Yes. Our dog has a stocking. I am even silly and make sure she doesn't see her gifts before Christmas..lol. My kids would never let me get away with NOT getting her something. My husband also contributes to this behavior. She is his spoiled little baby. ETA: She totally doesn't get that it is Christmas, but she does get darned excited when we open gifts, and even more so when she realizes she gets one too! lol.

I see this all the time now that I'm back in school. Students that expect their professors to be their tutors. Students that get mad and throw a fit the last week of class because their professor didn't sit down with them outside of class and office hours to drag them through the course. Students that are failing a fairly easy class for the second time because they can't be bothered to study (but are very active in all sorts of clubs and activities around campus). Students that automatically assume that if a class is hard then the professor is a jerk and a bad teacher. And like it was mentioned above, these aren't just the students that are fresh out of high school. Some of these people are my age. It makes me worry.

Meeting people online IS very common. I've met friends myself that way. However, among the college students I attend school with, Tinder is just a hook up app...not good.

I didn't know what a scantron was (by name) until this semester of college. Mainly because I'm old (comparatively) What I hate is when people blame something they don't like/agree with on being homeschooled. My kid is weird. She has been weird since birth. She was weird all through her 6 years at public school. She was weird through her 7 years of homeschool. She's a weird college student. But she gets labeled as the "weird homeschooler". Any time she doesn't know something, whether it has a thing to do with her education or not, it is seen as a homeschooler issue.

I haven't, but when we built this house, we heavily considered what our lives would be like once the kids moved out (they were all teens when we built). They each have their own bedroom, but our overall square footage isn't huge. We chose a two story that we could close off the upstairs and live entirely downstairs if we wanted. We would, however, still have room for guests and such. We could possibly have an empty nest by fall of 2017, so not too far off for us!

You aren't the only one. My kids love it. I can only tolerate Christmas music in teeny tiny doses. Part of my problem is that there is a LOT of atrocious Christmas music out there, and it is blasted from every radio from mid-November until January...lol.

I don't think so. My dad and I are both oldest children. In general, we cope much better with life than our siblings. My oldest is the most carefree of my three. She also tends to act younger than the other two. I think its a crap-shoot, honestly.

There is a good chance it'll show up early. I got my dh's Paperwhite in just 3 days.

For me, it would fall under "is this my knowledge to tell?" If it is something that is general knowledge, or something that affects the said child directly, then tell. If it is something that would not harm said child, and is something that happened that really isn't their business to know, then leave it alone. There are things in our family that are general knowledge for one generation, and it does affect relationships within that generation...BUT is a very private situation and doesn't really need to be known by the next generation. It would cause more harm than good, I think, and really is only something that certain people should tell about. On the other hand, you have a situation like my relationship with my brother. He loved to wax poetic about how wonderful our mother was and how much he missed her. He wanted me to join him in these conversations. I finally just had to tell him "You and I obviously had different childhoods". (He was 6 years younger, and our mother died young, so he probably didn't remember things the same) I was content to let him believe for a while, but once he started having some mental instability, I felt that he needed to know the truth.

My girls were all around 12 or 13. One dd reached a size 10 by that age, and thankfully stopped. All four of us are between 9-10 in size.

Dh's family is very dependent on one another for help. In fact, it is kind of a default to see if a family member can help before seeking outside help with pretty much anything. Back when dh was healthier, he worked on pretty much everyone's car. He still works on his brother's vehicles occasionally (and nieces) It really is part of the family dynamic. His parent's siblings are all very close knit. My family is a lot different, and I wouldn't dream of asking them for a thing. (but we are not close at all)

Well, my child is 18, almost 19...so now we just deal. DD just is very careful these days with what she eats over there. Part of it is complete lack of understanding allergies. She's slowly, over the years, realizing that yes, it is a thing.

True. FWIW, I didn't have a fit or anything. I just told her that dd couldn't eat it if it was cooked like that. (to clarify, it was made like a half and half pizza...she'd just sprinkled PB chips on half the pan.) I think part of my frustration with MIL is her attitude of "a little won't hurt".

This kind of depends on the circumstances. We deal with food allergies and intolerances in our family. I don't eat wheat, and oldest dd has nut and fruit allergies. I've been to meals in which people were very aware of my issues and there were like two veggies I could eat and that was it. It was close family and rather frustrating. However, I DID bring something I could eat, and felt grumpy about the eyes I got over only eating my food. (then there was the time that MIL told us that she'd made a certain dessert that always had peanut butter in it WITHOUT peanut butter so dd could eat it...then after dd put a bite in her mouth and tasted peanut butter, MIL said that she'd just not put it in half the dessert, but baked it in the same pan! ) However, when I'm visiting other houses that are NOT close family, then I don't expect accommodation at all. I just ask lots of questions, and try to bring at least one thing we can eat.

