Christmas Hoopla

Rhonda at Farmhouse Style has tagged me, my very first tag by the way, to play the Hoopla game. I'm not sure I know what I'm doing but here are the rules she listed:

Here is how to play:
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word. I suppose that refers to the 'M'eme list.

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible.

Okay, here goes my list:


1) I DON'T like shopping! I don't like the crowds in stores this time of year, the crying kids who are tired and just need to be home in bed!

2) I like the IDEA of the season. I have images in my head of Christmas, peaceful scenes of houses all decorated and lit up waiting for family and guests, carolers singing outside. In my mind all that just magically happens. Then the reality of dragging out all those decorations and sorting through them and arranging sets in. Lots of work. I have images of shopping too. Snowy streets with people all bundled up, arms full of packages, smiling and speaking to each other as they go. Then reality sets in again and I find myself in the middle of Walmart....nuff said!! lol

3) As a child I wanted so much to believe in Santa. I wanted all those wonderful presents he would bring especially dolls, I always wanted dolls. Then one magical night it happened! Santa came by my house riding high up on the back seat of a convertible!! You can imagine my excitement...Santa...Convertible...I had never seen either one before! A car with no top!! Shoot, I had only seen a couple of cars in my lifetime, period!! In our little town we walked to visit friends and neighbors and to the store and to church. If we had to go farther away we went by bus! The best part of it all was when Santa handed me a baby doll of my very own that I immediately named Billy!

4) My parents weren't big on Christmas so if we even had a tree it was up to us kids to do it all. One of my favorite memories is going back in the woods in the holler where we lived to cut a tree. One of my older sisters was married by this time and her husband was along with us 3 girls to help cut the tree. Being a newly wed of 3 months, she was trying to still look "cool" around her husband. We had some snow still on the ground and a lot of muck and mud. She wore very inappropriate shoes for this journey and stepped in a big pile of mud, deep mud, losing her shoe in the process. We never could recover that shoe even though her prince came to the rescue, digging in the mud to find it! My other sister and I had to let her hold around our shoulders and hop all the way back home while my brother-in-law carried the tree. She cried because she lost her shoe and her "cool" in front of her new husband, and because we laughed at her. But what are mean little sisters for??

5) My favorite Christmas movie is It's a Wonderful Life. I have seen it too many times to count. One of the parts that always makes me cry is when the whole town opens their hearts to give and help George Bailey.

6) I love the magic that Christmas seems to bring that we don't have at other times of the year but should.

7) I love Celtic Christmas music. There is something so soothing to me about this music. I suspect there might be Scottish blood in me but I haven't been able to prove it yet. I told my DH that and he said he was Irish and that's why he didn't like the music!! lol

8) I use to collect snow globes. My first and favorite was one Dave bought me. It had a little house nestled in some pine trees and of course snow all around. When we downsized to a small apartment we had to store these. When we brought them out of storage my favorite little snow globe was broken...no little house...no water, no snow. I was so upset that I sold all the rest of them at a yardsale!

9) There is a sadness in me when I see houses with absolutely no signs of Christmas. There are several old, seemingly abandoned, houses on our street being left to fall down. They look so empty and cold. But it's much worse when the houses are actually occupied and still have this look about them.

10) I love the sights and smells of things that say Christmas to me, like candy canes, oranges, apples, tangerines, creme drops, cakes and pies baking and snow cream...yummm..heavenly taste of snow cream!

11) My grandmother, Mammy, was and still is so very dear to my heart. I remember when we would visit her or she came to visit us at Christmas her greeting to us was "Christmas Gift!" That's what she would say. I never knew or questioned why...it was just something she had always done.

12) When I was 5 years old my brother, Dewey, turned 18 and had to go into the Army (draft was enforced then). I loved him dearly and followed him always, even into the woods to cut logs...I had to go too. This time I couldn't follow and I didn't understand why he had to go away. I was so lost without him and the only connection we had were his letters that Mommy would read to us all, and we hung on every word. Then one night in December, by the magic of Christmas, he was there..home..in the flesh...my brother, a man I hardly recognized, standing proud and tall in his uniform, so very handsome. How our hearts rejoiced to see him. Not long ago, he went away again, this time to be with the Lord, but this time I know in my heart that I will see him again.
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I pray that God will watch over and bless all our soldiers who are away from home this Christmas fighting for our freedom and their families who won't get to be with them except in spirit.
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This was much harder than I thought it would be!! Thanks, Rhonda for inviting me to play my first cyber tag game!
Okay, now I tag Lib, Peggy and Karen if ya'll haven't done it already!