This is my first time ever completing the Ten on Tuesday, as seen on Chelsea's Roots and Rings blog. It's no secret that I love any kind of themed weekly post. Friday Fives, Music Mondays, Wordless Wednesdays, I love them all. Alas, I usually don't know what day of the week it is at any given point, so unless I stumble upon it on that particular day, we're all out of luck.

This Tuesday's questions are about holidays. Well, what a coinkydink - holidays rank right up there in my Land of Favourite Things along with cupcakes, puppies, to-do lists, and adding booze to coffee.

1. What are your plans for the holidays? Do you travel at Thanksgiving? If you celebrate Christmas, do you travel then, too?
Here in Canadialand, Thanksgiving is but a distant memory from more than a month ago. We went to my parents' in New Brunswick for two days and then to Peter's parents for a day, so there was some traveling around. My Christmas plans are still up in the air but will include wearing PJs for several concurrent days, visiting both sets of parents and a bunch of aunts and uncles, eating a ton, drinking lots of Bailey's, playing board games, skating, snowshoeing, watching Christmas movies...ahhhh.

2. How do you make the plans for the holiday? If you have a significant other, how do you decide which family to visit? We split it up. We try to figure out when each family is having their big meal or to-do and plan around that.

3. Do you have your Thanksgiving meal at lunch or later in the day?
It usually ends up being a late lunch that lasts for HOURS AND HOURS. Hoo boy.

4. Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
Besides eating? Picking apples with my sister and brother!

5. After a big meal do you lounge around or get up and take a walk?
We go to an apple orchard not far from my parents' house and pick apples. It involves a wagon ride into the orchard and many good photo ops. Regardless of how full we are from dinner we always manage to cram at least one apple into our fat faces.

6. Do you shop on “Black Friday” or do you avoid it?
We don't have that here.

7. When do you usually finish your Christmas shopping?
Around December 20...I try to be done earlier but I'm always getting last-minute things closer to Christmas, stocking stuffers, things like that.

8. Do you and your significant other exchange gifts? Is there a budget?
Yes and no. We exchange gifts and we always say "this year we won't go overboard with the gifts, we'll cut back from last year" and we always overspend from the previous year. We are horrible, terrible, greedy, materialistic people. Meh.

9. When do you decorate for the holidays?
First weekend in December - this year it'll be December 4-5 weekend and I CANNOT WAIT! We get a real tree so that's the earliest we can really do it without the poor thing disintegrating into a heap of fire-hazard needles on the living room floor.

10. Do you go “all out” with the decor or do you keep it simple?
This year I'm foolishly excited to decorate. It's our first year in our house, so it's the first year we can actually decorate the outside of our home. We're still figuring out what we're going to do and are stalking our neighbourhood early birds for ideas, but I think it's safe to say we'll have a wreath on the front door and lights on the front step bannisters and in the windows. Inside we'll try and keep it tasteful but festive - tree in the living room, centrepieces on the tables, stockings on the mantel, and of course lots of Christmasy scented candles and holiday music. We tend to go for more traditional, simple decorations - you won't find a fuschia tree or giant inflatable Santas on our front lawn. We also hate old-fashioned Father Christmases.