Sleighbells Ring, Are You Listenin'?

Seven questions and a thought. What could be simpler, right? So take a break from all that holiday hustle and bustle, and link your sleigh up with Joyce from This Side of the Pond for Wednesday's Hodgepodge. Just leave a hodgepodge of comments first, please.

1. Have you ever been on a real sleigh ride? How about the warm weather version - a carriage ride?
One year when I was a child a local outdoor mall had a sleigh complete with a Santa and horses (no reindeer) pulling customers (re: dads and kids waiting for their shopping moms) around the parking lot. There couldn't have been enough snow for a real sleigh, so it must have been a wagon of some sort, but in my nine-year-old mind, it was the ultimate sleigh ride. As for the carriage ride, Indiana Jones took me on one in downtown Chicago when he proposed. That would be the ultimate carriage ride, I think.

2. What's your policy on 'chain mail'...you know, the emails you receive that are often some sort of poem/blessing/good wish that ask you to send it on to 10 or 12 friends? Do you delete without opening, read and trash, read and trash and then worry you won't be blessed/lucky/protected? Do you delete the sender from your contacts or just go ahead and send the love onward?
Truthfully, I always feel a little threatened when someone sends me such wonderful blessings/wishes/poems and then threatens me with horrible things or lack of blessings if I don't immediately annoy 10 or 12 friends by passing the blessing on. Kinda throws cold water on all that love and warmth, doesn't it?

3. Who is your favorite character in any of the Christmas movies and why?
I love Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen) in White Christmas. They're such conniving little stinkers they crack me up. And they can dance like nobody's business.

4. Share a favorite quote.
"Now I have to kill someone again." --my son after someone shut off his video game before he had a chance to save.

5. What's your favorite holiday scent?
The smell of pinesol. Hey, I love a clean house for Christmas! Believe me, it's a rare treat around here.

6. Does the Christmas season stress you out? In what way?
I only get stressed out when I realize that I'm not enjoying the holiday season because I'm getting too stressed out.

7. What's the best thing about your life right now?
I actually have one.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
If life is what you make it, then I want mine to be a big cookie with extra chocolate chips. And calories don't count.

And with that extremely pleasant thought I'll leave you to your own Hodgepodge for the day.