OhM
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Posts posted by OhM
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Is the dollar value printed on the cards? The ones I have bought this year actually didn't have the amount printed on the cards, so I'm wondering if I should put a little note in so the recipient will know how much they're getting!:lol:
If the amount isn't on the cards, I wouldn't worry about it. They probably wouldn't realize the difference in actual value.
Merry Christmas!
Kim
This was my first thought, too.
I agree with your sentiment of not wanting to embarrass them with a much larger gift than they are planning on giving. We have different levels of gift exchange with different friends and relatives. I would feel awkward if out of the blue one of the families "upped the ante" one year. Then the next year I would feel compelled to try to match that level, or feel horrible if I just couldn't.
Just give the gift cards without the amount written on them (if it's not too late for that.) You can discreetly hand parents the receipts later or at another time. (Which I've found is a good idea anyway, after recieving one that hadn't scanned correctly and didn't work!)
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My first job out of college was as an Assistant Manager at a women's store called Gantos. (I graduated a long time ago :001_smile:) One night just before closing, a guy came in and asked if he could try on some formal dresses. Since there were no customers in the store and I would never turn down a sale, I said sure.
He actually came out of the dressing room with one of the dresses on to get my opinion. He told me to ignore the chest hair because he would be shaving before wearing the dress in public! :lol:
This is so funny! My best friend since middle school worked at Gantos in high school, and had several similar incidents. Gantos must have been "the place" for that, I guess.
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A twist on the blanket idea - dd just "tied" a sleeping bag out of fleece for her stuffed panda. :)
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http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/
DD and I are hanging out there for a little bit - I'll be looking for WTM snowflakes!
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:iagree: My family dropped the exchanges several years ago because we just ended up exchanging gift cards or cash. It was crazy. My dh and I have tried for 2 years now to get his family to do the same, but they keep on doing it. This year we took ourselves out. What's the point?
This is how I see our situation; we're simply trading money at this point. But the il's (and dh!!!) truly see it as "exchanging gifts". <sigh>
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I'm just frustrated thinking about Christmas with my in-laws. I just purchased the last of the gift cards for my mil, fil, bil and sil. I'd much prefer to buy and wrap a thoughtful gift for each of them, but I've learned in past years that they will ask for the receipt so that they can "exchange it for something they'd really like." And sil & bil will actually appear put out that I went so far as to presume that they would like something.
The inverse is even worse! I love receiving gifts from people. It's a part of their personality, and I love having that reminder of a loved one. But they have all asked dh "Where I want my gift card from." It's doubly painful for me - not only do I not get an interesting gift to open on Christmas day, but I have a task now that I hate to do - I detest shopping for myself! And I can't take advantage of any of the after Christmas sales because I can't tolerate the crowds! I know how ungrateful that sounds, but I'd rather have something that cost a fraction of the gift card that shows me some of the giver and doesn't require more work from me!
Is this a strange form of Scroogey-ness? Bah-humbug?
Is there anyone else like me out there?
I'm not even looking forward to Christmas w/my in-laws when we all open our little pieces of plastic, and then smile and nod at each other. :glare:
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Another friend heard some interesting ones from her dh when he was going through med school clinicals. One woman named her child Meconium after hearing the word & thinking it sounded nice. :001_huh: Another one saw the word "V@gin@" on her chart and thought that "Vah-JEEN-uh" was such a pretty name that she used it to name her dd.
This sounds like one I've heard - which I've always chalked up as urban myth - about a woman who named her daughter Chlamydia because she heard it somewhere and thought it sounded pretty.
Has anyone else heard the story that Oprah was supposed to have been "Orpah" - Ruth's sister-in-law, but it was spelled wrong?
ETA: However, the same teacher friend who passed on the Chlamydia story swears that she taught three kids from the same family over the years who were Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. :)
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Our friends' two daughters (5 and 6) have an elf named Dingle. I always thought it was kind of cool in a slightly demented sort of way.:D But their girls love it! They are always talking about what Dingle's been up to.
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I'm a fan of anything that makes life easier :)
You can count me in, too.
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We've loved the Focus on the Family radio theater of Chronicles of Narnia.
The Adventures in Odyssey series are great, too.
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Don't know if it would be too young for your kids, but we've found Andrew Clement's books to be very listen-able.
We also enjoyed Redwall books - mostly because of the reader's (was it the author?) accent. :)
Some other books we've liked on tape - Shakespeare Stealer series, Dickens (except for a "dramatized" Tale of Two Cities - that was a flop), Little House on the Prairie, Cricket in Times Square, Narnia series.
