Holiday Hoopla

Sher at Sher's Creative Expressions tagged me for this Holiday Hoopla. I have to share 12 random things about me that are related to Christmas.

Here are the rules:
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.
2. Please refer to it as a 'HOOPLA' and not the dreaded 'm'-word.
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

12 Random Christmas Things About Adrienne

1. I love the Christmas season - the lights, the smell, the music.

2. I would love to spend the whole Christmas season at a mission (orphanage, school, clinic, church) in Mexico where we have gone on missions trips in the past. Every December they do a big Christmas production for the entire community, complete with live animals and all the children and staff in costumes. People come from miles around to enjoy this special presentation. I would like to be there to work behind the scenes and watch the joy on the faces of the children and the people who attend.

3. From the time I was a little girl my father and I always shopped together for his Christmas gift to my mother. It was our special time together. After we were finished we had lunch or dinner out together, depending on the time of day. After I was married there were a few years when I lived out of town and couldn't help him do his shopping. When we moved back to my hometown I loved helping him and being with him again every Christmas season. We always had such a wonderful time together. I miss him terribly and every Christmas season I wish we could have just one day to be together again.

4. I am usually at the piano for the Christmas Eve Services at our church. My favorite part of the service is at the end when we sing 'Silent Night' by candlelight. Each person attending has a candle and the beauty of their faces as I sit at the piano and look out at them always brings tears to my eyes. (Good thing I can do 'Silent Night' without the music!)

5. For some reason when I was young I made a rule for myself: I couldn't get out my Christmas albums and start listening to them before Thanksgiving evening! I've tried to keep that true - until this year. I broke my own rule.

6. I wish everyone knew the joy of knowing Jesus and understanding that He is the reason for the season.

7. I am an only child and there were many Christmases when we couldn't be with family at Grandma's house in another state. We usually had a quiet, but really fun Christmas Day - just the 3 of us together - but I always felt sad, missed my family and wished we could be together.

8. After supper on Christmas Eve when I was a child we drove around town and looked at all of the Christmas lights. When we got home my father read the Christmas story before I hung my sock and went to bed. When I was old enough to tell the story by myself I told it to my parents instead.

9. The only thing I remember that was in my Christmas stocking was from my father when I was about 6 or 7 years old. He waited until the last minute to buy something for my sock. Just before the stores closed on Christmas Eve he rushed downtown and got something for Mom's sock and for mine. When I woke on Christmas morning there was a paper bag thumb-tacked next to my stocking! Inside was a little, round doll suitcase for my doll clothes. He said he didn't have time to find something that would fit in my stocking so he just got something he knew I would like.

10. My father was a preacher and when Christmas was on Sunday we had a different routine for the morning. We got up, opened the stockings, got whatever was unwrapped and in front of the tree, ate breakfast, opened ONE gift, got ready and went to church, came home, ate Sunday dinner and THEN opened the rest of our presents. I didn't seem to mind but it sure was a l-o-n-g day.

11. My mother always wrote and directed the Christmas programs at our church. When I was 5 years old I told her I didn't want to be in the program. I didn't have a reason - I just didn't want to. She didn't force me to take part. Good thing because the night of the program I was terribly sick with a high fever and couldn't even go to the program. Mom had to call her assistant and have her direct the program so she could be with me.

12. I wish it would snow like crazy on Christmas Eve after we go to bed so we could wake up to a White Christmas.

There you have it - probably more than you wish you knew about Christmas and me! Now I will tag some blog friends - Kathy, Sherry, Paula and Manuela.

I hope you have fun with this and enjoy the little tidbits you learn about each of us.