Sour cream sugar cookies are nice if frosted. The frosting is the fun part

We didn't go crazy this year and I have been there in the past with things being super tight. Like dh bought a bunch of ds' toys from Goodwill one year. Ds was about 3. The new but not expensive toy we got him broke on Christmas day. I was so upset at that time, but now we still have some of those same toys from Goodwill because dd is enjoying them. As someone mentioned up thread maybe look into the angel tree program or Toys for Tots or something if applicable. I don't know if you have missed the deadlines or not because a lot of those trees are already up, but I think some just got put up (I heard an ad on the radio today for one tree at a Walmart that they indicated just appeared today).

Could you just contact the person(s) and let them know that your phone is unusable right now and so could they please contact you via ____? Even if you were able to view them, you wouldn't be able to respond or see additional ones probably so an alternative contact might be necessary. I know, this isn't very helpful. Just thinking that at the end of the day it might be better to reach out to them (assuming you got their contact info when your dh got the phone contact list) with this info in case they continue to text that phone.

Just glancing at the lyrics I see "He" in capital letters. That means God to me. And "Heavenly." So yeah, I'd be quick to think religious on some level. ETA: and if you're focused on whether or not the religion association is Christian, I think it's kinda a moot point. If someone doesn't feel comfortable with the poem it's probably because it doesn't fit in their belief system, whatever that is.

Maybe have your dd just ask her if there's a way to tactfully do so. Maybe there's some completely non-religious reason like it was requested by the family that the student not play it because it was associated with a sad or bad memory. I am only saying this because Ode to Joy also sounds like a religious song.

For me it often depends if I have cash and coupons to combine or not Lol Like, right now nothing is a great deal for me because I'd have to use my rewards cash toward the shipping fee and whatever discount would also mostly go toward the shipping fee. My store is pretty far from the house so I don't shop there that often/do store pickup. My parents give me their Kohl's mail when I visit and I noticed that around Black Friday we got different coupons. I had left mine at my house and used theirs because I was visiting that week. When I got home I saw there was a different one. Theirs was $10 off on Black Friday in store only. Mine was free $5 gift on Black Friday. I had used theirs to get a sweater I'd been eyeing. It was $9.99 on Black Friday but I bought something small to reach the $10 min. Those sweaters have changed prices a few times going up and down in price. I will most likely redeem my Dec. rewards cash when I'm in town again ha.

Kohl's has. 25% off with code WEGET25 or DECSAVE25. Exp. 12/10. Thing is, I had stuff in my cart the other day and the prices have gone up. So for those items it's not a bigger deal. They were already 20% with a different code the other day, too.

I find that more often than not people don't do a lot of talking in the stores. They may not even follow protocol. I don't love chit chat, but I do expect some level of acknowledgement. At least make eye contact and smile or something! When I was a cashier I had a couple of regulars that enjoyed having me help them. I'd make suggestions or mention sales or introduce them to rewards programs, etc. In fact, a couple of my customers found me on facebook and added me as a friend and I ran into the wife a few weeks ago when I was in town visiting lol. We chatted in line in another store. They are around my age and came in the store every week. I do experience some human interaction when I go to the store, but it's not usually that much. The night before we celebrated dd's birthday an employee saw me getting a balloon that was not fully inflated. She suggested I take it to be filled back up. I didn't even know I could do that. Another employee tried but popped it. Then there was only one left. I said we didn't have to try if it was going to be risky. Luckily a friendly, young man that knew what he was doing filled up the balloon for me. I was very happy. Had there been no human interaction I guess I would have settled for a less appealing balloon. I got his name and if I ever go back to the store and need help with something he'd be someone I'd look for.

I did a spreadsheet this year, too. I'm more afraid of someone reading the spreadsheet (like if I didn't close it) than looking through closets LOL

wha??!!

I think it would be a rock, paper, scissors game to see who stayed inside the building with ds lol. I honestly don't know how we'd handle that but I would hate to fork over that much money, especially this time of year. I would possibly even ask the ticket booth person if parents with children in the show had to pay LOL. Sorry this happened.

