It's Almost Christmas Friday Five!

From the RevGalBlogPals site:

1. What was one of your favorite childhood gifts that you gave?

What does it say about me that I can't remember many gifts I gave as a child? Somehow it was all about what I received. My favorites were books, especially a nice big series of books in a case. What a thrill! There were a series of handmade clay things...oh! A clay dragon I made for my mom, with a hole in the nose, so you could put some incense in there, and smoke would come out. I think we did that one time. After that, the dragon sat on the shelf in the kitchen. It's probably still there.

2. What is one of your favorite Christmas recipes? Bonus points for sharing the recipe.

This is easy. Scrambled eggs and Little Smokies for Christmas breakfast.

3. What is a tradition that your family can't do without? (And by family, I mean family of origin, family of adulthood, or that bunch of cool people that just feel like family.)

From my family of origin, and now current family as well: You may open one gift, and one gift only, after church on Christmas Eve. Also, Mr. Incredible and I always exchange our stockings late that night, after all the Santa prep. (By exchanging stockings I mean the small gifts inside them, not some euphemism for something else, although that would be a nice tradition, too.)

4. Pastors and other church folk often have very strange traditions dictated by the "work" of the holidays. What happens at your place?

Christmas Eve dinner the last 2 years has been Chinese food. With two church schedules to deal with, cooking has not been on our radar screen. I like it.

5. If you could just ditch all the traditions and do something unexpected... what would it be?

I would go somewhere as a family for Christmas. No gifts, but a memorable trip. Maybe when the kids get older. I suppose ditching church for actual Christmas services would be unexpected, too. But the accompanying job loss would not be.....