A Holly Jolly Hodgepodge

Joining Joyce @ From This Side of the Pond for the Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1.  Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking. 
~ "Santa" fills the stockings after everyone goes to bed on Christmas Eve.  We've always made the kids wait until everyone is up and gathered to open gifts.  When they were little we made them stay in their rooms so they couldn't snoop while they waited.  Santa often left their stockings on the bedpost so they could open them first and take their minds off what was happening under the tree.

2.  How many hours of sleep do you average at night?  Is it enough?
~ About 5 hours and no, it is NOT enough.  My body, unfortunately, doesn't seem to agree.  I never seem to sleep more than 6 hours at a time max.  The arthritis hurts too much after that.  When I do try to grab some extra sleep I seem to end up stiff, headachy, and likely with a sinus headache on top of the regular headache.

3.  If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be?
~ How about work?  There's so much I need to do and would like to do at home.

4.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals? 
~ I hear it.  It's kind of hard to miss.  I don't look for news, though.  Just not particularly interested.

5.  For me,  the sound of childhood is__________________.
~ A summer evening....the thunk of a foot against a ball in a pick-up game of kickball, the whir of bicycle tires racing down the street, squeals of excitement as lightning bugs are caught, baseball on the radio, moms calling kids in for a bath.

6.  Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?
~ That would be a big BOO to the fruit cake!  Plum pudding gets the same rating (Mom had a British friend that made it for her every year...I suggested that once the brandy burned off we keep letting it burn).  My favorite fruit dessert would have to be peach cobbler.

7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?
~ I really need to get back on the diet and exercise bandwagon.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
~ I was at the funeral home again last night.  Second Tuesday in a row.  It was for our next-door neighbor this time.  His family, his wife's family, and my family were among the first to move into the neighborhood when it was still mostly farm land back in the 1920s.  Four generations of us have lived in the same part of the neighborhood (in some cases the same houses) ever since.  Our house is right behind my mom's and we are surrounded by cousins of that family.  We were all so close growing up that everyone called the generation older than them "aunt and uncle" because we knew them too well to use Mr. and Mrs. and were too respectful to use first names until we were grown.  We had neighborhood picnics for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day.  Every Christmas Eve we'd go "wassailing" in which we'd spend the evening into the early hours of the morning going from one house to the next to enjoy each host family's food and drink.  I'm the only one of my generation still living in the neighborhood, the ones before me are all in their 70s now, and I can't see any of the next generation wanting to move in so it's probably not going to be long before I am the only one left here who remembers the old days.  That makes me kind of sad...it was a wonderful way to grow up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




  Joyce is also hosting the 12 Days of Christmas Kindness this month.  I'm a little late in coming to the party, but I'm going to give it a go.  The general idea is that in the days leading up to Christmas you have to do 12 random acts of kindness.  The full rules are on Joyce's page...just click the button to go there.  Stay tuned for progress reports.