My nephew's favorite color was pink when he was young and he loved playing with dolls. He is very much a man now (he is 21). Just because he liked pink and dolls did not make him a girl. I think parents are the ones who read too much into what the child does when they are young. I liked playing with cars, trucks, and in the dirt as a child. I also hated wearing dresses. My parents did not raise me as a boy just because of that.

I forgot to mention that I also do the Word Jumble in our paper almost every day. I always look forward to it. Sometimes they are really challenging.

Christmas Eve we are going to my sister's house. My mother is making 16 bean soup. We'll have crackers, cheese, and a vegetable tray to go with it. Christmas Day we are staying home (just my mother, my daughter, and myself). We are having turkey and mashed potatoes. I don't know if we are having anything else (big help, I know).

We (my daughter and I) just got back from the store. My mother decided they should make lefsa (a Swedish dessert) and we didn't have enough flour or butter to make it.

My mother (age 77) is helping my daughter (age 26) make some fudge for Christmas. My daughter hasn't cooked much so it is funny listening to my mother try to explain to her exactly what she needs to do. I can't remember what else they were talking about making. I told them that I would clean up when they are done and then went in to the computer and logged on. Anyone else doing some Christmas cooking today?

When it is cool outside I tend to wear jeans or khaki type pants and a nice t-shirt. When it is warm outside I wear shorts and the t-shirt. Of course, I dress this way when I go out to do something as well. I like being comfortable all the time. I only wear tennis shoes. On the Sundays I join my mother at church, I will put on a nice shirt (not t-shirt) and the same pants (not jeans).

My mother has considered cancelling her subscription, but she doesn't read the news online like I do sometimes. She likes to know what is going on in the world. She also watches the news at least twice a day. My daughter likes the comics the best.

As I was reading the newspaper this morning, I wondered what part of the newspaper was most people's favorite part to read. Mine is the sports section... especially on Monday when the NFL just had a big day of football.

As far as someone being similar to an ancestor... there are these things called genes and DNA... it isn't unusual at all for someone to resemble someone else in their family (even if that person lived long ago). That doesn't mean they used to be that person.

Wow! You would think the audience would be understanding of small children and all the unpredictable things they do. I took my mother and daughter to my mother's church's Christmas program last week. There were 125 children on stage at the same time singing. One little girl (probably around 4) spent the entire time they were up there either pacing back and forth in front of the group of children or standing with her back to the audience. No one cared. Everyone understood that she isn't an adult.

As an adult, I did wrap my sister's present about four or five times. It took her forever to get it open. It would have been funnier if I could have done it to my oldest brother though. He doesn't live here though so I wouldn't be able to see the expression on his face when he opened it. I've also taken a small object and wrapped it in a large box to confuse someone... I can't remember who.

My daughter can't wait to see this movie.

I can't disagree with you there.

I might agree with you here, but DIET soda has tons of artificial chemicals in it. I won't put that in my body and wouldn't let my child do it either. Regular soda is better for you than diet is.

I think it varies from child to child. My daughter stopped acting like a little kid when she was 6, but that is pretty early for most children. I had a brother-in-law who was basically an adult at age 4... it is just how he was.

You are correct. You don't need to know about the authors, you can just read whatever you want into the texts and make it so. You can tell by the responses that 99% of the people on here like these books so I guess you are the minority. There are things in these books that are somewhat hidden, but they are all Christian meanings... nothing more.

I'm sorry, but my first thought when I read your post was "oh my stars!" You had to do a lot of digging to try to come up with what you think about the books. There is nothing of what you claim is there. You need to know more about the authors to realize what you said isn't true.

I thought I was the only one who felt that way about the Hobbit movies. My daughter (age 26) loves them, but I just don't care for them at all.

I have tried to read the Hobbit twice. For some reason I just can't seem to get into it. I liked the Lord of the Rings movies, but don't care for the Hobbit movies at all. I don't know what that is about. Maybe I'm just weird or something.

As I said in the other poll. I am kind of doing a survey to see how many people have read any or all of these books... comparing the Chronicles of Narnia to the Lord of the Rings.

I am going to set up a poll asking about whether your child or children have read these as well. I wanted to compare something. I had read someplace that Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were good friends. Then Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and they were an instant success. When Tolkien first published the Lord of the Rings, they weren't nearly as popular as the Chronicles of Narnia and that made Tolkien jealous. They didn't talk for a long time... but did end up patching things up later in their lives. If you have different information about this, you are welcome to share it with me/us. I forgot to mention that I am on book two of the Chronicles of Narnia. I plan to read the Lord of the Rings when I am finished.

We have three hospitals near us. Two of them my mother stayed at earlier this year and one of them I stayed overnight at in July. The two my mother stayed at had awesome food. We would go down to the cafeteria at both of them just so we could eat their food. It was that good. The one I stayed at had awful food. I was glad I was only there overnight and could go home and eat something edible.

I don't think my sister did it right. She also used way too much lemon in it. Yuck!

My team won yesterday and there actually weren't any dropped passes (that I remember), but I did watch an earlier game where there were SIX dropped passes in the game. The team that kept dropping the passes lost. My team sometimes does this, but fortunately not this week.

My sister did this to the turkey she brought over for Thanksgiving . . . it did NOT taste good. (just my opinion... and my daughter's ... and my mother's).