The joking about saving on a gift sounds a lot like something my brother, my dad, or I would say. That's exactly our humor. We also would have said it if we were feeling deeply emotional(as in extremely happy), but didn't want to show it too much or if someone else was getting a bit mushy gushy or emotional just to deflect that from continuing. Talking about feelings or showing too deep of feelings is really something we're only comfortable showing to our spouse when alone. It happens at other times, but we tend to joke or change the subject so we don't get caught up. Maybe the husband has a similar sense of humor and/or discomfort sharing too much emotional stuff with lots of people?

Eventually you just get used it. I haven't had a land line in 6 or 7 years. I charge it on the kitchen counter and (try to) leave it there in plain sight, so that when I'm leaving I remember to throw it in my bag.

I guess I can't imagine any other gift from my fiance being anywhere near as special after getting engaged.

I attend an Eastern Orthodox parish and it is amazing. I love it. I pray that I will someday be able to say I am an Orthodox Christian. We shall see. The church, the people, the priest...everything is wonderful. Of course, the Liturgy is the best part. I truly understood what worship meant after attending a Divine Liturgy.

Thanks. I didn't know about the Loveland area sale! CHEC intro seminar does seem more helpful for my purposes then the talks offered at last year's conference. My child is young(toddler) and we're still contemplating homeschooling. I am hoping to go to a few sale's to see a wide variety of materials in person and wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Is the conference put on by CHEC the only annual homeschool conference in Colorado?

I didn't vote, because it varies but I get lots of help. Bear in mind I have one toddler and he's the first grandchild on either side. I suspect as my kid gets older, if we have more, and if my brother has children the level of help I get will decrease. Not to mention they'll be older. My parents and in laws are all in their early 50's. Once every 6-8 weeks my parents take DS for the entire weekend. They'd like to do it more, but other family stuff and my mom's health issues have made that tough. Until recently they liked having him for an overnight during the week, but again that probably won't happen until after the first of the year. We are almost always welcome to drop him off before church. Our church has no cry room, a tiny narthex, and he's loud. They loved having me bring him over for dinner and both of us sleep over when DH is working late once in awhile. They get up with him in the morning and want me to sleep in. When my mom is healthy she comes over here 1-3 times a month and plays with him while I clean or just relax. Dad comes to pick her up and we all have dinner together. My mom and dad are excited for DS getting older because they have more plans for him. My mom loves the idea of homeschooling and hopes we have a second child. She wants to do the baby/toddler stuff while I teach the older one. My in-laws live 12 hours away. When we get together they are always kicking us out of the house(including ours) and wanting Grandparent time. We always bring or leave clean sippy cups, whole milk, clothes, diapers, and all that. We used to try and provide all the food, but they got insulted. :tongue_smilie: I was trying to be helpful.

Not in my case. :glare: I buy inexpensive purses or take hand me downs from my mom. Usually I just use a a diaper bag as a purse and my diaper bag is the free one the nice people from Similac gave me for having a baby. Or the denim I got for $1 at a garage sale. I get comments all the time about how cheap, functional(read ugly), and boring my bags are. I have friends and family that spends $$$ on nice purses and I don't care. I don't understand the appeal and I couldn't spend that kind of money on one anyway. I ALWAYS ooh and ahh over their purses when they want to show them off and have never said a word about how much they spend. I still get the comments.

:smilielol5::lol: Your poor boyfriend.

The other part of this story is the end of the phone call from my dad. Bear in mind I'm 28 when this takes place. He's says, "You know pot smells different than basil. Not sure what that guy was thinking." Me, "Yeah, I don't get that. Maybe he saw it and got excited or something?" "Wait how do you know what pot smells like?" "Um. How do you know?" Suddenly we both had to get off the phone. Later he tells me that he grew up in the60's & 70's and that's that. He asked me again and I told him that apparently I had hippie parents and some of it stuck.

:lol: This is priceless!

Thank you for this one! I have been listening to my local all Christmas music station and there's only so much Chipmunks music I can take.

My father grows basil and sage on his porch. He gets a lot each harvest, so he dries it and saves it or gives it away. He dries it on cookie sheets in a seldom used basement room that gets a lot of sun. The sprinkler system controls are in the mechanical room that can only be accessed going through that basement room. Last spring the sprinkler guy came over to do a system check and went downstairs. He sprinted back up the stairs and asked my dad if he could buy some of the stuff in the basement. "What stuff?" "The stuff, ya know, stuff that's drying." "It's not really ready yet." "That's cool, I'll still pay." "Uh, you can just have some. I give it away all the time. I need to save some for my daughter though." "That is so cool!" Dad finally catches on...."What exactly do you think I'm giving you young man?" ".....uh..." blank stare. "I grow basil on my back porch. That's what you wanted?" "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Dad calls me later laughing and wondering if he should change sprinkler companies.

