Christmas Hoopla!!

Unlike some people, I'll list the rules first, so you know what to expect. I'm just saying, tricking people into reading a tag is so not right. LOL

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 because then nobody ends up actually doing it.
4. Get to work! The Christmas season will be over before we know it.

1. In high school chorus, we sang the same Christmas songs every year. And then the following years when my brother was in Chorus, they sang the same songs too. I love Mrs. Reagan, my chorus teacher, but she really could have skipped "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" once in a while. And while we are on the subject of Christmas songs, you know that song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas?" In the second verse, when they start singing about "Bring us some figgy pudding and bring us some now?" We, as young adolescent boys, made a very lewd and profane version of that. I know, so not Christmasy, but it was funny at the time.

2. One year in Savannah, it actually got cold for Christmas and ice covered all the roads. I had rented a Nintendo game from Blockbuster and it was due on Christmas Eve. (The game was extremely wack...I think it was called Black Bass and was all about fishing. The only thing more boring than fishing, is playing a Nintendo game about fishing.) Anyway, my mom had to bring back to the video store before they closed, and as we were driving, the car spun around on the ice and we went around in circles. Luckily, nobody else was on the roads. It was actually pretty fun to me. It felt like a mini roller coaster.

3. When I was 19, I was working at a hospital in the kitchen. All of the older ladies loved me, because of my natural charm (LOL). Actually this was before my whole anti social, don't talk to me, sarcastic side was fully developed. Well, that year one of the cafeteria ladies bought me a bottle of Hennessy. I didn't really drink then, but we tried to make some spiked eggnog out using the Hennessy. It was the nastiest drink I have ever had in my life.

4. One Christmas (1997), me and my homeys, Kareem and Tori went to the movies to see Jackie Brown. That was a fateful day. We ran into this girl named Charis, and her girlfriend Navika, and Navika's best friend Terri. This was the first time I had met them. In the upcoming year, I would become roommates with Charis, and Terri would become my bestest female (mostly) platonic friend. I lost touch with Charis after she had moved her new girlfriend (and her son) into our apartment and I dipped. And Terri and I lost contact when I moved from Savannah, and her phone kept getting disconnected. I wonder how they are doing now.

5. When I lived in New York, nothing was better to me than snow on Christmas. Granted I was a kid and didn't have to drive in it, but riding a sled down a hill on Christmas was my favorite thing. One year, I don't know if it was Christmas or not, I rode my sled down a hill and lost control and went under a steel fence. I scratched my face all up, but still didn't want to go inside.

6. For some reason, we used to always watch Ben-Hur around Christmas. I don't know if that is really a Christmas movie or not, but that was one of our traditions when I was like 12.

7. When I have kids, I want them to believe in Santa Claus for a while. So many Black people I meet don't do the Santa thing. They don't want an old White man to get credit for what they do for their kids. I say who cares. Its all a part of the magic of Christmas. There are so many other issues that are far more important than that. Let your kids just be kids and worry about racism and economics later.

8. My siblings and I don't exchange gifts on Christmas. Well, for the most part we don't. A while ago, we decided that instead of buying a gift for each other, we would just keep the money that we would spend and use it for whatever we needed or desired. That way, there's no pressure to figure out what they would like or anything like that. I know its strange but our agreement works out for us. This year although I didn't get my sister a gift, I did pay for most of the gift from her kids. And my brother, well he just had a baby, so he gets no gifts anymore. It's all about Lil Justin.

9. I found about Santa Claus when I was 7. I saw my father putting together my Christmas gifts. I think it was a hot wheel track. I didn't say anything because I still wanted to get gifts from both Santa and from my parents. LOL, I used to be all about the presents.

10. One Christmas, when I living with my ex, we got mad early and went to some friends house to open presents and have breakfast. The catch was... I really could not stand them. They were more her friends than my friends, but I played along anyway. Anyway, Christmas morning conversation consisted of why Tupac was the best rapper, how many guns they have in the house and getting blunted at 7 AM. I was appalled, so I spend the whole time playing with their daughter who was like 3. I don't think they ever knew that I didn't like them. I think they just thought that I was being friendly to their kid.

11. I have horrible luck when it comes to Secret Santa and stuff like that. This one year at my old job, I got nothing from my Secret Santa. Another year, I got a bag of chocolate candies. I don't eat chocolate. This year, I got a Chia Shrek. I vented about that the other day.

12. In Savannah, the neighbors across the street used to put up a gaudy, excessive, Christmas pageant on their house. They had lights for days, an inflatable Santa on the roof, a nativity scene. One year they had a giant inflatable snow globe on the front yard. I alternated between being impressed and being annoyed by them. The year when they added sound (Santa's Ho Ho Ho) I was annoyed.

Bonus # 1. I'm not good at picking out Christmas gifts. To me the gift card is the best thing ever invented because it takes all the decision making off of me.

Bonus # 2. (Cuz Jameil only had one bonus!) I gotta watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" at least once during the Christmas season.

Okay, so I don't do the tag thing. If Jameil will forgive me for breaking the rules, I'm gonna leave that part out. What can I say, I'm a rebel. I don't know if anyone will read this or not, but if you do, have a Merry Christmas. I'll still be here posting away, so if you get bored, stop by and check me out.