Eat all the food early. People will leave after eating, usually. Don't be very interesting. They'll get bored and go home.

Maybe it's speech? I often type it wrong and have to re-type it. I think it's because speak has the A but speech doesn't.

I prefer to have them under the tree early (we don't do Santa), but we have cats. And cats are too curious not to try to open all the presents early. Good kitties!

No special recipe--I'm not a great cook, so the rare times I make them I just find something easy online. :)

The tv show is muuuuch worse. It's just dreadful! We watch it every year and make fun of it the whole time. But we like to be sarcastic and make fun of things around here. Sometimes we go too far with our sarcasm, but this show deserves it. Horrible show! And then we laugh at ourselves for being stupid enough to watch it year after year, even though we think the characters are despicable.

Is chicken too hard? A baked chicken might work, if the meat it soft enough, but I don't know just how soft the food has to be. Or chicken thighs in the crockpot so that the meat is so tender it falls apart.

!!! Love this!!!

What my ds14 is getting: A counter ring from critsuccess.com. The rings have a wheel in the middle of them. For instance: one shows rock, paper, scissors. You spin the wheel in the ring and whichever picture lands on the little arrow wins. There's also a "yes/no" wheel so you can make decisions by using your ring. Case for an ipad 3DS games (one new, one used) 2017 Bubble Wrap calendar Sonic Screwdriver from Doctor Who A tshirt from Snorg tees Journal style calendar book because he likes to write a single sentence every day saying what happened that day. Watch Stocking: A tiny little metal model of an airplane (This one) A tube of pringles A bag of Mixels (lego robot things.)

Different strokes for different folks. We didn't do Santa at all with the kids, but it would have been fun to come up with goofy thing for the elf to do every night. I wish I'd known about it about 3 years ago. The kids would have been at a great age to have fun with it. I wouldn't have said the elf was spying on the kids, though. That wouldn't suit me (because we don't do Santa at all.) But moving it around and having it "get into things" and being silly as a family would have been right up our alley. But I would have only done it for one year. My oldest is 14 now and it just isn't the same as when the boys were 11 and 8.

I went to a Doctor Who convention last year and one of the speakers was a man who used to make the props and costumes for lots of the old Who shows. He made the Cybermen costumes, for example. He brought in his molds for ones they used on the show. Anyway...since he was a prop maker for a sci-fi show from the 60s-70s, well before CGI and when everything was made by hand, he had an entire garage of little odds and ends. He would keep everything. It was all in boxes and in drawers and on shelves. Billions of pieces of tape and cloth and metal and wood and yarn and broken lids and broken crayons, and, and, and... He said his poor wife could never bring herself to walk in his workshop because it was an explosion of junk. He loved it. He says he still keeps everything even though he's long retired. That poor woman. So, somewhere between the retired prop-maker who keeps everything and a house so empty that you have to rebuy everything is a happy medium. For the poster whose family likes to make things from time to time, they should keep a lot of their old stuff. For the rest of us, maybe a couple of bins in the attic or basement will suffice. I think there's a knack to it. Knowing when to let go and when to hang on. For instance, I hate crafts, but I do keep a drawer in a dresser in the attic with some random craft stuff. The one time a year we do a craft, it's been nice to have the glitter and pipe cleaners on hand. I won't keep multiple drawers, but one is enough for our needs. For the OP--that's a lot of stuff to have to rebuy all at once! I think I've only ever had to rebuy maybe 3 times ever after decluttering throughout my 24 years of marriage. OP, I think it was a fluke this time.

Oooo! That stings! I made my dh declutter a bunch of stuff in the basement once. One of the things was an old broom handle. Not a week later we were painting and needed to attach a roller to a long handle. We had to go out and buy a new one. My dh has never let me live it down. :).

I do want it for diplomas, so not just for us to have fun with. I do not want it to be cutsey. At all. I want it to sound academic and substantial, but without crossing into the rings hollow territory. So, not so snooty that it is a joke, but just snooty enough that it subtly gives the impression of excellence without the listener even realizing that the name has had an impact on their impression. I don't want it to sound like a public school, so I want it to sound like an established private school that is heavily focused on academics and excellence. I had been strongly leaning to Lincoln High School, just because the name Lincoln High School appeals to me. But it certainly comes across as a public school, so I'm rethinking the name. I think an old English name + Academy will fit the bill. Some of the suggestions on the thread have sounded pleasing to my ear. ETA: Good point about having a reason for the name if explanations are required (like if my sons are asked during a college interview.). I think I'll be looking around at the local street names. There's a series of names based on places in England or titles. Like, there are King and Queen and Prince streets, Whitehall street, etc. I could use one of those and then the kids could say, "We named our school based on the street in our neighborhood."

