I couldn't resist

Okay, so I know I'm on a deadline (the padlock is back on the entertainment armoire for those of you keeping score at home.) But I'm kind of to a place where I need to talk to my editor, and being that it's past midnight in New York, I'm going to let my editor sleep and talk about it tomorrow.

Which means...I feel less guilty about doing this Christmas list thing that's been going around and which I most recently saw at my new-favorite-person E. Lockhart's blog.

So, here goes:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Must I choose? Do I really want to live in a world where I have to choose?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
As a rule, Santa always brings the presents that are hard to wrap--like puppies and doll houses--so no, his gifts usually just appear on Christmas morning.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White. Always white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No. But as an interesting note, did you know the state flower of Oklahoma is mistletoe? Did you know it grows wild in all kinds of trees there? Well, it is. And it does.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
I actually don't decorate for the holidays--any holiday--because usually on the day itself I'm not in my house. But this will change soon, I hope.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Again, do I want to live in a world where I have to choose? Well, if I did have to, I'd probably take my mother's homemade chicken and dumplings. It simply isn't a holiday meal without them.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Receiving a blue heeler puppy from Santa. We named her Chrissy (like Christmas) and then took her outside to play and she immediately jumped from my arms, ran into the pasture and heeled a cow. And the cow kicked her and knocked her out and then my dad wrapped a baby aspirin in a piece of bread and fed it to her and I sat on the porch holding her, praying she'd live.

And then that cow walked by again and...you guessed it...Chrissy jumped out of my arms, ran into the pasture and heeled her. Again. And got kicked. Again. And we learned right then that what Chrissy lacked in brains she made up for in tenacity.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I have no idea what you're talking about

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
I don't actually have a tree--but I will soon, hopefully. And it will probably be pretty pathetic for a while until I get an ornament collection because I like ornaments that mean something and have some history. It'll take a while, but it'll get there.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
In the middle of a drought--love it!

12. Can you ice skate?
Sort of. Not well, but if I had to in a life-or-death kind of situation I could at least attempt to save myself.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
It's hard to forget Chrissy.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
I love being with all my crazy family

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pecan pie is very hard to beat.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
We play Dirty Santa with my dad's family, and it does get dirty! There are secret alliances and back-alley deals and lots of strategizing!

17. What tops your tree?
Again, right now I have no tree to top, but when I get one, I think I'd like an angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving--totally. In fact, I'm a very bad receiver. My family keeps asking what I want and I don't have a single thing to say! Not one. I'm impossible.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
We Three Kings. I've been known to break spontaneously into it at very random times during very random months (like while painting my porch on the Fourth of July.)

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
I love them in theory, but they tend to get a little sticky for me eventually, so I prefer just looking at them in the end.