We usually don't have very large objects. Most of my shopping was done online. The boxes didn't reveal the contents but I had an idea of what was what and opened it away from everyone if there were gifts the kids couldn't see. Many items were mailed to our family members' homes because that is where we will open them. I wrapped gifts during Thanksgiving when we were in town visiting. This is the second year I have done early shopping.

I have seen some full size onesies for adults that make me think of the Snuggie. I mean it wouldn't be as easy to take off, but it would keep you warm around the house. They make footed and footless versions. ETA: several stores have them. You can try Walmart, Target, Kohl's, JCP, Macy's... Another idea is a Harry Potter robe to act as a snuggie. Just get his favorite house lol. I don't know what I'd do, but those are just some ideas.

Is she too old for Where's Waldo? I don't know if you can outgrow those ;) Would she like a book based on a TV series she likes? As a kid I was drawn to the Full House books lol. I read the ones with Stephanie Tanner. A book about origami? Maybe it would come with its own folding paper.

Christianbook.com has free shipping on orders $35 and up with code SENDJOY. That code expires 12/05. I noticed that a lot of the items were on sale when I placed my order the other day, too. I bought Worldly Wise and some books from the "Who was" series. I compared the prices to Amazon to determine which ones I thought were a good deal. I also decided to try out DK Geography which was on sale.

This. I have an iphone 5s. I use this case: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FQMM3RU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I have a cuter case, but it felt a lot less safe. The UAG case has volume buttons that make handling it so much easier than fooling with the actual iphone buttons. I know it's not a fun, flashy case, but I have dropped my phone many times and no cracks. I dropped it on it's face last night. The woman next to me gasped and I was like, "oh, it's probably fine."

Some of my fondest memories are sitting around the living room with family stringing popcorn chains for the tree.

I was going to say more or less the same thing. I think your mom needs reassurance, in a gentle way. "Mom, please don't compare yourself to others. We are just happy to spend the holiday with you/we are happy with what you gave us/etc." I don't know the right words, but I'm sure you'll find them. I don't know if you have to discuss the DC thing at all. Maybe say nothing unless it comes up. At that point try to downplay it. I like giving gifts and I sometimes get insecure about the worth of what I can give. But I don't consider receiving gifts my love language (I would rather acts of service or praise or quality time). There is an angel tree at church. I seriously thought to myself about a couple of the ornaments left hanging on the tree... like if no one is going to take that I could... but I couldn't spend much. This person wanted a watch. If I took it, they'd get like a $20 watch but if someone with more income got it, they could probably afford a nicer one. You know? So I just left it there.

I'm not sure how I would describe my Christmases as a child. On the one hand I think they were large, but on the other I think they were reasonable. Like, I don't think Santa brought more than one item. Dh likes Santa to leave more than I feel is necessary. As a kid we got items year round rather than all at once. Instead of a big back to school shopping trip, Mom would buy a few things for the beginning of the year and then we'd get items as needed. I remember getting new shoes in the middle of the school year, which others might have thought was weird but I don't think I needed them at the beginning of the year. One of the biggest ticket items I remember us getting was the year our parents gave us (three girls) a Nintendo. Probably my favorite Christmas gift as a child (from Santa) was a Barbie camper. I don't know if that was considered a big ticket item then. We made an ideal budget to follow this year. I sadly was not good about sticking to my goals for the kids, but the actual items were not that expensive, either. It just added up quickly because I forgot to cancel a subscription to a clothing site one time and set those items aside for Christmas. So, that pair of shoes I got ate up a chunk of the budget I had set aside for ds. I did very well staying in budget for others, even less for some, so it didn't throw things off as badly as it could have. And I'm very proud of dh for finding a $20 drone lol. Just hope it doesn't break the first day :/ I don't feel very intimidated by Christmas shopping for my own kids. Ds told us and Santa that he had everything he needed. He was pressured to come up with a list but he's a pretty content kid with what he has. In fact, we have unopened items from last year we didn't get around to using. Dd is two and doesn't know what's going on. The struggle is more so with dh's family that tends to spend too much on all of us. We try to get them to tone it down, but they just say they don't care what we spend and then continue to give us more than we feel comfortable receiving. I know my niece and nephew sometimes get very big ticket items from others so I don't know if they will be happy with what we got them, but we tried. My nephew usually gets Legos from a bunch of relatives, including us. I asked my SIL for gift ideas and all she said was Legos. Dh said nope, not doing it this year. I honestly think he's kinda taking the Lego sets for granted. We bought him other stuff. I am a bargain shopper. Ds knows this and we literally run around the store price checking stuff and scanning with the Amazon app LOL. I think partly because of this he has a grasp of what is expensive or not. He saw a drone in Best Buy the other day for a couple hundred dollars. We told him they are expensive and Santa may or may not be able to make good on that item because he has to spread out the toys to everyone. The drone he's hoping for includes a camera so we had to explain that only very expensive ones have that feature. My side of the family is pretty laid back with Christmas and doesn't even really want to exchange gifts, but we mainly do it because there are kids (mine) and my grandmother who would not be pleased if we stopped (she's 101, let's not change things up too much). I actually end up helping half the family shop for each other so it's not that exciting for me. But oh well.

