MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

In an effort to learn more about fellow MilSpouse bloggers, Wifey from Wife of a Sailor started this weekly meme;  here are this week's questions. 

1. What is the best gift you have ever received or given? from Jessica Lynn Writes  

Hmmm, the best gift I've ever received would have to be the amazing dollhouse that my mom and dad made for me for Christmas when I was 10 or 11; it was three-stories plus a basement and had an (hand-cranked) elevator and everything.  I spent hours--heck, years--playing with it (it's now been handed down to a friend's daughter).  I don't know if this is the best gift that I've ever given, but it's definitely one of my favorites: my dad is a notorious gift-guesser and he's almost impossible to surprise but a couple of years ago I managed to get one past him--a mug emblazoned with one of his favorite quotes from the classic BBC show, Keeping Up Appearances: "I'm sitting here completely surrounded by no beer."  He loved it!

2. Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition? from The Albrecht Squad  

We haven't really had enough Christmases together to really have any established traditions, though I was able to convince Captain Husband to get a real tree the first year we were together and we've had one every year since (and a related tradition is finding pine needles in unexpected places for at least six months after).

3. If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree?   

My tree has a boring gold star as the topper; I've been searching for something fun/vintage but so far I've come up empty-handed, so I keep going back to the trusty old star that I've had for nearly a decade.  However, I did make an awesome pine cone elf that's now serving as the tree-topper for my aluminum tree (I know I already posted a picture of it earlier this week, but whatever, it's cute so I'm going to post it again):

4. What are your three favorite websites?  

The websites that I visit most often are Jezebel, Apartment Therapy, and, when I need a laugh, Texts From Last Night.

5. On your man do you prefer... boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando? (yeah, I'm starting to get desperate for questions!)

I prefer boxer briefs, though I'm also fond of the occasional pair of novelty boxers.