Not since last year; I don't start mine until I have a (real) tree, which don't come out for sale until the very end of November.

If you are a gardener, do you like to do everything yourself, or to get help with mowing or weeding?

I'm not what I would consider a gardener, but I do prefer mowing the lawn over having it hired out.

Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to next year?

Potentially going to England (pending for obvious reasons)

Does your mind engage with a story better when you listen to an audiobook, or read a regular book?

Reading a regular book.

Do you prefer a big breakfast or a small breakfast or none at all?

Small breakfast! Just a bowl of fruit, granola + nuts and a cup of coffee does the trick for me (so I am very different than the centaurs I am named after - they spend all morning eating).

Are you a morning person or a night owl (or a hybrid)?

Definitely not a morning person, so I guess that makes me more of a night owl.

What's the first Christmas decoration you get out/put up every year?

Usually my Nativity scene.

Do you have any handmade Christmas decorations that you or other family members have made yourselves?

Actually, yes! I made some origami ornaments a few years ago. Someday, I want to do a mini Christmas tree with only origami ornaments!

Do you put up a real pine tree for Christmas, or do you put up an artificial tree?

Artifical, it goes up with white lights following the first snow, but no ornaments until the Friday after Thanksgiving.

What's one of your favorite Christmas songs?

Ooh, I have MANY "favourite" Christmas songs, but if I had to pick an absolute-above-all-others, I think it would have to be Morten Lauridsen's setting of O Magnum Mysterium. (I haven't heard it for a while and am literally getting chills down my spine as I'm listening.)

For anyone who's not familiar with it, the Latin words are from the Matins of Christmas and translate as: "O great mystery and wondrous sacrament, that animals should see the newborn Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord. Alleluia!"

(Love the origami ornaments, @Wunderkind_Lucy!)

What's one of your favourite Christmas foods?

Gotta go with black forest cake (which we make once a year - at Christmas!).

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas (just like the ones you used to know)?

Not really - dreaming won't change anything.

Do you have any favourite Christmas or New Year's traditions?

As my younger siblings have gotten older and there are more gifts being given, we have started randomly opening gifts through out the month of December and into January (Epiphany gifts) when the giver can't wait any longer. Another one I enjoy is baking and decorating sugar cookies with the siblings sometime in December.

What was your favorite Christmas present this year?

That's too hard - all my gifts were nice in various ways. Also, that would mean choosing where some people who gave me gifts could see.

How do you stay warm in cold weather?

With a comfy sweater, wool socks, and hot coffee.

Do you prefer cold weather or hot weather?