Rhett's Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,
Hi! How are you and your wife doing? The things I really want is a rip-stick and a TV! I want lots of Lego sets and Star Wars movies, and Indiana Jones movies, too. I want a brother and a puppy.

Love,
Rhett Kaelin

Sulayne's Christmas

This was on Megan's blog, so I thought I would share my answers, too.

Sulayne's Christmas:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. But my favorite is hot Apple Cider! Mmm! It's so cold outside tonight, I could use a warm cup right now!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Just sits them out. At our house, each kid has a spot where Santa tries to organize their presents into piles.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Definitely COLORED lights!!!! I'm known for my green and red porch/garage lights, too! I am such a kid at heart!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The day before Thanksgiving since I'm off work that day. That way, I can shop Black Friday!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Homemade Chex Mix! It's my weakness every holiday season.

7. Favorite Holiday memories as a child? baking cookies with my mom, setting the alarm for 12:30 just to "check" if Santa had came yet, playing Rook with my family, going to my grandma's house, eating chex mix, begging my dad to ask Santa if he could bring just one present early, the excitement of waking up to see what Santa had brought, riding around town with my family to look at Christmas lights

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember exactly when. I do remember kids on the bus telling me that Santa wasn't real. When I was in 5th grade, I remember still getting several Cabbage Patch kids that year for Christmas. I'm not sure if I complained, but after that, there were no more presents, just money.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We go to the Coomer family on Christmas Eve and the kids open a present. We also do a gift exchange for the adults. I let my kids open their pajamas on Christmas Eve, too.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Tony puts up the tree, shapes it, tests the lights, and does the garland. I put on the ornaments. The past 2 years, the kids have helped me. We have a tall (10 foot), skinny tree, so I leave Tony a small pile of ornaments to hang on the top, since we can't reach. We play Christmas music and drink apple cider while we decorate. Then, we hang garland down the staircase and across the fireplace mantel. The kids have a small tree in their bedrooms that they decorate themselves.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it! (I hate the cold and hate when it gets dark so early, but I love when it snows and I LOVE LOVE snow days!!! Again, I'm a kid at heart.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes ... Tony and I had went ice skating with friends from CIC the night we met! Well, I should rephrase that yes to yes I can ice skate, but it may not be pretty.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I remember getting a juke box style record player, a KISS guitar, and as a family we got an Oddysey (kind of like an Atari). But my ultimate favorite was my first Cabbage Patch kid. Her name was Hillary Ferdinand and I still have her! She had red hair like me and I took her with me everywhere I went for what seems like several years.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Baby Jesus ... that's easy!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I'm not a huge dessert fan, see #6. If I had to pick something, it might be peppermint bark.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? A couple of years ago, Rhett and Micah asked if we could buy a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birth. I also love baking cookies for Santa with my own kids.

17. What tops your tree? Nothing at the moment. Our star was ruined when our basement flooded, and I haven't bought a new one yet. When Tony and I first got married until just a few years ago, we had a Marvin the Martian tree topper.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Neither, just because I don't think I'm good at picking out gifts for others and like I said in #8, I stopped receiving gifts when I was in 6th grade.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Little Drummer Boy is my favorite (especially Fred's version). I also like Away in a Manger, Christmas Like a Child and many "specials" that people sing at church. When I was a little kid, it was all of the Alvin and the Chipmunks songs and the Red Baron and Snoopy Christmas song (I'm not sure the real name of it).

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum!

21 Favorite Christmas Show? A Charlie Brown Christmas

22. Saddest Christmas Song? Since I've been a mom, I'd have to say Mary, Did You Know? I'm also very melancholy and like a lot of sad songs.

Cute Quotes

I need to start carrying a pad of paper with me to jot down the funny/cute things my kids say. Here are a few that I wanted to share:

Blair: After pointing out the dusting of snow to her the other morning, she just stared with this puzzled look on her face. Then said, "Who did that?"

Micah: While eating a snack of nacho cheese and chips, she said, "Mom, I didn't know that the raisin girls made these chips!" Confused, I went to the table where she pointed to the picture of the girl on the Santitos chip bag (she looks very similar to the girl on the package of raisins).

I've been thinking all week that I need to blog that, and I need to blog this. Of course, now that I'm sitting in front of the computer, I can't think of anything else that they've said. But, hey, at least I've updated! ;)