Spend $35 on christianbook.com and use code SENDJOY to get free shipping. Wow I didn't know they had a different promo going on. I only knew about the HOLIDAYBOOK (or books?) code that requires you to spend $25. Thanks for sharing!

Not over the hill! I don't think of anyone here as old. My grandma is 101 and still feisty lol

I never wanted an Elf on the Shelf. We got sucked into it because MIL had one and so did SIL. The cousins and MIL talked about it a lot when ds visited a year ago. I thought so what, not our house. Not our problem. But then dh got one for our home last Dec.? because ds had been brainwashed. He initially thought they were full of crap (well not his words) so I didn't think I'd have to deal with it. Dec. 1st I forgot all about it. Our elf didn't show up til Dec. 2 this year. Ours isn't naughty but still we have to remember to move the darn thing. $60 on candy? No way. Just say that Santa wanted to give him something else instead. Find a replacement item. Leave a note from Santa if you must. Excuse yourself from that price gauging. It should be okay, really. And if it's not, then maybe tell them they should be glad it's not coal lol MIL has a stocking for every.single.person in the family. Adults and kids. She buys candy and toys without us. But we buy some stuff as well. So basically the kids get overkill for stockings. Like items that don't even fit in the stockings sometimes. Regarding the tooth fairy, ds didn't want to give up his tooth last time so we left a note asking the TF to please leave it. LOL We told him he wouldn't get any money and he said that was okay. Dh is the real baker in the house. I like to decorate cookies, but not make them. I have a bunch of cookie cutters, but hate the process. I don't know if he'll do it this year. Ds has a bake sale next week and I think we're gonna end up buying cookies at this rate. We'll see. I have tried making cookies with already made dough, but it was either the wrong kind of cookie dough or I just suck. That didn't go over very well.

Well my shape really changed. Wider hips and such. That may not ever change even if I later weigh the same as I used to. But I don't know if that answers the question you're asking. When I watch TV sometimes I wonder if a celebrity is a mom in real life. I don't know that I can necessarily tell. I may google it later or find out randomly. One time dh pointed out to me that the actress that played Robin in How I Met Your Mother had just had a kid around the time we went to see an Avengers film she was in. I just thought, wow, I wouldn't know she had a kid.

Thank you. This definitely addresses some issues with gaps in assistance. I'm going to piggy back on this. Depending on what state you live in Medicaid may only be for children and pregnant women. If both parents aren't receiving health benefits from their jobs then they probably go without. You can qualify to live in some low-income subdivisions without anything but proof of income but those typically aren't ideal neighborhoods. And if you do apply for a voucher it can take time to receive an answer. BTDT.

I know it's been said before, but different people define Millennial differently. I refuse to call myself one and I'm 34. I usually lump myself in Generation X. I can relate to part of this list: https://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/signs-youre-stuck-between-gen-x-and-millennials?utm_term=.bybjGE6y6#.cyk8325o5 (I was using email in high school and not a typewriter).