Weehah! Fun with lists

Kelly (perhaps better known as Kikipotamus) tagged me for this list-making activity related to the current holiday season:

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 (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme...no mean old memes this time)
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.

Seeing no barrier to broadening, I offer up 12 holiday-season random things, and hereby declare my taggees equally free to expound on anything related to their own holiday of choice this season!

1. I dislike crowds, which makes some of the holiday events more trouble for me than some.

2. My extended family is large enough that they constitute a crowd.

3. No, our big Christmas gathering is not as much fun for me as getting together in smaller groups (see 1 and 2 above).

4. Favorite Christmas song: The Christmas Song as performed by Nat King Cole. (you know..."Chestnuts roasting on a open fire...")

5. I have not purchased a single Christmas gift this year by walking into a store. Every one was purchased using my computer as the tool, and the destination websites as the source.

6. My wife makes the single-most amazing holiday treats in the world, and they are not sweet.

7. We are having an Easy World Christmas this year--a nice combination of decorating (without taking it to the max as we have some years), lots of time with just the two of us, and enough outside-the-house events that we are not kicked out of the family.

8. My earliest memory of my siblings (I am the oldest) was them destroying my little record player which I cared for lovingly at age 4. I hope to have completed the forgiveness process by next year, since it will be 50 years I have been holding that grudge! (note: this is a tongue-in-cheek entry, not serious. The story is true, though)

9. I have fond memories of the Christmas when my mom, my three siblings and I went skiing for a few days over Christmas. It was my first time being Santa, and I pulled it off perfectly. I was a senior in high school at the time. My dad was in Vietnam that year.

10. Usually, I manage to get my wife at least one gift which is a complete surprise. Not always, but this year, I'm going to be successful for sure!

11. I will not be back at work after today until next Thursday. Blessed be the holidays, as they result in a lessened workload for corporate tech support people!

12. On Christmas morning, I will be awake and ready to get to the presents hours before my wife. She knows this, so she gets up at least a little early. Some things never change: my inner child knows when presents are ready to be opened!

Tagging to continue this list hoopla: Lynn (notice I made you eligible, my dear!), Olivia, Jane, Rebecca, and Patti (of 37days).