Straight No Chaser

Rudolph the Uncut Survey

1. who do you want to be under the mistletoe with?
marcus.

2. what are your favorite christmas memories?
when we still lived in the old house, my brother's and my bedrooms (grammar?) were sectioned off in the remotest corner of the third floor. he was a wimpy little kid, afraid of the dark and such, and very excitable, especially when he knew there would be TOYS!!! downstairs in the morning, and my parents generally charged me with keeping him occupied throughout the night while "santa" made his rounds. i came up with something known as the christmas anticipation center (or c.a.c., pronounced kack), of which we were both annual members; there we spent all night performing plays and doing karaoke, sometimes i'd write and recite little christmas stories that he'd act out with stuffed animals, there were board games and drawing paper, et cetera. it ended when we moved, because i guess in the new house our bedrooms were smack in the middle of santa's pathway to the tree, and my new job was to get chad to go straight to bed, on christmas eve.

3. where would you rather spend christmas this year?
someplace with snow instead of freezing cold rain, which is what we had all day. also, someplace i could see everyone i cared about, rather than just the silver spring locals.

4. what is your favorite christmas song?
any and all versions of "god rest ye merry gentlemen."

5. what do you usually do christmas morning?
wake up around eight-thirty and stay in bed for as long as i can manage; start getting antsy around nine; help my mom make breakfast and initiate the tremendous giftfest that usually lasts till noonish.

6. have you bought all your presents yet?
no, actually. i've still got cards to buy for all the atlanta folks who didn't get real gifts, and i still want to give marcus something a little extra. i also promised the birds a sprig of millet spray and some flax seed as a treat.

7. what do you do on christmas eve?
play cards, watch home alone and open one small gift, as per tradition.

8. do you spend christmas with a lot of family?
the entire immediate family, yes, and then, eventually, the random grouping of those who live in the greater washington area. strangely, this group is getting smaller, rather than larger, over time; over the past five years we've lost a cousin-in-law and an uncle to death and divorce, respectively, and no one new will be born, i've been told, till i make it happen.

9. do you go anywhere special on christmas?
just to the home of whoever's turn it is to host dinner.

10. how many items are on your wish list?
four this year, each of which i was given without much ado.

11. what do you usually eat on christmas?
aunt ruth's cooking, praise god.

12. when did you find out santa wasn't real?
i don't remember ever not knowing. i was a pretty observant little kid, and it didn't escape me that his handwriting ("thanks for the cookies, shannon and chad! love, santa") was pretty much identical to my dad's, nor that mom always slipped up and referred to the purchases of the gifts he'd left.

13. do you still make snowmen and snow angels?
i love snow, but i've never been keen on being cold. nor cold and wet. so, no.

14. do you still have snowball fights with your siblings/parents?
no.

15. what's your favorite christmas movie?
home alone.

16. what do you like doing over the christmas holiday?
sleeping late, making presents, wrapping presents and eating spinach casserole.

17. what do you plan to do for new year's eve?
my mom is already talking about watch night service. harumph. but then, afterward, we might be having a party, and then i guess i'll call marcus, midnightish, and we'll simulate a kiss (real thing will happen circa january ninth), and maybe i'll watch the ball drop, maybe not; i don't care much for new year's celebrations, really.

18. what are your usual traditions on new year's?
they vary. when i was in middle and high school we always had parties, but they kind of stopped doing that my senior year. family friends, though, have done the job in my parents' stead. that's about it.

19. got any resolutions?
of course.

20. what's the weirdest thing you ever got for christmas?
training bras that i had to open in front of my dad, christmas 1997.

21. what's the most expensive thing you ever got for christmas?
probably my bedroom tv set, with its built-in vcr and dvd player. also one of the greatest and most well-timed gifts ever.

22. how early do you wake up on christmas morning?
later and later every year. we used to drive my parents crazy, when excitement would prod us awake at six or six-thirty. this morning we didn't get chad out of bed till almost eleven-thirty, and i wasn't awake for long before that.

23. what do you usually get in your stocking?
booklights and playing cards, every year.

24. who do you wish you could spend your christmas with?
marcus and his family, i guess.

25. if you could change one thing from the past year, what would it be?
just one? claudia dying, primarily, but more generally, i'd have managed my time better, focused more on classes and less on...everything else, recognized the strange beauty of life earlier and written something for that atlanta-journal constitution contest in december.

26. what about the holidays makes you sad?
the knowledge that suicide rates are higher on christmas day than on any other day of the year, if in fact that is true.

27. what makes you happy?
giving gifts that are actually pleasing/useful to their recipients, like everything i gave my mom this year--her mystic topaz bracelet pleased her tremendously, and she will find endless use for her new cd visor.

28. who do you normally spend christmas with?
see how mature i've gotten? at this time last year i'd have pointed out that this question should have been phrased with whom do you normally spend christmas?

29. what do you ABSOLUTELY WANT this christmas?
irrelevant, as christmas is now officially over, but i want for the day to have brought everyone i love everything they deserve, i want marcus to call soon, and when he does i want to feel his warmth, even from far away.

30. any other things?
silver is always nice.