Because everything Terry does is "special". :)

1. The ol’ Tannenbaum--fake or real? When does it go up? And when does it come down?

When we first got married, we had a lovely real tree. Well, the first year we did. The second year we didn't do a tree at all. I had a baby on December 1 and was too worn out to care. Our third Christmas we had another real tree. Then we moved to Alaska -- the land of a million spruce trees. There we found out that real Christmas trees are hard to come by. If you go buy one at a lot, they've been shipped in from Oregon and cost a fortune. You can go chop one down for free on specially designated government land, but then you have to slowly acclimate it to the indoors, because if it warms up too quickly all the needles fall off immediately and all the hibernating bugs wake up and swarm your house. We decided to buy a fake tree like 98% of the other people in Fairbanks.

It's a nice, skinny, 7-footer that served us very well. Currently though, it is up in the attic. Last year on Christmas Eve, my mom was at Lowes and found a 9-foot, pre-lit tree for $20. Now, I was perfectly happy with only a 7-foot tree, but not having to string lights makes me almost giddy. We haven't decided what to do with the other tree. Maybe some year we'll get ambitious and put it up elsewhere in the house.

As to when we put it up -- normally sometime in the weekend after Thanksgiving -- this year it was about 30 minutes after the last bit of pumpkin pie was eaten at the Thanksgiving feast due to pressure from The Boy. It comes down as quickly after Christmas as I can talk my husband into working on it -- usually right around New Year's Day.

2. Shopping--fake or real? Oh, wait, that’s the last question. Here we are--do you wait until the last minute or plan ahead? Do you give gift cards?

I usually plan ahead and buy things on sale or make things, but I always either can't think of anything for one of my husband's brothers -- and yes, I do all the shopping for everyone except me -- or I forget someone. So there is always a last minute gift or two that I have to run out and buy. My husband, relieved of almost all shopping duties, still manages not to do any shopping until I kick him out of the house with instructions not to come home until he's bought me a Christmas present. He's lucky that this year we decided we're not buying presents for each other at all, having just bought ourselves a lovely new furnace instead.

3. And finally, where do you carry out your celebrating, of whatever sort it might be? At your house, at a relative’s house in the area, or out of town?

At home. My parents don't celebrate Christmas and my in-laws take the, in my opinion, unreasonable stance that children should be allowed to get up whenever they feel like it -- say 3 a.m. to open their presents -- and that everyone should get up and make merry. I'm not merry at 3 or 4 a.m. and therefore we do not go anywhere. We might, and have, travelled later in the day to eat with someone, but the morning time is reserved for opening presents and playing with them and wearing pajamas.