My Favourite Things About Christmas (my own meme)

- the piney smell of real Christmas trees (though I have an artificial one now)

- lots and lots of coloured lights on the tree, a mixture of both blinking and steady burning

- scotch cookies, the fat round ones with icing and a red or green bit of cherry on top

- Holiday Tea from the Second Cup

- After Eight mints

- "It's A Wonderful Life," "A Christmas Story," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

- all those Rankin/Bass animated shows, like "Rudolph's Shiny New Year"

- the song "Christmas Time Is Here" as sung by the Peanuts gang

- snooping for my presents

- wrapping presents

- reading "A Christmas Carol"

- eating the golden brown skin off the turkey (it's the best part)

- taking the Boy to see Santa (I'm hoping he won't be afraid of him like he was last year)

- mulled apple cider

- parties

- that Christmas-y feeling of joy and goodwill to men that sneaks up on you sometimes, when you aren't totally stressed, that is. You know, how you feel at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life," or when you see your kids have a Christmas moment of their own(last year the Boy was astounded that the cookies and beer he left for Santa were gone...that was pretty neat.)

- and, my favourite thing... lying on the couch with all the lights off and the tree lit, with music from The Nutcracker playing... it makes me remember how magical Christmas is when you're a kid ... and it's a chance to relax