1. What are your plans for the holidays? Do you travel at Thanksgiving? If you celebrate Christmas, do you travel then, too?
For both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I drive 2.5 hours if there’s no traffic from Austin to Houston. My plans during the holidays usually entail waiting around all day and evening on the actual days of Thanksgiving and Christmas til my parents close down their shop. After which, we have a late quiet meal. The days surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas I spend fluttering between friends. I am so happy around this time because of the out of town visitors coming home for the holidays and the Houston friends I do not get to see that often during the year if at all.
2. How do you make the plans for the holidays? If you have a significant other, how do you decide which family to visit?
He goes to his hometown and I go to mine. We exchange gifts before or after.
3. Do you have your Thanksgiving meal at lunch or later in the day?
Late late late. Like 9pm late.
4. Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
Our family Thanksgiving traditions are modest. Just a quiet meal late in the night. I have a personal tradition where I send out Thanksgiving cards to my loved ones counting the ways I am thankful for them. This year I’ve only sent one half of them. The other batch needs to be written and get sent out late. Ooops. Story: Once I sent out a Thanksgiving card to Jon in New York around Thanksgiving and somehow he received it in his mailbox in July the next year.
5. After a big meal, do you lounge around or get up and take a walk?
Usually I try to walk it off and rub my tummy, if I can. Sometimes I overdo it so much that all that can be done is to lay down and groan.
6. Do you shop on “Black Friday” or do you avoid it?
I have a couple of years ago to get a camera. Meh :) Black Friday. Meh.
7. When do you usually finish your Christmas shopping?
There’s always that one person I’m stuck on that has me running around up to Christmas Eve. I used to buy year round for the people in my life but then I got paranoid that it was jinxing the relationship. Seriously. I once bought this girl an inflatable cowboy because she was obsessed with cowboys and would have enjoyed it. Then we stopped being friends. Ha. After toting that bad boy around for years waiting for the next person who lovesss cowboys to come into my life, I gave up and gave it a temporary home at Goodwill. Twice, I’ve made photo books and friendships disintegrated while the books were in shipping. My closest friends requested I stop giving photo books.
This year, I’ve started and hope to be done as soon as possible. Any idea what to get a 10 year old niece I really didn’t even know about til this year?
8. Do you and your significant other exchange gifts? If there a budget?
He tends to spend a lot on me generally. Spendy meals often. Holidays and birthdays are the occasions I try to keep up with him and almost almost match him.
9. When do you decorate for the holidays?
I’m not a big fan of Christmas so in my own apartment, I’ll whip out my two holiday snow globes I was gifted, a few stockings and that’s about it. They’re all out already. I usually bring them out when it starts to get cold in November. Though, we’re back to eighty degrees this week.
10. Do you go “all out” with the decor or keep it simple?
I do not go all out. Last year I lived with Brandi and she is a HUGE Christmas fanatic. Our apartment looked like a paper winter wonderland. See below a picture of our fireplace last year.
Also my two holiday snow globes. The full extent of my decorating!
