With just a few days to go until Christmas, I thought it would be fun to play along with and take this holiday quiz that I've seen floating around the blogosphere. Fill free to steal it and play yourself! If you do share a link in the comments so I can go check out your answers!

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?

Hot chocolate for sure. Preferably with marshmallows or whipped cream.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Santa allows wraps the presents.


3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

We do colored lights on our tree but white lights outside. I'm a big fan out white lights outside.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope.

5. When do you hang your decorations up?

Usually sometime over Thanksgiving weekend because that's when everyone is home. But this year I think my parents did most of the decorating after I was back in Maryland.


6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

My mom's candied sweet potatoes are definitely my new favorite. I used to absolutely hate them as a little kid, but now I can't get enough of them. At Thanksgiving, the leftovers didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

When we were little, my brother and I used to wake up at like 3 a.m. to sneak downstairs to see if the presents were there. Then we'd try to wake my parents up and insist we open them right away. Yea, Mom and Dad were never too thrilled about that. Now we can barely pry my brother out of bed at 11 a.m. to open presents.

8. What is on your Christmas Wish list?

Is it a "wish list" item if I already know I'm getting it? I picked out the Zensah compression sleeves that I've wanted for a while now.

9. Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve?

No. How could we do that if Santa hasn't been to the house yet?

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

Sad fact, I don't have my own tree this year. But last year, I bought lots of little glass balls in maroon and gold. I thought it looked pretty.


11. Snow? Love it or dread it?

It's fun for the first day, then it needs to go away immediately and stop messing up the traffic in D.C.

12. Real tree or fake tree?

I've only ever had fake trees. Growing up, my Dad never wanted to risk tree fires with a real tree.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

I've had lots of great gifts over the years. When I was little I remember being so so excited about getting Mall Madness (you know that board game where you race through the mall to buy stuff). In more recent years, my Under Armour stuff and other general running gear has been some of my favorite.

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?

Going home and getting to see friends and family that I don't see very often otherwise.


15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert?

My family doesn't have any sort of traditional holiday desserts, but my uncle makes a mean cheesecake.

16. What is your favorite tradition?

On Christmas Eve, we go to dinner at our family friend's house. There are four or five families that show up in the afternoon. We eat dinner, go to Christmas Eve Mass, and then go back for dessert. We've been doing it for years now and it's my favorite part of Christmas.

17. What tops your tree?

A star.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving?

I am obsessed with giving gifts. I love trying to pick out the perfect thing for someone and then I get really antsy waiting for them to open it. I love seeing their reaction.


19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?

All I Want For Christmas Is You.

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum?

Yum (in moderation)

21. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Mickey Mouse's Christmas Carol followed closely by Love Actually.

22. What do you leave for Santa?

Milk, cookies and a carrot for Rudolph.

23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?

Wake up, open presents and then my dad makes us a big scrambled egg breakfast.

24. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?

Definitely online. I like to avoid the crowds when I can. Plus free two-day shipping with Amazon prime is pretty much the best thing ever.

25. Christmas letter or Christmas card?

I don't send my own, but my family sends cards.

And that's a wrap!


From my family to yours, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Remember my cousin Laura who got married last month?


Well she's running her very first race this weekend!

I'm really excited because Laura and I have been trying to run a race together for the last two years.

Our planned first race, a five miler in Baltimore, got snowed out.

Then life got in the way. Laura was busy with work and wedding planning and I was focusing on running longer races.

We talked about squeezing in a short race in the spring before the wedding, but it was just too much to try to jam into Laura's already packed schedule.

When Laura emailed me after the wedding asking about doing a race in the fall, I pulled together a list of great local options, everything from a 5K to a 15K. She picked a couple that sounded fun and we planned on a fall race.

I was super surprised when she emailed me a few days later asking about a 5K that was three weeks out. It was an all-women's race close to her house on a loop she was familiar with. She wanted to know if I thought she could be ready for it with the small running base she had established.

It sounded like the perfect first race: All women, low key, on a familiar course.

Obviously I told Laura I definitely thought she could be ready and that if she wanted, I'd love to run it with her.

So Sunday morning, we'll line up at the start together. We won't be racing for time, just to finish.

And hopefully by the time we're done Laura will have been bitten by the running bug and there will be lots of cousin races in the future!

(Sometimes Laura drops by the blog, so feel free to leave her good luck wishes in the comments!)