Haha! It is my tradition. We open presents, play a bit, eat lunch, and then I start taking down the decorations all over the house. Everything is down now except the big tree and the little tree in my ds5's room. He has requested that we PLEASE keep those up until after New Year's Day. Poor kid! So...anyone else turn anti-Christmas the minute it is over? I love the holiday and look forward to it, but when it is done, I just can't get the red and green and all the santas out of my house fast enough. :tongue_smilie:

For my older: microscope and computer were hits. So were the books he received and the movies. For my younger: r/c Wall-E, Transformers costume, and movies were his hits. There was nothing that my older "didn't like" but my younger exclaimed "What the heck is this?" when opening the craft supplies my MIL got him. I was really annoyed with him. Time for a lesson in manners. He is only 5, but now is the time to start learning about being thankful! The hit for me (which I told everyone not to buy for me this year and MOST did not) was a GLOBE for my classroom! :) I was so surprised and thought that was so thoughtful of my MIL to think of our little school. :)

Ours will come down today after MIL and FIL come to visit with presents...all except the big tree and it will come down tomorrow. I am like you...Christmas is over, I am finished looking at it all!

Merry Christmas (or the holiday season you celebrate in lieu of Christmas) to everyone!! Hope you have a wonderful and happy day. :)

My dh is off, but goes back to work first thing Friday morning. I was really hoping for him to be off or have more vacation, but the cards didn't fall that way. Now I know I need to count my blessings that he is off today and tomorrow.

You know, I was thinking "get over it" at first too...but $150 gift exchange! WHAT?? That is an absurd amount to spend barely willingly and then get NOTHING in return. I'd be privately pissed too. In the years I have been on message boards, I have done lots of "swaps" and only 1 time did I have a person who totally flaked. I was so mad, I could scream and it WAS at $20 swap). It is just careless and rude on the part of the other person. However, I did the yelling at her and NOT the buddy she failed to buy for (I was the coordinator). I also went out with my money and bought the one who did not receive a thing a gift. Then I made sure the person who did the flaking did not participate in any further swaps as well.

I think I am missing a big part of the story here. Does your mom just come over unannounced or is it much, much more than that? I think you need to tell her that you are moving if you don't feel comfortable telling her you already moved. It sounds like she loves you and wants to be part of your life by dropping off presents. I guess I am just missing a whole lot here.

No, that is pathetic. She doesn't contact you for a year and a half and then expects you to just throw out your phone number and invite her over in the first contact. What a strange woman.

I am pleased with the two boys God gave to me, but there are times I do wish I had that little girl to dress up and chat with and do girl things with. But alas, there is no guarantee I would ever have a girl even if I did get pregnant again. That, and I don't really want to be pregnant again. I can't say I ache for it like you do though...

To me, it is symbolic of the coming of the Christ child and God's promise being fulfilled. It is full of hope for me. For a long time, the spirit of Christmas and what we celebrate fills my soul with joy and a renewed passion for God and serving God.

My mom get it for the kids. My little won't watch it because it scares him. My oldest said it was "weird." I agree. CREEPY...but isn't most of what Johnny Depp does?

I agree with the others, call them and let them know. I am 99.9% certain they will tell you to just keep it.

Haha...I know what you mean. I think before, my 9 y/o would have chosen to stare at the wall until he fell asleep. LOL My 5 year old is a different story. He is already reading pretty well - we are half-way through LLATL blue and just flying right along. We are also 25 lessons into Come Read with Me which he LOVES. He is definitely the kind of child I could put in his room to have a "rest" and he would pick up a book and start reading. That is a great idea and one I may try soon! I am definitely proud of my 9 year old...and I pray it keeps up and doesn't stall out. He is so super proud of himself. (and I am soooo super proud of him!)

Sure, I think we all love to get presents...but I don't get disappointed when I don't get them either. My dh and I actually don't buy for each other anymore. It became an "okay, let's spend x amount each." Then, on Christmas morning, I had gotten him things that were not quite right (like the wrong strings for his guitar) and he had gotten my things that were not quite right (like a scent I hated from Bath and Body works), yet we both smiled and said thank you and inside, we cringed because we had just had x amount of $$$ wasted on us. Finally, one year, we "came clean" and said...take X amount of $$$ and buy what YOU want and I will do the same. Voila...that worked wonders. The first year, I bought things and wrapped the gifts for myself to open on Christmas. Looking back, how silly! But at the time, I could not imagine not having a present under the tree. Now, as the years have gone by (and I am only 29), I have fallen into the "more blessed to give than to receive" category. My dh and I finally stopped the amount setting and we just buy what we want, when we want, as we can afford it. That said, at church recently, I realized just how much my views of "getting" have changed. They did a gift exchange for the kids at church. There are some kids there that REALLY need presents. Others, like my kids, have more than they know what to do with anyways. It was HARD for me to even allow my kids to have their gifts (even though I tried having their names removed from the gift draw and no one listened to me). So...what I did was buy two gifts, one in each of their names, and donate them to a child in need. This way, I felt I was, at the very least, giving to those who needed. It breaks my heart to know that there are children out there that are lucky if they get pajamas or socks for Christmas. Some get nothing at all. There was a parent here who was saying that her kids, very selflessly, gave up their gifts for Christmas in lieu of buying for a needy family. That just touched my heart...and my dh's and that is what we are going to do in the years to come (when my younger is old enough to understand why and what it means).

