I was tagged in this questionnaire by @ellieehaze and @juliju, my thanks to both of you!!
Thanks also go to @weedfarmer for creating this and the recent music questionnaire.
1. How was your Thanksgiving and what are you thankful for?
In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October and this year it was a small gathering of friends with way too much food. So, pretty much on par with the last few years.
I'm grateful for my health, both mentally and physically. I'm grateful for where I live and for being able to make a living. I am most grateful for the people I love and who love me.
2. Who's putting up a Christmas tree 🎄?
I do every year and it's not up yet but it should be by the end of the week.
3. Do you have any family tradition for Thanksgiving and Christmas?
I have a large family and my parents are divorced, my Lady's parents are divorced and we both have adult children so Christmas for me is a series of visits and gatherings. The one real tradition I have is with my Mom's family, we are Ukrainian and celebrate Epiphany (Orthodox Christmas) with a perogie party. There's usually around 20 people and everyone has to help out in some fashion, I have been the designated dough roller for almost 40 years now. Lol. We also have a variety of shapes as we do several different fillings and we typically make 30 - 36 dozen perogies.4. Your best advice?
4. Your best advice?
I love the line "Take my advice, here, I'm not using it."
I have also learned that sometimes being wrong or making the mistake is the best lesson.
What I have learned is that loving yourself, acceptance and managing your expectations are the keys to happiness.
5. Do you have any holiday charities you donate to?
I don't have anything planned for this year, I try to give something to someone or something worthwhile every year, it just hasn't appeared yet.
I spent many years helping to make and then serving Christmas dinner at a few homeless shelters here but I think my favorite was sponsoring a single mother with young children. It was through a group that would match people up based on things like budget or the ability to provide things like furniture and you basically gave a family Christmas.
6. Your favorite Christmas song?
When my kids were little, it gave them great joy to sing Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer to their Grandmother. That's my favorite memory of a Christmas song. My favorite recording is Bing Crosby and David Bowie's Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.
7. Your best Christmas present, your choices given or received?
I will have to pick a childhood present when Christmas was magical. My birthday is January 6th and being that close to Christmas I received a lot of combined gifts. When I was 7, turning 8 my family went above and beyond and got me pretty much everything I had hoped for. A whole pile of Six Million Dollar Man action figures and gear and the topper Mattel Football!!
8. Do you have your Christmas shopping done?
Nope. I almost always end up getting the last handful of gifts on the 24th.
9. Fun question something you enjoy during the Holidays?
Seeing children enjoy Christmas. I also enjoy that moment when something happens or something clicks and I actually embrace/feel the holiday festivities.
10. Do you have plans for New Years eve?
I get together every year with friends, my best friend of more than 35 years usually hosts a small party, so good food and old friends.
11. Your goals for the new year 2024?
Keep on, keeping on. One day at a time.
12. Your New Years resolution?
I don't do New Years resolutions.
13. Your favorite hobbies?
Collecting watches, I have a stupid amount of watches. Collecting sharp things, I have a stupid amount of sharp things. Learning leathercraft, I mainly make custom sheaths for sharp things but I have started on an ambitious legal style messenger bag for my daughter.
14. Do you do Christmas cards?
I like receiving cards and can't help but laugh at that because I never have it together enough to do them.
15. Share anything you want from your past holiday's?
I'll finish with a bang. Most memorable gift - My kids were young and I'd been up quite late putting things together/ finishing wrapping, so Christmas morning I've not had much sleep and am mildly hungover and my wife (at the time) hands me my gift. It's a card. I open it and there's a clue inside, she's sending me on a scavenger hunt to find my gift. I groan. I find 4 more clues and the last one directs me to our neighbors house. I really groan. The lesbian couple are good friends of ours but I wasn't very enthusiastic about going to their place to find my gift. Oh,well off I go. They let me in and after chatting they direct me to their bedroom, off I go alone. I reach for a box under the bed and as I do so I can hear loud discussion from downstairs followed by someone heading upstairs. I pause without opening up the box as one of them rushes in apologizing profusely that there had been a mistake. The box I was about to open was a cryopack of sperm as they were going to have a child together! We went back downstairs where I got my actual present, a leather jacket that I wore for years. Lol
Well, I hope you've enjoyed my answers to the questionnaire and I will tag some of you to carry this forward @harmonylane @vivianbliss @veronicavixxxen @moekko @marilol @smashcls @magnum @alexislust @annaxrain @acadiachaosxxx
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!! ❤️💚❤️💚
Aaron
