Yes - we gave our mailman a $10 Panera card and a bag of Christmas cookies and do something similar every year. He's a great mail carrier. We're rural, so they drive from house to house and if they don't want to bring a package to your door, they can (and frequently do) just leave a note in your mailbox to pick up a package at the post office. Our mail carrier, always walks packages up to our front door and hand delivers us any mail that day too. He left us a nice thank you note for his Christmas gift. :-) UPS and garbage men get cookies - and they're always grateful to receive and I'm always grateful to get the extra cookies out of the house! :-)

We gave DS's piano teacher a $15 starbucks card and a thank you note with homemade cookies. He seemed quite happy with that. When I coached gymnastics, the team families gave me everything from nothing to a $25 gift card. I was happy with all of that. :-) I have been given homemade goodies, mugs, candles, BB&B lotions. I think my favorite is still the framed photo of me with my first level 3 team. I still have that one. :-)

DS has been asking for these fruit snacks (Turbo) and I keep saying no because of the food dyes in them. I try to stay away from gummy stuff (cavities) and food dye (ick) in general. For a special Christmas treat, I bought a package and put the mini packs in his stocking. He's super excited. :-)

I wouldn't get a keurig for that. If you're not a coffee drinker, I'd do an electric teapot of some kind - like this maybe? http://www.amazon.com/Presto-02704-Steep-Electric-Kettle/dp/B003VOZH4Q/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MQVTNGNJ5GSRDN8SRJH

We have an electric mattress pad on our bed and it's wonderful on cold nights. DS sleeps hot, so he would braise in his bed if we put one in his room even though his is the coldest room in the house. On cold nights, he has fleece sheets (so warm - even warmer than flannel!), a down comforter with a knitted thick wool blanket on top. The weight helps.

Santa present is unwrapped and displayed next to DS's stocking on the couch (we don't have a fireplace). DH's and my stockings are also on the couch. All the other presents are wrapped and under the tree. We do one present from Santa and we don't really "do" Santa all that convincingly. We don't do the naughty or nice thing, or the letter, it's more of a wink/nudge, "sure Santa is coming" kind of thing here. We do like tracking Santa on NORAD though. :-) This is how we did it growing up at my house. I learned at about 11pm last night that DH always had wrapped Santa presents though and he was temporarily horrified that I didn't wrap the giant lego. He relented once I told him that if he wanted it wrapped, he was welcome to wrap it and every other year, the Santa gift was unwrapped. I'm usually up finishing Santa stuff on Christmas Eve and he's usually in bed early, but he stayed up last night for some reason.

47 and the description was very accurate.

We have a 7'ish real tree. We go to a local tree farm every year to select and cut our tree. It's a family run place, Grandma makes wreaths and they offer hot cocoa, coffee and cookies to their customers. We love it! I used to think white lights and green/silver ornaments was the way to go. Now I love the colored lights and a mish mash of ornaments. I have some of the non breakable balls that I bought when my cat was alive and used to love batting ornaments from the tree. I have a few ornaments from my childhood that my parents saved. I have ornaments that my first roommate and I bought when we lived together. We buy a couple every year as well and have bought one for DS every year since he was born. There are some lightweight very sparkly snowflakes that give a nice sparkle of tinsel without the mess. I also try to buy an ornament from wherever we go on vacation, so I have remembrances of various trips, which are nice. :-)

DS 6- red

Just read through the whole thread and man, have any of the people in that school worked with children before?? I'm glad your son gets to sing tomorrow and I'm very glad you have a "not this school" plan for after the holidays. And yes, post a little video!! :-)

If you are worried about her safety, call your local mental health agency. They should have a 24 hr crisis line. You can speak to an emergency mental health worker and they should be able to go and see her if necessary. (this is my husband's main job) They get calls from worried relatives/friends frequently. At the very least, they can give you advice on what to do and help you brainstorm. Counseling was not a waste of time. Bi-polar and personality disorders are not a quick fix. I agree with PP that you find a counselor to help you navigate your DD's mental illness. Your DD's counselor will not be able to tell you anything, unless your DD gave the counselor permission to speak with you, but it worthwhile to call him/her to let them know what's going on.

VT has a great state program for children - Dr. Dynasaur. Our former governor, who was a practicing physician before going into politics, started it. Families pay a sliding scale based on income monthly and children up to (I think) 25 are covered. Any child in the state that does not have insurance can enroll. Higher income families pay more and lower income families pay less. Pretty much every Dr's office, dentist, etc, will take it because so many kids have it here. We have coverage through DH's work, but it's very nice to know that if he ever got laid off and we were without insurance for a time, we could get DS covered easily. Good luck!

Elton John: "hold me closer Tony Danza!" (Tiny Dancer) For years, I thought it was Tony Danza - DH filled me in a few years ago. We're another "bi-curious" George family. DS sang it that way a few years back and it stuck.

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree. http://www.amazon.com/Willowbys-Christmas-Tree-Robert-Barry-ebook/dp/B00A5MRGS2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418008180&sr=8-1&keywords=mr+willowby%27s+christmas+tree

We do homeschool swim and tennis at our local fitness club. Each are once a week. He loves tennis a lot, so I signed him up for another hour of tennis a week on a different day. We try to go to the pool 3x a week on our own for an hour or so. Then outside playing, mini trampoline, etc.

Yay! Congratulations to your daughter!!

Razor blades - I always cringe when I have to buy them at the grocery store, so if we each get a big pack in our stockings, they last awhile and it's a happy thing to open! I try to get some good quality chocolate for DH's stocking - preferably something I don't care for as much, so he can just enjoy. scratch off lottery tickets - extra fun if you win! chapstick gift card to a coffee shop or restaurant mini liquor bottle of something guitar picks

LL Bean or Land's End hold up very well and keep DS's legs dry and warm.

I'd give it a try - just rinse them gently. The worst that can happen is that you'll need to go buy more, which you're planning on doing anyway. So if the rinse off works, you're ahead of the game!

We ate leftovers - trying to clean out the fridge as much as possible before filling it up tomorrow with Thanksgiving leftovers!

Do you have enough butter, onions and sour cream? You can rinse the beans really well - get all the sauce off of them and restart if you do. I had to do that once while making a soup. I halved the recipe, but forgot to halve the herbs and accidentally put in twice the amount of thyme. I like thyme, but it was way too intense. I put the cooked onion, celery and carrots in a fine mesh strainer and rinsed them until they were clean and started fresh. Good luck!

I'm trying to decide what to do with sweet potatoes this year too - I'm contemplating this idea from Alton Brown: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chipotle-smashed-sweet-potatoes-recipe.html or this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/smoked-chile-scalloped-sweet-potatoes-recipe.html Slightly different takes on the usual sweet potato dishes.

We don't eat turkey, but I checked our local grocery store flyer: $.59/lb frozen $1.29/lb fresh Just for a regular butterball or something similar.

Great - thank you! I'm considering buying her a GC to a restaurant in town that she and her boyfriend like. Or just cash, not sure yet. Glad to know I'm on target with the amount! Thanks!

We're going away for a week and my friend is going to come by a few times to check on our house, bring in the mail, etc. I think she'll be coming 3-4 times total. On the last visit, she'll bump our heat up so the house is warm when we get home and turn on the outside light. The other visits, she'll grab the mail and double check that the heating system is working ok. It stopped working at the end of last spring and the plumber "thinks" it's fixed, but I'm paranoid. It'll take less than 5 min each time she comes and she lives about 5 min from here. Is $50 a good amount to give her? More?