I think that another thing is what they eat. Their bodies do not process food the same as younger people and sometimes the smell lingers. My MIL often smells "garlic-y" and it makes me want to puke. Also, cancer has a smell and many older people in nursing homes have cancer that cannot be treated or rather they or their families have decided not to treat it. :( I can't stand that nasty "outside" smell. Blech. You could walk out the front door for 2 seconds when we lived in GA and smell that way instantly.

Wow...you all have fun with that! LOL I will be hanging out here...NOT working. ;) But really...I wish I had your motivation.

Yeah, I do feel more pressure to do vaccines when I take them to the Ped. :( I guess that is definitely one drawback.

If I didn't, I would always be washing loose change, memory sticks, car keys, etc. My dh actually expects me to do the pocket checking...at least, I assume he does...otherwise he wouldn't leave all of that crap in there!

Ummm...no. LOL My mom could not text her way out of a paper bag. I am not sure she even knows what you do in order to send a text message.

We have also not received a ton of cards this year...but I am okay with that. We don't send out that many either. However, I am of the belief that if you receive a card, you should at least acknowlege it with a return card. I do this for everyone...except the people who work for my dh and are just brown-nosing. LOL I let them sweat it out. ;) Please remember too that the economy has hit people hard this year and, while it may seem trivial to not send a card, you have to realize that it may have been a corner that some people chose to cut so they could have a better Christmas for their kids. Stamps are expensive...almost $1 to mail just two cards. Then you have to buy the cards too. I can see why some may have cut out card sending this year. Honestly.

No, I actually would not be upset. I think there comes a time and place in life where you can be content with the other "good" around you and presents are not what it is about. Seeing your kids faces on Christmas morning, spending time with your nutty relatives, sipping wine and eating a cheese log with your husband as you watch the tree lights sparkle...THAT is what it is all about. :)

Yes. That is normal. I, for one, welcomed the change. There is nothing I need that I cannot buy and being at this place in my life makes even the smallest gift that I receive so very special. If my husband were to get me a small gift, I would know it was out of love and not obligation. My mom is living on a small budget, my dh's mom and step-dad are living on retirement. They do buy for the kids, but not dh and I...and we also do not really buy for them. As an example, unexpectedly today, I received a snowman candle in the mail from a friend I have not spoken to in months. It just arrived...as a surprise. I love and collect snowmen and she knows that, so this gift was very special and truly made me smile. :) Welcome to this new stage of life.

I think it depends on the kids, the GP, and the age. My kids are 5 and 9 and they do go to a pediatrician. When they were smaller, the ped docs were better able to relate what was going on...especially ear infections. A lot of GPs miss ear infections or misdiagnose them because a child's ears are a lot different than an adults. Peds also know more about kids. I like that our ped. does a well side and a sick side for visits, which most docs in GP offices do not do. Also, you think about a sick older person waiting to see a GP and here comes a 5 year old full of energy with a snotty nose. It is not a pleasant experience. Kids are kids and I just prefer a kids doctor take care of mine. Personally, I would think it would be hard to look at a 90 year old woman, a 25 year old man, and a 2 year old child all in the same hour or so. I have a GP that I see and he told me he prefers parents take kids to a ped. Now, that said, if my kids were adolescents like yours, I would probably be fine with a GP. A ped doc only sees kids till they are 18 and even then, I think an 18 year old would feel weird going to a ped. Most of the time, the kids I see there are between birth and 12 or so. I rarely see older kids.

My oldest ds is 9 and doing 4th grade (ish) this year. He came out of ps after 3rd grade and absolutely LOATHES reading. I couldn't get him to read a short story, much less a chapter book and he hated just the thought of having to read at all. Well, I have to say that after 5 months of homeschooling, my reluctant reader has become a voracious one! He reads chapter books by the hour! Sometimes he gets one and is finished with it before we have even had it for the day (which, to me, is awesome). The library lets him check out 10 books at a time because he can easily read them all within the two weeks and return them (love our librarian!). I am just so pleased with his progress. Don't ask me what changed...other than that something "clicked" for him and he realized he actually likes to get lost in a story. So have any of you turned a reluctant reader into a voracious one? Any tips on creating a voracious one from the beginning? I think often of my 5 year old and hope he finds the love for reading much sooner than his older brother.