Monthly Musings: Holiday Preview

I am always late when I do a Monthly Musings post, but I think the questions are usually pretty good that I eventually get around to them. {grin}

1. Share your favorite holiday traditions

Here's what I can think of off the top of my head:

• Christmas decorations inside and out!
• Christmas clothes
• Decorating Gingerbread houses
• Going to look at Christmas lights
• Listening to Christmas carols until we are sick of them
• Watching Christmas movies
• Pictures with Santa

2. Do you see holiday lights? Driving tour or your own? Attend a park or festival?

We will drive around to look at them as a family. Sometimes we go special places to see them, like a coffee shop in Austin, Mozart's, that does a crazy display. I LOVE Christmas lights and really love looking at them. My mother-in-law also loves lights, so I can usually convince her to go places with me. There used to be a house in our neighborhood that did an INSANE display with lights timed to music and they raised money for Make a Wish, but the owners moved, such a bummer.

Mozart's 2017

The awesome Christmas house!

3. Favorite holiday recipe?

I have 2! 

I must have my mother-in-law's Cranberry Tea. She starts making it in November and we drink it through January, yay!

It also isn't Christmas without my Granny's Christmas wreaths.

4. Must have holiday fashion staple?

Christmas t-shirts, Christmas pajamas, and Buffalo plaid! Lots and lots of RED!

5. Any festive or extra special plans this year?

We are taking a trip to New Mexico the week after Christmas with friends! There will be 10 adults and 11 kids staying in 1 house - it has 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, so I *think* we will be okay!

6. Best holiday planning tip

Start Christmas shopping as early as possible! I usually start thinking about gifts in October and buy once I have some good ideas to spread everything out. It's December 5 as I'm filling this out, and I need to figure out a gift for my sister-in-law and that's it! I'm done!

7. Favorite holiday movie

I think I have 2 for similar reasons! We watch Christmas movies with the kids, and we just love watching Home Alone with them! Plus every year, Brent and I watch White Christmas together, and I enjoy sharing that time with him.

8. Die Hard...Christmas movie or not?

To me, Christmas has to be integral to the plot of the movie for it to be a Christmas movie, so I vote 'no'. To me, Die Hard is just a movie set at Christmas.

9. Tree/decorations up before or after Thanksgiving?

Typically we decorate the week OF Thanksgiving - the kids are off school the whole week, and I take off work. It's nice to have a week to do it and not stress about it vs. waiting until AFTER Thanksgiving and just having the weekend to get it done before going back to work and school.

10. Do you celebrate other holidays in December? Hanukkah? Kwanza? Others?

I know the rest of the world won't consider this as a 'holiday' but we also celebrate Paige's birthday! {grin} Our littlest peanut's birthday is December 21, so of course we celebrate her in December!!

Paige's 4th birthday