I've recently discovered a new blog, The Paper Mama. She has recently begun hosting a fun meme: 11 Things. It's a way of getting to know readers and readers getting to know bloggers. I do hope many of you will join in the fun and share the link to your meme in a comment below. I know Mr Speech & I would enjoy visiting your blogs and reading your memes. For this inaugural 11 Things Meme, I - Mrs Speech - am writing it. You may recall that I am on holiday in America while Mr Speech is holding down the fort back in Brisbane. Shout out to Mr Speech! You Rock!!! {You all should know I'm not shy about how I feel about my handsome husband.}

The rules:

1. Post a photo of yourself

2. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

3. Create 11 new questions and ask people to answer them.

The Paper Mama Asked:

1. If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?
"Mom" or even "Mum"...I've been hoping, praying, and waiting years to change my name to Mum. And, you know what...with my heart full of hope, I will continue to pray and wait.

2. Are you a collector of anything?
Teacups. You may recall this post where I swoon over the tea cups at T2. In the past I collected teapots...whimsical and lovely teapots. However, that collection remains Stateside while my tea cup collection is ever growing Down Under. Perhaps one day the two collections will become one and I can host a huge (YUGE) tea party!

3. What is your first thought when you wake up?
"Tea!" - when I'm home in Brisbane. While I'm in Michigan on holiday, "French Vanilla Coffee!" Either way, the kettle is going on and having a hot cuppa is the first thing on my mind.

4. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?
Yes! Both. I like the sweet and savory together.

5. Name one thing you miss about being a kid.
Playing. I have so enjoyed time with my three-year-old nephew while on holiday in Michigan. Playing is the most important thing in the world to him. And, I realize at my graceful age of {ahem} 40 {shocking, I know} that there is much to learn from a three year old. I miss being three.

6. Are you a morning or night person?
Ha! I would say night, but it's a struggle to stay up much later than 10 p.m. these days. I can wake up between 6 or 6:30 without an alarm, but I'm not happy about it. Can a person be in transition? I don't think I am either a morning or a night person. When pressed, I would rather stay up late than wake up early. But, there's no guarantee I won't be grumpy {poor Mr Speech...he's so patient and kind when I get the grumpies - - - that's one of the reasons I love him so}.

7. List 5 items on your life’s to-do list:
1) Write a Children's Book
2) Adopt a baby girl from China
3) Have breakfast in Paris with Mr Speech
4) Finish all of my current unfinished quilts/sewing projects
5) Travel Europe researching my ancestry

8. Share one thing that people may not know about you.
Though I was born and raised in a state surrounded by the five Great Lakes and renowned for being a Winter Wonderland, I do not water or snow ski.

9. What is your all time favorite song, movie, and book?
Song - Jesus Loves Me
Movie - It's A Wonderful Life
Book - Psalms

10. Do you have any hidden talents?
Teaching...I was a missionary teacher before I met and married Mr. Speech.

11. Are you a really clean or super messy person?
Good question! I think I am a happy mix of both. People pay me to clean their home, while my own for the most part is "lived in". Ideally, I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place, but that's not reality. Especially, when I get out my fabric. Watch out! My works-in-progress lead to clutter. Organization is an area I'd really like to grow in...share your tips in the comments below or email me!

My Questions For You To Answer
1. Valentine's Day is tomorrow, if you HAD to pick just ONE which would you choose for a gift: 1 lb. heart-shaped box of chocolates, 1 dozen long stem red roses, dinner and a movie, or other?
2. What is the name of the most recent movie you saw at the cinema?
3. Your plans have changed and you have 30 minutes to make dinner, what do you make/do?
4. Do you have a Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall birthday?
5. What is your all time favorite book children's book - favorite you read over and over again, perhaps memorized, as a child?
6. If you are a quilter/crafter, take a photo of your most current project and share it with us. If you are not, please share your hobby.
7. Are you a Downton Abbey fan?
8. List the top 3 places you would take me to if I visited your hometown.
9. What is the name of the last blog you visited?
10. Favorite Love song?
11. Tea or coffee?

Your turn! I hope you will play along and answer this 11 questions meme! If you answer my questions, please come back and put a link in the comments. I’d really love to visit your blog and learn a bit about you!

Mrs Speech tells me, that growing up in America, it was their tradition to bake Christmas cookies in the lead up to the Big Day.

For the record, we call them biscuits. Over here biscuits are cookies. You don't soak them in gravy and if you put them with your roast beef it'd be a strange combination. Biscuits are cookies and cookies...are smaller, round things with little chips in 'em I guess.

But, Christmas cookies are what Mrs Speech likes. She usually makes them sugar-cookie-style (like Gangnam Style, only better) but this year she decided to chocolate them up and whack on some leftover chocolate icing mix.

We never did anything like this when I was growing up. We never really had those kinds of traditions. Our tradition, growing up in Adelaide, was to get out of the 40°/110° heat. Later, when I was comin' up in Brisbane, the tradition was to get out of the 33°/100° heat and melt-you-where-you-stand humidity.

Christmas traditions in Australia are slowly disappearing, you know, like how you read twice a year on CNN that unless someone does something, fourteen languages will disappear in the next year? It's like that. I was walking back home through our unit complex the other day and I saw a wreath. A really nice wreath, too. But then I thought, I don't think there's another one in the walk down to our place. We have one up.

You'd pass sixteen units and not see another one. There was a time when you'd see tons of them. And lots of Christmas tree lights in windows.

Man this is turning into a depressing post. I don't wanna do that to you.

We LOVE Christmas in our household. So we do traditions. We're going through them in this How We Do Christmas series, but so far this is what we've traditioned for the holiday season:

• Putting up the tree (everyone does this...)
• Christmas present shopping (everyone does this, too, mainly)
• Going to the lighting of the tree (not sure for how much longer)
• Buying a bauble for our tree that same night
• Going to the Twilight Markets/Christmas Parade (just started)
• Watching It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve ("Merry Christmas y'old Building 'n Loan")
• Reading the Christmas Story from Luke 2:1 to Luke 2:20 (we do this before opening presents)
• Watching Ben Hur Christmas Day (after lunch...when I fall asleep fifteen minutes in...it's the best Christmas movie ever, though)

Traditions are important, in my humble opinion. They bind us to our past and guarantee that we don't forget what is important. And in our five minute culture I want to be bound to the notion that Christmas is not transient, is not of diminishing importance.

That it's a day that has been honoured by billions of people who've come and gone under the reign of the king, for two thousand and twelve years (and counting...regardless of what the Mayans say).

So we hold on to our little quaint practices, of wreaths and Christmas movies, because we love the season, we love the Saviour, and we love our Christmas cookies.