4 lbs of candied nuts for gifts, and they are awesome.

A short suggestion: Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis Follow it up with this if you can :D

I wear makeup once a week when we go to Mass (if that). I have always gotten so frustrated with mascara, because I'll open a new tube and it is great for maybe the first 3 weeks, and then it starts to turn clumpy. I only use it a few times before it gets so annoying that I toss it and open a new one. I haven't tried anything fancy, just the drug-store major cosmetic brands (Revlon, Maybelline, Almay etc) and have never found a mascara that behaved much better than the others. Is there a long-lasting holy grail mascara out there? Some kind of beauty trick to make it stay clumpless for a very long time?

I've had four natural births. Two were home births with midwives attending, one was unassisted in the car, and the last birth was in the hospital. Three 8-lbers and my second child was 10 lbs, and I am not a large person. My advice... Optimal Fetal Positioning is important. Check out spinningbabies.com. I try to be mindful of posture from the 2nd trimester on, and I start the daily exercises in earnest around 30 weeks. All of my babies were anterior and I credit a lot of that to positioning work. I often wonder if I could handle a posterior labor without pain meds, but I don't want to find out! I try to let my mind float above what's happening to my body and imagine myself as a buoy riding over the waves. Sleep whenever you feel like you can/should. Transition is very hard, that's for sure... but it is less painful (and IMO goes faster) if you can loosen through it and "open" down there, which takes a lot of focus and resolve. Crowning is the closest thing to what I would call true pain, but then it is over very quickly.

I mailed all of our packages yesterday and half the Christmas cards are ready. I think I will have them ready to go, tomorrow. Then I can just focus on immediate family things (finishing up some homemade gifts, ALL the wrapping, cleaning, prepping for the meals). I feel the need to step up Christmas prep a little more today because ds2 woke up vomiting and he's warm... :001_unsure: We usually all get stomach bugs no matter how careful dh and I try to be with cleaning up. I'd better get done what I can, while I can! At least this semi-explains why he was acting like a little terror yesterday. I am super grateful that the baby is over 4 months old and should hopefully be able to handle illness. Still doing school today and probably through Thursday next week. I want to get through our social studies unit and have a test before the break. Hamlet sounds wonderful. I would love a treat like that!

I don't wear eyeglasses, but in looking at my goggles I don't think they will work. I've read that shop/safety goggles sold in hardware stores offer some protection against the vapors, and they fit over glasses?

Onion goggles!

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

I have a lot of anxiety over gifts (I posted about it in the vent thread too). Right now I am anticipating a very expensive and unwanted gift for Christmas, and my anxiety is through the roof! :willy_nilly: It is partly the fear of receiving a surprise, because like you, I wear my heart on my sleeve. It is pretty inevitable that the person giving me the gift will perceive my lack.of.delight!!!! despite my best efforts to conjure up a happy face. It often takes some time for a surprise to sink in and grow on me. Sometimes I end up really loving the item, but at first I usually feel taken aback. The other part is that I hate it when others spend money on me. I think that's because I was raised to implicitly know that gifts should be repaid (so in receiving one, I am indebted), or at least gifts come with certain expectations, while at the same time the giver made it impossible to reject their gifts. As an adult I have more choice to be firm in rejecting their gifts, but it makes the whole indebtedness/guilt even worse, because now you've really done it... you've hurt someone's feelings when they were only trying to be nice... The anxiety level goes higher with the amount that is spent, since the debt matches it. The only way I can be at peace with an expensive gift is if it is a practical gift, like needing a replacement for the broken sewing machine (something used for mending as well as fun, so in a way it is a gift to the household). In the end I feel like the "invisible baby", the perfect term that I think SparklyUnicorn coined in my issues-with-postpartum-help thread months ago. I can openly communicate to certain people over and over (for decades!) what I want or don't want, and they go ahead and do what they think is best for me anyway. Sigh. The funny thing is that they feel the same way about me, too... like they keep explaining how much they want to give gifts and help out, and why am I constantly going against their wishes? If I would only stop fighting and listen for once! eta: OP, my childhood issues are paltry when compared to your story, and I felt so sad when I read your post.

Have you heard of Doodle Quest? I haven't played it yet (Christmas gift), but it looks fun.

https://youtu.be/Zgjv0PQiJCs

The cozies are finished and ready for mailing :001_smile: The boys made a dozen altogether. Second picture of the ones getting eaten by the fox... Anyone else have their craft done?