I am loving the Zwarte Piet stories! I had never heard of them until this year. We elect one family member to be "Santa" and that person hands a gift to one person at a time. They unwrap and the rest of us ooh and ahh. There might be some shaking or guessing(usually jokes) before they unwrap.

Hmm, I am seeing a hole somewhere.....like the other day when my toddler was surrounded by paper to color on and still tried to color the dog's rear end. This was after he successfully colored the floor. He was given paper, he just ripped holes in the paper and colored the holes not the paper.:banghead: In fact he's tried or successfully colored walls, windows, my hand, his stomach, the dog, the floor, my hutch, and basically anything that isn't the notebooks and huge piles of paper I have available to him in every room of the house. :grouphug: I have one child(the toddler) and he still manages to get into trouble while I'm trying to do things around the house.

See, this is why when I was growing up, and we were young enough to believe in Santa, Christmas Eve was also known as "the night Dad takes us to a movie without Mom!". We'd leave after dinner, take a detour through some neighborhoods that did cool Christmas lights, arrive at the movie early enough to pick seats before the previews started, and take another tour of Christmas lights on the way home. My mom had a good 3+ hours of wrapping time with no one else in the house.

I would allow it and I have before. My kid is young, so we probably don't have the same worries. I agree that it is your house and your rules and that you should do what works for you. On a personal note, my BIL brought his (male) partner to meet us and stay for a visit several months back and I was extremely uncomfortable with the whole thing and was unsure about sleeping arrangements. In the end I decided their comfort as guests was the most important thing and offered them the choice of our guest room(big bed, close-able door, kind of drafty, no TV) or our TV room(separate couches, cats who will visit, no door, TV, warm, private bathroom and further away from our room and DS's) and let them choose what would work best for them. The visit went very well and I'm glad I did things the way I did them. I think I would have been well within my rights to do them differently since my house, my rules is valid, but I am hoping I paved the way for smooth family relationships. :grouphug: cause it's a tough choice.

My birthday is Dec 21 and I never really had issues with having a birthday close to Christmas. My parents usually had my birthday party with friends earlier in the month and it was a special party. My birthday was a family day. The kitchen was always decorated with streamers and balloons when I woke up and my presents were wrapped in birthday paper and sitting on the table. Dinner was whatever I chose, either homemade or out to eat. Honestly though, I love Christmas and the whole Christmas season. I'm the anti Scrooge(love carolers, bell ringers, Christmas music non stop from Thanksgiving on..) so having my birthday right around Christmas made it all the more wonderful for me. I never felt like my birthday was lost in the all the hubbub. My parents made sure it was a special day for me. Even now, that's the day I have DH take us out to look at Christmas lights which is not one of his favorite things. :)

I chose other. We set out coffee cake or cinnamon rolls, fruit, and drinks and nibble those while opening presents. After all that is done we wait awhile and have a late breakfast. That might change this year as DH and I want to go to a Christmas morning church service.

I'm from Kansas and DH is from Wisconsin. Gifts from Santa are wrapped. If it's a really big gift Santa throws a sheet over it and sticks a bow on it. One year I noticed that Santa used the same paper that my parents did and, apparently that year, Santa dropped the gifts off early so my mom could do the wrapping because he was so busy. :tongue_smilie:

Leftover pie is called breakfast pie at our house. Up until I got married we always had cheesecake for Thanksgiving desert and leftovers were called breakfast cheesecake.

The peanut butter cookies that are rolled in sugar and have a Hershey Kiss popped in the middle. We call them Shove-A-Kiss cookies at our house, but no one has a clue what I'm talking about so I describe them as above. In my version the cookie part is very peanut buttery and still soft. They are great all the time, but when the chocolate part is still warm and melt-y they are even better.

Thank you!

Thank you for the hugs. Yes, I went to a nursing clinic and saw an IBLC several times. She couldn't find any problems and we tried several things. I keep thinking it was a supply issue, but it couldn't be fixed with her suggestions. He's a healthy, but very skinny, 21 month old today. Loves to eat and eats a lot, but it never sticks. :tongue_smilie: PS: I don't consider myself a homeschooler, I'm mostly here to learn.

My DS nursed for an hour every 15-45 minutes on a continuous 24 hour cycle for 4 months straight. He got upset easily, would only let me hold him for hours at a time, could barely sleep and I was zombie tired and feeling a little insane. We tried supplementing with formula and he was like a different baby after those feedings. Calmer, could sleep for more than 15 minutes, and would let DH hold him so we weaned by 5 months. I'm undecided about nursing the next one.