My son is like my dh, and here are some of the sorts of things I got my son. They are not necessary and are just for fun: A bubble wrap calendar. Every day you pop one of the bubbles. Tshirts from snorg tees. A daily calendar with a comic on every day. ETA: I posted before reading the replies. My ideas have mostly already been said, but at least you'll know there are lots of men out there getting Snorg tees and comic calendars!

Red velvet flavored Peeps from A.C. Moore Jelly Belly flavored candy canes from WalMart A punmap from punmap.com (he likes puns and maps) A frame for the punmap from Craig Frames on amazon That's all I bought him. He has some more money in his Christmas fund if he wants to give me pointers on how to spend it. Some things he's considered: A weather station (he loves weather stuff). This is a piece of electronics that you put outside and tells you things like humidity levels and temperature. Doctor Who episodes--the old black and white ones up until now. I usually make him tell me what he wants. This map thing is unusual. I rarely buy him stuff that he hasn't asked for as he just doesn't want anything. Oh--one year I bought him a hammock and frame. He loves that for the summer. Actually, when I bought it, we had only been married for a year and lived in an apartment, so we set the hammock up in the livingroom and sat in it all the time. For the hammock idea, a few years ago I bought him a hammock chair from the Renaissance Festival. We have a beam in one room that we could use to hoist up the chair. He loves that chair. You can drill it into a stud (?) in your ceiling, too, if you don't have beams. On another thread I told someone what I'm doing for myself. I don't need anything or really want much of anything, so this year I'm using my Christmas budget money to replace things I already have with better ones. I'm replacing my slippers with some really nice ones, I'm replacing my robe with a robe that has a zipper (and a hood!), I got myself some fun soap for the shower instead of the boring old Ivory I usually use. Maybe you could just upgrade some of the things he has to nicer versions.

In an above post, I got the name of a recommended online school wrong. I wanted to draw your attention to that fact, so I'm quoting you and giving you the correct name. Here's the name of the school my homeschooling friend is very pleased with: Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School or PALCS.

One option: A friend of mine (she and I both live in PA) with a full-time daycare business uses this cyber school. She is very pleased with it. She's used two others and didn't like those, but is happy with this one. She cannot take more than a few minutes at a time to work with her daughters homeschooling them, and so she relies on this school to do it for her. Her kids are in 4th and 6th (I think), so not sure how it is beyond those grades. ETA: To remove the incorrect school and give you the correct school name: Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School or PALCS. And I am so sorry for that diagnosis.

My husband normally wants to add a few new episodes to his Doctor Who collection. Being that there are almost 800 episodes of the show, I always have something I can get him. However, this year he's thinking of just taking the money that we would normally spend on his gifts and keeping it in a box somewhere. Then throughout the year when he thinks, "Oh, I'd like to get myself X!" he can take money out of the box and use it. Normally, if he wants something throughout the year he just doesn't get it. We tend not to spend money on ourselves except at Christmas and for Bdays--which are both the week after Christmas. So having money in the middle of the year is a treat for us. I'll be 44 in a few days and I'm realizing that I'm like my parents were at this age. There is absolutely nothing that I need. I have everything. There's almost nothing that I want. My dh, who will be 49 in a few days, has been this way for a good decade. He just doesn't need/want anything, except those Doctor Who episodes. I think it's normal to get to this point. Will your dh be unhappy if he doesn't have presents to open? Or would the idea of free cash whenever he wants to use it through the year sound good to him? If he really wants presents, then see if he'd like something to be replaced. Even though I don't need/want anything, I'm asking for some things I already have to be replaced with something nicer. For example, I wear my robe all day long over my clothes because I get cold easily. Even though I have 4 robes of differing weights, I have asked for a robe with a zipper. The ones that tie in the front will gape open and I'm always having to re-tie the tie. But a zipper robe will stay closed all day. Another thing: I found some strawberry scented soap at the grocery store. I usually buy whatever is cheapest, but I grabbed the box of strawberry soap and handed it to my husband and asked him to wrap it for me as a gift. I'm getting slippers to replace the ones that have a little tear in the lining and leather gloves instead of cotton ones, so that on rainy days my cotton gloves don't get wet. Maybe your dh would be content with getting an upgrade of something he already has? Like me with my robe, slippers, gloves, and soap.