I just ate cake with my coffee. So, yes!

Dh and oldest dd both had them removed before problems. I don't know what dh's x-rays looked like. He was under 18. DD absolutely had zero room for them to come up, and they were only about 6 months from problems. I only had the bottom two wisdom teeth, the other two were naturally missing. They would come up partially, not have enough room, then go back down. I had large pockets in my gums where they kept partially erupting. I was around 22 when I had mine out. My twins will have to have theirs out, as they have zero room for them as well.

The Wacom tablets are good and excellent for a beginner. I've never noticed lag and I've had two of the lower end models. I currently have a Bamboo that works great. There is a bit of a learning curve, but you can pick it up pretty quickly. Make sure she has a decent program to draw with (photoshop or Corel Draw, or similar)

I've been on a white plate collecting binge...lol. I like that you can dress them up or down, and they'll go with anything. I use them mostly at Thanksgiving. We have vintage Corelle for our everyday dishes. However, I keep telling my girls to buy white basics when they move out. Then buy all the accessories in the fun colors.

I'm currently enrolled in college. The PC, don't step on anyone's toes, guard every single word that comes out of your mouth, everyone is offended by everything culture is exhausting and very prevalent on campuses. You can't even discuss race or culture issues intelligently because someone will be offended, and you may be accidentally bullying someone (yes, really). So, yes, it affects me. I've been accused of being racist because I mentioned that I look very white, although I have AA ancestry. (how that is racist when I was stating a fact about my skin color and misconceptions about it, I have no idea) When my classes have become so sanitized that I can't learn anything real, it affects me. When I can't enjoy the wonderful things other cultures have brought into the world because...appropriation...yes I find it stupid. The PC hysteria in the media deserves laughter. Somehow we are supposed to be both blind to race and ethnicity while also separating cultures carefully so we don't step on toes by doing something that belongs to another culture. Its a lose-lose situation. Things that are done to mock other cultures, or demean them, are wrong. Sharing or adopting practices of another culture because you find them inspiring or beautiful is not. On the flip side, and maybe a rabbit trail, the lack of exposure to other cultures is causing a lot of misunderstanding and fear right now. I have people in my life right now that think everyone of middle eastern descent has terrorist roots. It is fear and hysteria caused by ignorance. Ignorance that could be alleviated if they were exposed to more middle eastern peoples and culture. BTW, as a TN hillbilly, feel free to take my culture and run with it. Y'all can have all the pinto beans and cornbread you want.

If it weren't for cultural appropriation, I would have no culture at all. My ancestry is just about as mixed bag as you can get. I have no cultural roots, unless you count TN hillbilly. (Which didn't even exist a couple hundred years ago). If I didn't integrate other cultures into my life, I'd pretty much have to sit in a cave and eat bugs. PC-ness is getting ridiculous, IMO. It is making everyone so afraid of offending someone that walking out of your front door is anxiety inducing.

I always go simple. I mix a stick of butter with sage, garlic, sea salt and rosemary. I then stuff that mixture UNDER the skin, and then rub the outside with whatever small amount is leftover. I don't stuff it. I roast it tightly covered with foil until almost done...only taking it off at the end long enough to brown the skin. Only cook it until it just reaches the safety temperature, then take it out and let it sit with foil over the top. My turkey always comes out tender and juicy when I cook it this way, and gets completely devoured.

Cute, funky socks, an infinity scarf, or an itunes gift card. 15 year olds are an enigma when it comes to gift buying.

Mine doesn't. Well, didn't. His brain finally caught up since it is pretty obvious that he's living with 4 grown women now..lol. But yeah. They were stuck at 8 or 9 in his head forever. I remember when we moved once and he was telling our new neighbor about our kids. "We've got three. The oldest is 12 and the twins are 9" They were 15 and 11...lol.

Lots and lots of practice. Start with things that don't roll. (cut cucumbers in half lengthwise and let them dice them, etc.) I would also watch some YouTube videos on how to correctly hold the knife.

I would love a suggested reading list in any of my classes. I actually wish more professors did something like that. I do not love, however, required texts that cost me an arm and a leg. Nor do I love being required to buy the latest custom edition when one from 5 years ago would work just as well. I think that is the beef most people have. When you shell out $200 for a book that you did not need, it is very frustrating. (And then, you cannot even resell the book later because it was a custom edition that they only used for one year, or has some code with it that can only be used once.)