We haven't tried any Tolkien, but I bet he would be good, too.
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Do you have access to American Girl magazine? They usually have neat and simple ideas in there.
You could kill some time just making snowflakes. You'd be amazed how long 10yo girls can stay occupied with plain white paper and scissors :) Maybe bring some glue and glitter (if that's not too messy with costumes) to stretch the activity.
Our girl scout troop just made these Reindeer ornaments (the light bulbs might be a little pricey, though - I found replacement sets - 4 bulbs/99 cents - at Target.) This would work best if you secure the "antlers" with hot glue ahead of time. Again - glue - might be too messy w/costumes.
Pipe cleaners are great and non-messy - they could bend them into candy canes, make reindeer antlers for stuffed animals, bend them into wreaths and decorate w/beads...
You could fold "cootie catchers" and make up holiday-theme labels.
Just google "christmas crafts kids" and you'll find lots of great ideas!
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I have a bunch of things to sell, but I don't want to mess with selling online - too much time and hassle involved. Is it worth it to sell it to Half-Price Books? Would I get 1/4, or even 1/8 of the original value? Thanks for sharing your experience!
I only tried this 3-4 times, but I found that Half-Price books offered about 1/4-1/3 of what I eventually sold it for on the Sale & Swap board here.
HTH!
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Nigel is very cute. Our black kitty was a runt, and never got very big. She was so tiny when we got her, we called her Raisin.
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DD has been reading from The Jungle Book lately - I've been thinking of how Riki Tiki Tavi was televised annually when we were kids and how much I liked it. Wonder if the library has it?
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"16 Days Until Christmas". :D
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Awesome! Thanks!
And here's my favorite crock-pot desperation dinner. (My search just found the last time I posted it - I originally found it here, but can't find the OP now - it may have been on the old board:D)
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Saw them open for Adam Ant in...oh, must have been...around 1984? I just remember "It's the One Thing" was in high rotation on MTV at the time. So sad about Michael Hutchence's death. I hadn't really followed the band since college days, so didn't follow the TV show at all.
Huh - blast from the past. And here's a sign of how old I am now: after composing this message involving several minutes of reverie, I can't remember why the OP brought them up:lol: Going back now to see...
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Wow - with 5 pages you must have some great ideas by now. I didn't read them all, but just in case no one else mentioned it - Custard Pie! Mmmmmm... In fact, make a couple. Mmmmmm....
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I had always appreciated that she didn't water down the original tales. I'm not familiar with the artwork that was mentioned, but I also don't generally have a problem with the human form. (The girls were always way more squeamish than I was and would cover things that made them uncomfortable with a post-it :))
I had always been able to find other re-tellings that have been adapted more for children. I preferred hers because she often kept the source material fairly intact.
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Is he like this with peers, others, in general? Has his humor and jokes and interaction matured in other relationships?
Is it possible he's "stuck" in adolescent boy mode in life and that it's not personal? While I can see the passive/aggressiveness of it, is it possible he's trying to banter, to establish a connection to "reach out" to you?
I agree it's not productive, kind or appropriate; but do we know it's automatically hostile vs. inept?
I've never read his comments to be overtly hostile, but they seem definitely passive/aggressive. It's possible it's nothing more than ineptness, but I have a hard time reading any affection beneath the banter - especially since ignoring it and trying to engage in conversation rarely causes him to stop. And it often is a prelude to one-upmanship. At 42, I'm simply tired of playing the straight man, iykwim.
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:lurk5:
No answer - but that really sounds good!
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Well, I'm right with you guys - "I know you are, what am I?" probably won't do it either, huh?
I'll probably take hornblower's advice (which is what I usually do) and just ignore him. I just don't understand why he thinks he's so funny?
Awkward moments...
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I had a facebook faux pas recently that was similar to yours - I'm just glad to hear I'm not alone!
A friend had started what turned into a long and (I thought, anyway) groan-inducing thread revolving around puns about "poking yourself". (OK - everyone here knows that there is a "poke" feature to reach out to friends on FB, right?)
I was around the 15th response and said, "Sounds painful to me - like some of these jokes :)"
By the end of the day there were 4 responses along the lines of "Wow." "Lighten up." "We're just trying to have a little fun here." The kindest one was light hearted: "Sounds like someone has a little poke envy." And these were all people I don't know from Adam! I guess my attempt at humor just fell flat.