I do this for most invitations - even though I don't have toddlers anymore. :D We had two Christmas parties in December, and on both invitations I put a start & end time. Usually what happens at the official "end" time is a few people start leaving...and it takes up to an hour for everyone to clear out. (I anticipate that when I set the end time!) I think having an end time is not only NOT rude, but it's courteous to your attendees. Everybody knows what to expect.

A couple of people have mentioned how doable it is to take a bus from AKL to a park, then a bus to your resort. It might be doable but not preferable. :) One time when we were at WDW without a car, we planned on eating at (fill in the name of the hamburger/ice cream place at Beach Club) after a day at Epcot, because you can exit Epcot through the back to get to that resort. BUT by the time we finished dinner we were EXHAUSTED. There was no way we could trek back to the front of Epcot to catch the monorail to the Transit Center, then transfer to a bus to our resort! It would have taken way more time & energy than we had. So we ended up taking a cab. I don't remember how much it was - not too expensive, I think. Anyway, that's something to keep in mind if you are too exhausted at the end of that night for 2 bus trips.

I'm worried because we actually have the room. (If I read your post correctly, you guys don't have a lot of extra space). So it feels like pure meanness on my part to say "Sorry but you can't stay in our empty guest room". :001_unsure: I'm ready to move to a much smaller house just to avoid this situation.

I tried the homemade powder for a while. Our clothes were noticeably dingier. I went back to using either Tide or Gain (whichever is on sale). I use less than what the scoop suggests, and our clothes come out clean. It costs me less than $4/month for our family of 4 - it's worth it to me for the clean clothes.

OK, since many of you have said that staying in a hotel is OK/preferable, what would you do in this situation? We have some relatives who've always stayed with us (we have a guest room). But, I just can't host them anymore. I really *can't* - I honestly thought dh would have to take me to the emergency room last time they were here, because of a panic attack. So I've been practicing saying, "Oh, we'd love to see you! But we can't host you this time. Here are the best hotel options..." And if they ask "why", I'm practicing, "Oh, we couldn't possibly!" (yes, I learned that one here on this board. :) ) Dh thinks there will be fallout...I think it can't possibly be worse than a visit. Can I do this? We have hosted them twice a year for the last several years.

Yes, I've been asked, and I think it's always been phrased: "Isn't that illegal?" (assuming it's illegal instead of the other way around).

Well, you just need to buy Elf - don't you watch it every year? ;) We own all of the Christmas classics that we like, because it was too hard to get them from any rental source (Netflix, library, etc.) during the holidays when we actually want to watch them.

I saw a statement from Netflix saying that most of their customers want to watch their movies on the weekend, so they'll still be able to get movies turned around in time. But when we had DVD service, I really liked mailing a movie on Monday and getting the next one on Wednesday. This will be the death knell for DVD service by mail (as Netflix was headed away from anyway). More people will use Redbox, etc, or pay per movie from a service like Vudu. That's what we've done since dropping Netflix DVD - we've picked up maybe one or two movies per month from Redbox, and rented a couple from Vudu over the last few months.

OK for the kids; just don't put it on your dh' new iPod. I am an Angry Birds widow. :glare:

A bottle of wine, a tin of peppermint bark, a Burt's Bees gift set.

TeA Ezzos

Don't loan your sister any more money. It is not worth the stress to you and the damage to your relationship w/ her kids. This means you either GIVE her the money and tell her it's a gift - no repayment expected. OR you say NO. Those are your only choices. (this advice isn't mine - it's direct from Dave Ramsey)

Fiction: Lady Macbeth by Susan King Non-fiction: Radical by David Platt

If you are looking solely at cost of living - Phoenix wins hands-down. I checked one calculator - a $50k income in Phoenix is equivalent to $69,500 in metro DC. The cost of an average DC home is 2-3x the cost of the average Phoenix home.

Yep. Every year. And every year I cringe and say, "NOW I remember why this is PG-13". My teens know Clark Griswold is not a role model. :tongue_smilie:

OP, can you do this? If I were in your shoes, I'd either return the card to the tree, or I'd figure out how/where to get one of the nice $25-$30 sets (Costco, Sam's, Amazon). I think a gift card to the fancy store would be a complete waste.

I love this...where can I get the t-shirt?

I think this would be a waste of time. This type of person will give the same baloney excuses to the child, and not feel a speck of guilt. Speaking from experience...

This had me laughing out loud. Every once in a while my dh will ask if other men hit on me. "Oh yeah, you know I look totally hot in my beater mini-van in the Costco parking lot!"

can't get pic to post :(

I wouldn't either. We have traveled a lot with our kids. I'm pretty sure we left them in the room alone a couple of times for brief periods, but they were together, and it would have been about when the oldest was at least 12 or 13.

The kitchen table is nice - that might be the best idea yet! I don't think I'd even sub the craft table into the kitchen - that way I won't have to clean my craft room this weekend. :D We've done that before with up to 9 people (and 5 of them were small). I can't do it with 11 adult-sized people. We'd be on each other's laps!

OK. I will serve wine. None of us gets drunk! It would be 1 or at most 2 glasses for everyone, I expect. I'm talking 2 bottles for 5 people. And I had definitely planned on serving Martinelli's so everyone can feel festive. Still on the fence about the tables. I think I still prefer all in one room - it wouldn't be too noisy or crowded as some have mentioned, because it's only 11 of us, and we'd just have to push a couple of living room chairs out of the way to make both tables commodious. But you've given some great ideas if we do split up - I hadn't thought about splitting up nuclear families. We could even do a girls table & boys table - that might be fun. And it would only be for the actual dinner time. We'll do dessert a little later and can all sit in the living room/dining room. Thanks for the input. I feel better about the possibility of losing the argument w/ dh :D - at least we have some alternatives for seating to discuss.

My dd took the AP Art History test 2 years ago and scored a 5. Here's what she used: Primary text: Gardners (I don't recall which edition and it has since left our home). There was a separately available study guide that she completed for each chapter. The Teaching Company A History of European Art. We LOVED this course. I watched it with her. The professor was so engaging. Supplemental/review texts toward the last month or two before the exam: REA Prep book The Annotated Mona Lisa The Annotated Arch (for architecture) After the test, she felt she had not performed well on the sections related to modern art. But I guess she did well enough on the other sections to make up for it. But if I were to have another student attempt the exam, I would do everything the same, but also look for a resource that focused on 20th century art.

LOL. You will just have to pretend you're too technically challenged to figure it out on your end.