I found out by accident yesterday that Dh bought a very expensive game-room item. He is not the kind of guy who makes huge, frivolous purchases on a whim/in secret... Not knowing if it was a legitimate purchase or some kind of scam, I lightly asked him about it and he gave me a look and said, "It's for the family. Forget about it." Now this is a game I loved as a child, but nobody else in the family particularly likes playing it. When my kids are at a relative's house with this game, they don't play it very much. Would you believe this relative offered us theirs when we moved, but we said no because it couldn't fit into the moving van? So we could have theirs if we want one! All I can think is that he bought it thinking of me. I hinted that he should cancel the order but he didn't; it's arriving at the end of the week. I am just sick about this because it has to be the most expensive gift he's ever bought, and it's something no one will use much, and I won't use it either mostly because I'll just see dollar signs when I look at it (plus someone would have to play it with me, plus I have a baby on me 90% of the time and will continue for many months!). I don't care about its beautiful wood or the fine craftsmanship. We are mainly living on one income and did not have a good financial year. There was the birth, and many thousands were sunk on a lemon of a car that had to be donated in the end. We have spent so much on Christmas already, most of it on the obligatory gift-cards-to-distant-relatives. We still don't have a vehicle that will fit everyone, and we have to replace our furnace and a/c very soon. Our savings cushion is meager compared to many. I have always been a deal-chaser and a saver, not a spender (especially not on myself). In the past few weeks, I've even been trying to bring up that we should consider selling the house and downsize to be able to save more. The last time he made a big money purchase, it was solely on himself and he came to me first and asked for my blessing before he bought it. I'm more than happy to let him spend on himself, but it was very nice that he wanted my opinion first! I'm so worried that he's going to expect me to be happy about this item. I'm a terrible actress, wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm worried that the kids won't use it. How will he react if they damage it? I'm worried that it won't resell for even a quarter of what he paid when he figures out that it's just sitting there. Everyone's feelings are going to get hurt. I couldn't sleep last night! The worst part is that we've been married 15 years and we have always been close, and I hate that feeling of "If you don't know me by now" that this gives me. All I can do is buckle down and try to reign in my own spending a lot more over the next year to make up for this.

I know the feeling, but don't go. Your situation calls for Spiritual Communion.

Unfortunately I do not have a Target or a game/hobby/comic store here!

My nephew is asking for Pokemon trading cards for Christmas, and I have 250 loose cards here to send him. Visualize a deck of playing cards about 3 inches thick. How can I wrap them so that they are concealed, secure, pretty, won't dump all over when he opens them etc.? I am usually pretty good about coming up with something frugal and creative, but I'm drawing a blank this time. If the packaging can double as a holder for his cards, that's a plus. I need to have them ready to be mailed by Wednesday! Help!

I don't think you can go wrong with a Shel Silverstein poetry collection, like A Light in the Attic. Does anyone ever outgrow these? For extra fun, include a CD of him performing some of his poems. If the 2nd/3rd graders like to draw... Ed Emberley. I wish they still made his books in hardcover. For the littlest, I agree with recommendations for Sandra Boynton as a fun choice. Jan Brett's The Mitten is a beautiful book and well-worn here. (I just discovered that she has made quite a few free coloring pages, including the makings for murals! Cool beans!) Another book that all my kids have loved is I Am A Bunny.

Kind of expensive, but candied/spiced nuts are easy to make and pretty impressive. There are even slow cooker recipes out there for these.

This recipe I use sounds similar? Lentil Soup 1 small onion, chopped 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated 2 cloves minced garlic 2 cups lentils 2-3 cups zucchini or yellow squash 4 cups vegetable broth 1 14 oz can coconut milk 1/2 of a 6 oz can of tomato paste 2 tsp curry powder heavy pinch cayenne pepper heavy pinch nutmeg salt and pepper to taste Combine all ingredients in a large pot and simmer for a couple of hours or until everything is tender. This is easy to throw into a crock pot; set it on low for 4-6 hours. I like to puree the soup in a blender at the end. Yummy! Lentils are an ingredient that could sneak into just about anything, so long as they have been precooked. I bet you could make burgers from cooked lentils mixed with ground meat and an egg or two as a binder, to stretch your protein dollars further. Lentil puree could be added to dips, sauces, smoothies, doughs, and I doubt most people would notice.

Lego Dr. Who TARDIS set $38.99, 623 pieces, about $0.06 per piece which is a great price. Free shipping over $50, or free store pickup

Trail mix made with nuts, dried fruit, gf cereal or granola, and mini marshmallows.

Etsy?

What is the budget limit?

I'd go with chili. The recipe I use mostly involves dumping a bunch of cans/jars/cartons into one big pot and simmering it for hours. Easy. You could brown and season some ground beef and have it sitting on the side for the meat-eaters to add to their bowls. I always put out shredded cheese and oyster crackers, too. Chili pairs well with baked potatoes.

Not making cookies this year due to the new baby, but these are the traditional family standbys which must always be included: Pecan Nut Cups (uses mini muffin tins) Sugar Cakes and/or Rolled Sugar Cookies (similar recipes that use buttermilk and make a sticky finicky dough, very soft, puffy, cake-like cookies, and I am a raw dough addict with the rolled cookie dough above all other doughs) Cinnamon Chip Tarts (uses mini muffin tins) Kolache with prune or apricot filling Chow Mein Clusters and last priority: Gingerbread (soft) I also found a great recipe for chocolate-covered cherry cookies, but do not always get around to making them. I prefer to replace the cherry juice in the frosting with cherry Kijafa wine.