the big WOW factor.

2. Although I do love wrapping gifts, I try to keep down the mom and dad workload around Christmas. We have plenty of other things to occupy our time without attempting to wrap a bike.

3. After the Santa gifts and stockings are done, it is nice to sit down and unwrap gifts from each other. It makes the two things more separate, and I think it lets us focus on saying thanks to each other more.

So what does Santa do at your house?

Three pictoral arguments against real trees

No matter how much we try, our trees always lean at least a little.

This was the mess made just from setting it up. Is there a vacuum out there that this won't clog? Add water to the mix, and it is just gross.

We didn't realize that the tree we chose had a very crooked trunk, which not only made the leaning problem more difficult, but shifted the weight of tree in such a way that we needed to weight it down with the heaviest object we have available- my ancient sewing machine! This is not the first time it has been used for such a purpose.

I love real Christmas trees, I really do. They are beautiful, they smell nice, and there is a certain romance to them. If I had a maid, I would probably get them every year. However, I am still the maid around here, and so this is definitely our last year with real one. The day after Christmas, we are going to hit the Christmas clearence and hopefully find a nice, pre-lit plastic beauty that will just need to be pulled out of a box next year instead of being strapped to the top of our mini van.

So, new poll - do you use a real tree or a fake one, and why?

Poll: Do you like Egg Nog?

I did not grow up drinking egg nog. I don't think my mom liked it or something. Chad introduced it to me after we married and now the holiday season isn't complete without it. So who out there likes it and did you drink it when you were a kid?

Just a little side story - Chad was at a work Christmas party a couple of years ago, and he took a drink of egg nog and turned to his boss and said, "This tastes funny," not realizing that egg nog is often an alcoholic drink. His boss got a big laugh at the expense of Chad, and that was the end of Chad's egg nog consumption for the night.