Saturday 9: Happy Holidays

Janelle

Jan 21

From the archives

1. As you can see, when Sam Winters was a little girl, she loved giving her annual wish list to Santa. If you could ask Santa for anything at all, right now, what would it be? Money.

2. Are you currently on the Naughty or Nice list? How did you get there? I think I say this every year, but nice, because I'm not a dick.

3. Are you traveling this Christmas? If so, are you going by car, plane or train? We drove about an hour to my mom's house.

4. Did you ship any gifts to friends and family this year? If yes, which one traveled the farthest? No, no shipping this year.

5. Did you buy yourself a gift this year? I am notorious for this, but this year, we've sort of been in financial-recovery mode--in short, my husband lost his job last December and found a new one at the end of March, but in the meantime, his unemployment money took months to come through, and in the meantime, we burned through our savings and racked up credit-card debt. So this year has very much been about getting caught up and building the savings back up and paying down the debt, so money's been tight, meaning my focus was very much actually on buying gifts, especially for our son, nieces, and nephews. But I did snag a few things for myself after the holidays, sure. Mostly some clothes, I think, and little things like candles.

6. Which do you prefer: candy canes or gingerbread? Gingerbread.

7. Close your eyes and tell us the first carol that comes to mind. "Good King Wenceslaus."

8. What's your favorite winter beverage? I mostly stick to tea, but I do like the seasonal offerings at coffee shops, both local and large chains.

9. Share a memory from last Christmas. My sister-in-law was pregnant with my nephew, who was due in January and ended up arriving on the 6th, so I remember everyone getting some small things for him in anticipation. We were supposed to go to church with my brother's family, but the temperature was down in the single digits and my mom was worried that our cars might not start going home, on top of hauling my then-two-year-old son out in the cold. We slept over, which is something of a fun tradition the last few years.