Parenthood Gossip Girl (but that might appeal more to teens, though I did watch it in my 30s. And along those lines--teenager shows-- there's always Glee.) Last Tango in Halifax

I'd like my homeschool to sound somewhat snooty. I need some sort of old rich-sounding English family name, like Lockwood Academy. Any ideas?

Interesting! My kids will wash any dishes that are on the counter to the left of the sink. But if dishes are on the counter to the right, it's like they can't see them. So, if someone leaves a dirty plate on the right...it doesn't get touched. I have to tell them to find ALL the dirty dishes in the entire kitchen--they could be on the table, on either counter, or even still on the stove. They act shocked and betrayed when I call them back into the kitchen to finish washing dishes that weren't on the counter to the left. I try to be patient, but it does get old.

The advice is good. I'm going through something sort of similar--not the exact thing, but still a pretense not to understand what I mean when I ask for a chore to be done, and it's draining and irritating and maddening. If I give The Boy explicit instructions, he gets offended and says, "I *know* how to do it!" But literally 10 minutes later if I give un-explicit instructions for the next chore and he doesn't complete the job and I call him back to finish the job he'll say, "Well I didn't know you also wanted *that!*" So if I'm explicit, I'm wrong. If I try to respect that "he knows" and am not explicit, then I'm wrong. And trust me, he knows. It's getting old. I'm going to be using some of the advice in this thread.

My son got a didgeridoo one year, per his request.

Dealing with unemployment means that list is awesome! Wow! You were able to get a lot of stuff even without the money coming in. You should be pleased. An idea if you want the focus to be off of gifts: What do you normally do on Christmas? If you don't already have plans, do your best to make the day awesome by spending time together doing fun things that don't cost a lot. Let the kids play with their stuff until lunchtime. After lunch bake sugar cookies. If the cookies are too expensive (butter and sugar and frosting, etc), make paper snowflakes. They can stay up in January during snow season. If you made the cookies, play UNO while the cookies cool Frost the cooled cookies with colored frosting, to make the fun extend longer. (expect a mess.) Play Qwirkle. Make dinner Watch a Christmas movie that you already have after dinner, eating the cookies Fill the day with fun stuff to do letting kids play between activities. The focus won't be entirely on gifts then, but on all the activities--especially using the games that you got as a family. Let them know a few days in advance about the activities that will be part of the day so they're ready to enjoy the day and not surprised and resistant.

Oh, I am so sorry for your loss of your sweet, dear, precious one. If only there were words that could comfort.

I love getting cards. I love getting the picture ones. I especially love ones with notes in them. I will keep the picture ones and set them out every year in a basket and have fun going through them and seeing how people have changed. I keep any newsletters or cards with notes inside. I also keep any cards that I found especially nice to look at--the ones that are like little pieces of art or just struck my fancy. In January, I will toss the ones that aren't photos, don't have notes, or whose design on the front didn't strike my fancy. But it's a selfish love because I haven't sent out cards in over 15 years. I get fewer each year, either because other people don't send them, or because they weed me off their list since I don't reciprocate. I used to love doing cards, and then had kids and just didn't have it in me anymore. As far as what I'm not doing this year....I'm doing everything. The only difference is that I'm spreading it out over a looooong time. We used to put up the tree, decorate it, and decorate the rest of the house in one day. Well, we started on the day after Thanksgiving and I'm just finishing with decorating right now. (Taking a break from it.). We lived in a bit of mess and chaos these past two weeks, but it was ok. I'd rather have the mess and do the decorating a little bit at a time than to kill ourselves on one day. It's been nicer and each part of the process has been enjoyable this time around. So, we'll still make our paper snowflakes and our ugly graham-cracker house and make treats, but we'll spread it out over a longer period of time and live with clutter. It'll all go away in January. I'm ok with clutter this year. ETA: Our Christmas traditions are pretty simple and easy to carry out, so I don't feel a need to cut back on them. We have always eaten out with the family on Christmas eve, so that's easy. We get Chinese on Christmas day--easy, we order almost all the gifts online--easy, the stockings haven't ever been a big deal--easy, decorations, baking, a few crafty things (paper snowflakes or glitter on pinecones)--easy, easy, easy. Thankfully, I never started any traditions that were too onerous in the first place.