We turn ours off. We have a live tree that usually is pretty dried out by this time in the season, and we don't like to have the lights on when we're not around to keep an eye on things. Outdoors, we probably could. It never occurred to me. DH or I do get up early on Christmas morning and turn on all the inside lights and start the fireplace. The kids have to wait in their rooms until everything is ready. Even more so this year since Santa is "delivering" a kitten this afternoon who will be hiding downstairs in the office until Monday! They love this -- I think it builds the suspense for them.

No kidding. I literally picked up a dirty pair of undies from the floor DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF dd12's hamper the other day. Seriously? It was that much more work to put it IN the basket??? True dat.

To me, it says: "No one has gotten him those specific items yet. And I don't think he's getting anything at all from The Walking Dead."

Huh. Now I'm starting to wonder if I should be offended that every single one of our guests shows up empty-handed to the Christmas morning breakfast I host. My MIL even brings her Tupperware for leftovers! As to the OP, I don't think it would bother me one way or another, but clearly I've never shared your experience!

I do think it's funny, just not funny enough to spend our money on. I might laugh at it, but I certainly don't want to own it. Or whatever other random junk DH ends up with as part of this exchange. And I think a $25 limit is ABSURD. But his coworkers (he works almost exclusively with men) will think it's hilarious, or so he says, and he wants to get a big laugh. It's his first party at this company and he wants to fit in. So I'm totally fine with that. It's more the overall concept that bothers me. It just seems like a ginormous waste of resources.

I'll JAWY, even though you said I didn't have to! :lol: Just this weekend I had to purchase and wrap this tasteful gift for DH's office party. His coworkers insist on having a white elephant exchange with a $25 limit! It's not that we don't have the $25 to blow, but it galls me to spend money on crap nobody wants or can use. I can't wait to see what gem he brings home in return. I truly don't understand why people insist on this. Why not adopt a family in need for the holidays? $25 per person could go a loooong way towards a Christmas dinner and gifts for kids who might not otherwise have any. I guess I'm just a party pooper.

My ds7 (who reads about the same level as your ds, from the sound of it) HATES leveled readers. Hates them. I found this list of picture books organized by grade level, and it has been so helpful for us! It helps me pick out "real" books that are around his reading level. I vary between picking books on his current level with books slightly below or above. He has surprised me with how much he has taken off since we started using this system. We still do his phonics curriculum as well, but we are gradually moving toward just reading books. Here's a link to the list: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/curriculum/literacy/leveled_books/lb_grade_level.pdf It required a little trial and error at first, but now I have a good grasp on what he's able to read and which ones will challenge him or or help him develop fluency. All that said, I'd never discourage a kid from reading "hard" books on his own if he wants to!

A dear friend just had a baby at 47. They lost their 10yo in an accident a couple of years ago, and this was an extraordinary blessing for them! She had no problems -- she carried much more easily than I did at 26 and 32!

Are all the candles the same height? Try grouping them in two or three sets of odd numbers (say, three or five to a group). A mix of red and cream will be alright if the groupings are balanced. I'd probably try two groups, one on each end of the mantel. If you have a smaller glass vase, you could put the potpourri in that and add some branches or other greenery to make a taller centerpiece. Do you have anything else? Garland or unused ornaments, figurines, ribbon, etc.?

Yes, you are right to be bothered. Signed, The mean mom who wouldn't let her MIL take her DD to Wizarding World of Harry Potter because she selfishly wanted that memory for herself

Yup, me too. Except mine is only a year old, so I was TICKED. Fortunately the switch seems to have solved most of the issues.

I cleaned mine this morning, and I just opened this thread because I was terrified there'd be some kind of health or safety warning I'd missed! :lol:

Yep, I switched to Chrome last week when I finally got sick of Firefox "not responding" more often than it was. I've been a Firefox user for over a decade, but no more.

I think there's something to this. DH and I have discussed many times over the years (we've been married almost 18) how we want NOW what it took our parents years to earn. Leaving home and getting married and established on our own was a big step DOWN in lifestyle for us. And I'm sure that's true for many. Just look at the basic monthly bills an average person "needs" to pay in order to maintain a "normal" lifestyle. Many, many people didn't pay for things like TV service 30 years ago, much less internet or cell phones. Those few things are considered must-haves by most middle- and even lower-class people, but they can easily add hundreds to your monthly budget. The only snowflake I know personally is 35, so if he's a Millennial, he's on the far upper end. He's married, with one kid and one on the way, and he owns a successful business and his own home, which he paid cash for. Sounds great until you realize that he and his family continue to live in the upstairs of his parents' home because he hasn't been able to upgrade his own home to be "acceptable" for him to live in. He's owned it for OVER A YEAR. He has never lived anywhere except with his parents. When he married, they added on a room upstairs to give him and the new wife more room. His parents also put him through college and have bought him numerous vehicles and expensive equipment for his business. His mother does all the cooking and cleaning and laundry, and now child care too, despite the fact that he and his wife have a combined six-figure income. I know that before he was married he never contributed a dime to the household (hence the cash for the house). That may have changed (though I doubt it). He is not lazy and he works hard, but he is the most entitled person I know. He demands the world and then has the gall to complain about low-lifes who mooch off the government through things like Medicaid and unemployment. Of course, his mother, aside from being an obvious enabler, is also a snowflake herself, so I don't really think you can put a generational label on it. Whoever said snowflakes raise snowflakes is right.

