Saturday, December 16, 2017

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Pauleen's Christmas Meme

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas traditions.

Pauleen Cass (Cassmob), who writes the Family history across the seas blog started a Christmas meme in 2012 - see Deck the Halls - 2012 Christmas GeneaMeme. So we will use that for SNGF this week (since very few readers did it in past years!):

1)  Copy and paste the meme questions into your blog or word processor, and then answer the questions.  You could use short statements, long paragraphs or provide a link to one of your earlier posts.

2)  Tell us about your meme answers in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

3)  Be sure to leave a comment on Pauleen's blog post about your entry in this Christmas 2017 Geneameme.  She'll be surprised!

Here's mine (questions in green, answers in red):

THE 2012 CHRISTMAS GENEAMEME (IN 2017)
  1. Do you have any special Xmas traditions in your family?  Just shopping, gifts, Christmas dinner at my grandparents, and then my parents, and then my brothers homes - before my mother died in 2002.  Since then, we either host, or we go to one of our daughters homes, and sometimes my brother-in-law's home up the California coast (650 miles north), and back.
  2. Is church attendance an important part of your Christmas celebrations and do you go the evening before or on Xmas Day?  Not as a child growing up.  After marriage, we attended Christmas Eve services, ending with lit candles singing "Silent Night" around the outside cross.  I was a wise man for many years in the Christmas pageant at church - not a speaking or singing part!  But not any more - we're usually on the road.
  3. Did/you or your children/grandchildren believe in Santa?  Of course we did!  Right up until we found the "big" gifts from Santa in my grandparents garage when I was 12.  Our kids did until about age 12, and some of our five grandchildren (ages 3 to 14) still do (I think, I hope)!  Now I am Santa... HO HO HO!!!
  4. Do you go caroling in your neighbourhood?  Not as a child or young adult.  Our church social group did this for a number of years when we were first married.  I hummed a lot to avoid embarrassing myself (my key is J Flat).
  5. What’s your favourite Christmas music?  I love the traditional hymns and some of the more modern tunes.  One of my favorite memories is singing hymns on Christmas Eve with my grandmother.  
  6. What’s your favourite Christmas carol?  Angels We Have Heard On High.  It lifts my spirit.
  7. Do you have a special Xmas movie/book you like to watch/read?  I watch "A Christmas Story" every year it seems...it is not unlike when I was a boy.  I didn't shoot my own eye with a BB gun, but I got the neighbor boy just below the eye. 
  8. Does your family do individual gifts, gifts for littlies only, Secret Santa (aka Kris Kringle)?  I exchange several gifts with my wife, usually one gift from us to our daughters and son-in-law, and several gifts from us to each of the grandchildren.  We've become addicted to Amazon and gift cards so they can get what they want.
  9. Is your main Christmas meal indoors or outdoors, at home or away?  It is always indoors (it is winter in the USA, even in San Diego) and usually at one of my daughters' homes.
  10. What do you eat as your main course for the Christmas meal?  Always roast turkey, usually with stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans or peas.  Then pumpkin pie.  Unless we are in Huntington Beach, where we have home made tacos and salad and ice cream.  Then we go to the beach if it's not raining.
  11. Do you have a special recipe you use for Xmas?  I don't - I just show up and eat.  Ho ho ho!
  12. Does Christmas pudding feature on the Xmas menu? Is it your recipe or one you inherited?  We've never had Christmas pudding.
  13. Do you have any other special Christmas foods? What are they?  Not really.  Maybe sugar cookies? :)
  14. Do you give home-made food/craft for gifts at Christmas?  No.  We used to be in a social group that would re-gift fruitcakes each year.
  15. Do you return to your family for Xmas or vice versa?  We usually go to one or both daughters' families, or we go to one of them on Christmas Day and the other one before or after Christmas (since they live 400 miles apart, and we're 100 miles from the closest one).
  16. Is your Christmas celebrated differently from your childhood ones? If yes, how does it differ?  Yes, we are much more religious than our parents were.  And we travel more than 10 miles to be with our family.
  17. How do you celebrate Xmas with your friends? Lunch? Pre-Xmas outings? Drop-ins? Sometimes we drop-in or host drop-ins, and my wife has lunch with other friends with a small gift exchange. Our local genealogy society has a "Holiday Luncheon" with a bring-one get-one gift exchange.  I never get anything good.  
  18. Do you decorate your house with lights? A little or a lot?  We used to string lights around the front edge of the house, but I don't go up on the roof any more...so no, we don't any longer.
  19. Is your neighbourhood a “Xmas lights” tour venue?  It's a cul-de-sac, but there are some good light shows on the street.  Our city has several organized light tour blocks that attract drive-bys and walkers.
  20. Does your family attend Carols by Candlelight singalongs/concerts? Where?  We used to, but now it's only the Christmas Eve service at church  (when we are in town) where we have lit candles around the outdoor cross and  sing Silent Night after the service.
  21. Have any of your Christmases been spent camping (unlikely for our northern-hemisphere friends)?  No...
  22. Is Christmas spent at your home, with family or at a holiday venue?  Sometimes, sometimes and no.
  23. Do you have snow for Christmas where you live?  San Diego is very temperate, so I've seen snow twice in my life at sea level.  Our mountains have snow every year, and occasionally at Christmas time.
  24. Do you have a Christmas tree every year?  We used to, and do when we are hosting Christmas for the family.  However, we don't have a tree in most years that we travel to be with the daughters and grandkids.  We don't have one this year (Linda received a 12-inch tree for her birthday but we haven't decorated it).
  25. Is your Christmas tree a live tree (potted/harvested) or an imitation?  Growing up, it was always harvested.  During most of our married life, the tree was harvested, although we had a potted tree several years.  We have an imitation tree now but rarely put it up.  I wonder where it is?
  26. Do you have special Xmas tree decorations?  Linda insists that all of the decorations on our tree are angels...and we have hundreds of angels on flat space around the house.  So yes...
  27. Which is more important to your family, Christmas or Thanksgiving?  Christmas.
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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

Cheri Hudson Passey said...

Fun questions! Here's mine. http://carolinagirlgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/12/saturday-night-genealogy-funpauleens.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

Loved this one! Here is my link: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2017/12/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-pauleens-christmas-meme/

Seeds to Tree said...

Me too, fun! Here's my link: http://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2017/12/christmas-meme.html

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Coming a little late to the party. That's a lot of questions but brought up great memories.
https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2017/12/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-pauleens.html

Cassmob (Pauleen) said...

Thanks for recycling my meme Randy...it’s good to see new entries and how people have underpinning similarities but other differences. I love that you have angels on your tree...in our case it’s hearts. I’m thinking I might revisit my responses to see if they’ve changed over the five years.

Cassmob (Pauleen) said...

Here’s my response https://cassmob.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/deck-the-halls-2017-christmas-geneameme/

Pauleen

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here are my memories of Christmas:

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2016/12/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-pauleens.html