Happy Holiday series: part 2

This month I thought it would be fun to introduce you to some of my fellow Omaha bloggers by asking them some questions about how they usually spend the holidays. 

Today I feature Heidi Woodard. Heidi is the voice behind MaternalMedia and GiveTheGameBack who began capturing memories in writing because she stinks at scrap booking. She and her husband have three children who will be in three separate schools (high, junior, and grade) starting next year. As such, Heidi has asked for a brown paper bag into which she plans to take deep breaths starting this Christmas.

Having soaked in a fair share of youth sporting events from the sidelines, Heidi started noticing something a few years back that concerned her. She was a little too wrapped up in her child's performance versus his experience. She also had a hard time blocking out all the noise that surrounded youth athletes every time they took the field. Pressure to excel, not make mistakes, be the best -- these are qualities one would expect from a high-level high school or collegiate athlete, but not necessarily from a child whose motor skills and intellectual capacity are still developing.

The following questions kept circling round and round in her mind: Why do we, as adults, tend to hold our children to standards that are higher than what we set for ourselves? When's the last time I was perfect?

Instead of resting on her laurels and doing nothing about something that bothered her, she took action and launched the GiveTheGameBack movement earlier this year. When asked to describe her website in five words or less, she answered "Xanax for youth sports parents."

Check out her answers to our silly Holiday questions!

1. What was your best gift as a child?

I loved my roller skates because the basement in my childhood home wasn't carpeted and it had a pole in the middle of it that ran from the ceiling to the floor. I could skate around that basement, swing around the pole, and make up my own figure (roller) skating routines. I'm guessing I had the soundtrack to Flashdance blasting in the background.

2. What was your worst gift as a child?

The gift I always wanted, but never got: the super sized Barbie head that I could apply makeup to and whose hair I could fix. I'm sure my mom had grown accustomed to my tendency to bounce between interests as often as the seasons change and figured I wouldn't play with it nearly as much as I swore I would.

3. What is one gift you’ll never forget receiving?

I don't think I got them in the same year, but I had both the Barbie dream hotel and the He-Man Castle Grayskull. It was a dream play neighborhood for a girl who was half diva and half tomboy!

4. When did you stop believing in Santa Clause? What is your story?

I overheard my mom telling someone (I'm thinking it was my maternal grandma?) about what a great deal she got on the bicycle she found for me. My mom is always looking for sales and she was particularly proud of this find. Problem was: I had been told it was my gift from Santa. Oops!

5. When do you open and exchange gifts?

We are incredibly blessed to have a lot of family who live in close proximity so we end up opening gifts before and on Christmas Day. My personal favorites are the ones we open with our own kids first thing on Christmas morning.

6. What is your favorite kind of Christmas cookie?

Spritz...I think that's what they're called? The kind you make with a cookie gun with colored dough. They always remind me of the ones my grandma and my mom made together when I was young.

7. What are some of your family’s holiday traditions?

Having our kids open presents that contain a new set pajamas on Christmas Eve and then seeing them excited to wear them to bed as they anxiously await for Christmas morning. We also enjoy attending Christmas Eve service at church and lighting candles as the entire congregation sings Silent Night in near dark.

8. It wouldn’t be the holidays without _____________.
Watching our kids unbox their awkward, homemade, very loved Christmas ornaments from storage and placing each unique creation on the tree. Every ornament holds a story. They represent tiny chapters of our life and, when pieced together, tell the story of who we are as a family.

9. What Holiday TV special or movie is a must in your family each year?

Christmas Vacation.

10. What is your favorite holiday song? 

O Holy Night, Acapella version by Martina McBride

11. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Wrapping paper! (But I'm not against gift bags FTR. To each their own I say! PEACE ON EARTH!)

12. Real or Artificial tree?
Real. (Scratch my last statement re: to each their own. Nothing beats the smell of a fresh-cut tree and you can't convince me otherwise. Ha!)

13. When do you put up the tree?  When do you take the tree down?

We try to get the tree up as soon after Thanksgiving as possible. We normally take the tree down the first week of January. If left up to my dear husband, the tree won't get taken away from the side of our house to be recycled until March.

14. Do you like Eggnog?

I like Eggnog in the same way I like Mariah Carey...in small doses. I can't take too much of either of them.

15. Who is the hardest person to buy for?
My husband. I guess I should feel lucky because he is very particular and he picked me. I lost my receipt so there's no returns.

16. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Cyber Monday. I've never understood the thrill of Black Friday. No amount of super savings will ever trump good, old-fashioned shut-eye in my book.

17. Have you ever "recycled" a Christmas present?
No. That would mean I'm organized enough to remember where I put unwanted gifts. Plus, I'm really not that picky and appreciate about any gift...except hand towels, they are like Gremlins in my house. Once they get wet, they seem to reproduce when I'm not looking.