I'll be honest: We have friends like that, and it has damaged our relationship because we just can't stand to be around their kid. We have been friends since we were children (actually, dh and I met because we both knew the husband). We love them; they are truly lovely people. But their son is the WORST. And they think he's an angel. I don't really have advice. In our case, it did not improve as the kids got older. In fact, it has gotten worse. We try to occasionally plan a kid-free night out for the adults (we make sure our kids have plans before inviting so there's no "let's just all get together!"), and that's the only way we've been able to maintain any sort of friendship.

We North Carolinians would be happy to have you! Good luck to you dh if he applies for the new job!

I've heard both, but we always sang "many," and "seven" makes no sense with the rest of the song, or with history.

Appreciate all the feedback! I have a laptop, so the Chromebook would just be for the kids. They only need basics like word processing, internet research and surfing, and fun stuff (YouTube, a few games -- they're not really *into* anything specific). Portability and battery life aren't huge issues, since it will be used at home most of the time. We have high-speed wifi, so no issues there. Thanks to whoever mentioned the printing issues -- I did look into that and it seems like our printer will work. We don't use much digital curriculum, just a few DVD's, which can be watched on my laptop or on the TV. TBH, I hate everything about Windows. I am a Mac gal through and through, but for various reasons that's not a possibility at this time. We looked at the Chromebook because we just need something basic for the kids, and at 12 and 7, we really don't want to put much cash into it. We anticipate buying something nicer for dd by the time she dual enrolls in 11th grade, if not before. This is kind of a stop-gap measure to get them off my laptop! But obviously, we need to be functional for our basic needs.

Can't come up with a single decent gift idea for anybody. Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. Commiserate with me. :wacko:

Yep, this worked for us too, even when nothing else did.

How does it fit into your school? Anything it can't do that you wish it did? We are debating between a Chromebook and a traditional laptop.

I too left the church I grew up in after a long and arduous struggle. It was very, very hard. While some people might view the errors of my former church to be minor, the underlying beliefs they betray are seriously problematic. I won't go into detail here, but detoxing was both excruciating and exhilarating. Thanks be to God that you and I were both delivered out of false teaching! I ventured through a number of different theological interpretations before finally finding peace in Confessional Lutheranism. I specify "confessional" because there are many different Lutheran denominations, and some hold to the Lutheran Confessions more tightly than others. I believe that one of the things that sets Lutherans apart is our willingness to embrace the paradoxes in scripture; human reason, while an important gift from God, serves in submission to God's revelation and not over it. So we take scripture at face value when it says that God certainly elects some to salvation, but also that Jesus died for all humanity and God does not desire that any should perish. We make a distinction between the Law (what is required of us) and the Gospel (what God has done for us in Christ) that is unlike any hermeneutic I've found anywhere else. As to the question of Satan never being in heaven, I can't imagine my church teaching that, as it's in direct contradiction to Luke 10:18 -- "And [Jesus] said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'" Someone above mentioned reading Luther and Chemnitz to learn about Lutheranism, which I don't dispute, but I would recommend starting with the Augsburg Confession. It lays out in painstaking detail what Lutherans believe. I will be happy to provide additional resources or answer questions for anyone who is interested as well. God's blessing and peace to you as you embark on this journey.

We do use the cash system and, honestly, I think it's much easier to stick with cash. I know going to the ATM is a pain but we have made it a priority. One of us goes to the bank every two weeks on payday and takes out everything we need to get through the next two weeks. Cash expenses include groceries, gas, and haircuts. We also budget a set amount each month that we just call "Miscellaneous." If we want to go out to eat, or need to pick up something at the drug store, or the kids have an unexpected extracurricular expense, we use that cash. However, we do also do a lot of online shopping, and for those things, I keep funds in our savings account. I use a spreadsheet to track how much is in each category, as it comes in and out. Two spreadsheets, actually -- one is a check register, but for our savings account, where I list every dollar that comes in and out and a running total. The other breaks down the entire account into multiple categories: emergency fund, kids' clothes, adult clothes, homeschool curriculum/supplies, car repairs, etc. It is a little extra work, but at the end of each month I can see exactly how much we have in each category. We make it a point to put money into each of those funds each month if possible (dh is on commission, so some months it's not possible -- I have it prioritized so that the most important categories are filled first). It is extra work but it keeps us from blowing our money. I try to keep a couple hundred bucks extra in our checking account so that there's coverage when I buy things and I don't have to move the money right away. But mostly our checking account is just in and out to pay known expenses. All other funds are cash or from our savings. A lot of it just comes down to discipline. Look for ways to organize it so it's as brainless as possible and know your weak spots so you can find ways to compensate them. It used to drive me crazy that it was impossible to budget for everything because of the unknowns, which is why I started budgeting miscellaneous cash. If you have an emergency fund, that helps too -- but you can't go to Chipotle on your emergency money! :) ETA: Dh especially had to get used to this when we started it. He was very much used to just slapping whatever he wanted on his debit card. If you really need to rely on debit to make "everyday" purchases like groceries and gas, I would suggest using a separate checking account just for those things, or, if you're disciplined enough, a credit card that gets paid off at the end of the month. Also, I get the gas thing with young kids in the car. We mostly solved that by having Dh fill up both cars on the weekends.

Did you do anything to prep? DD is a month away from her test date. We are only doing this for the opportunity to experience the test in a low-pressure environment, so I don't want to add stress by making her practice. But I wonder if it will be helpful to run through a few things so she has some idea what to expect.