Wins and Fails of 2020 Holidays

[JustEm]

2 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

Remote control cars almost always require you to charge them before first use. It's annoying, but the car may work fine.

yeah, sadly they are a complete dud.

[mommyoffive]

4 hours ago, Toocrazy!! said:

Wins- Rubik’s cube connect. These are cool! And lego technic set. 18 year old boys still really want toys it seems. 
 

fails- my attempt at bread machine dinner rolls. Not sure what happened there, but they were a disaster. 

Noted.  I think everyone wants a little toy to pay with.  Last year we didn't get our oldest a toy at all for Christmas.  At 13 she didn't put any down.  From extended family she got stuff that was little kid for her.  She seemed sad about it.  This year again she didn't put any toys on her list, but I got her 2 big Lego sets anyway.  She was really happy about it.  So going forward I am getting them toys always.   

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, Acadie said:

Fails--the Brie en croute appetizer took longer to cook than the main course, and I made too much food Christmas Eve. Why do I always do this, no matter what size crowd? Will simplify next year, I swear! Dh and I had a fight 2 days before Christmas that was still in the air Christmas Eve 😞 

Wins--My dds were delighted with their gifts, purple shampoo which dd14 kissed upon opening, a Garmin for my xc runner, a hair straightener just for pandemic kicks, and dumbbells for all of us. It was a cozy day, 15 inches of snow falling and nowhere we needed to be except a couple extended family Zooms, which were extra precious because FIL was discharged from the hospital last night after a stroke. They got him to the ER early and he's doing fairly well, considering. The sweetness of the day dissolved the last residue of the argument with dh.

And it's still in the oven, but I'm going to call the roasted lamb rubbed with sumac and garlic a win in advance. It smells like heaven! 

Awww, I am so glad your FIL is doing well.  Sending him some recovery prayers.  

 

[mommyoffive]

19 hours ago, hjffkj said:

Biggest Christmas win so far.  While dh and I were getting the younger 3 to sleep, the older 3 were allowed to stay downstairs and wind down.  They spent their wind down time hanging Christmas lights all over our living room to surprise dh and me.   It was such a beautiful surprise. It doesn't beat their surprise from last year but man are they awesome kids. What is even better is the youngest three don't know it was done so it'll be a great surprise for them in the morning.

Awww you have the sweetest kids ever!

[Xahm]

My in-laws got me and my husband hoverboards. I'm not sure yet if that's a win or fail. I tried mine out and ran backwards over my toddler, knocking us both down. Slippery socks are not the appropriate attire. The kids took to them quickly and much more confident than I am, though I did improve. 

My kids are very happy with their presents. Tomorrow we are giving gifts to the cousins. We got a velcro dart board, then covered more ping pong balls in velcro and made shirts that the balls will stick to so that they can have a friendly war, throwing lightweight balls at each other. I haven't told their parents what we are getting them; I just warned them that I didn't know whether it was going to be terrible, fantastic, or both. My kids have been trying it out some, so I'm leaning towards "both."

[Drama Llama]

6 hours ago, Terabith said:

Small fail but not a huge deal:  I ordered the weird lollipops from the weird gifts thread, including the breast milk flavor.  They in no way taste like breast milk.  We haven't tried the other flavors, but I have my suspicions.  

Anyway, very small deal, more of a novelty curiosity, but not what we had hoped.  

Everything else seems to be fairly good, so far.  Kids seem pleased with their small stacks of loot, and Obama the cat is very pleased with his catnip fish in the style of Jackson Pollock.  He hasn't tried out his cat bed, but the old cat bed took weeks before they got over their suspicions about new furniture and now it's their favorite thing ever, so I'm hopeful the new cat bed will be okay in time.  

What did the breast milk ones taste like?

[Terabith]

1 minute ago, BaseballandHockey said:

What did the breast milk ones taste like?

Sweet, but sweet like sucrose, not like breast milk.  There's a vague milky taste, but just....not the same at all.  More like cow's milk that frosted flakes have dissolved in.  

[KungFuPanda]

Our big fail was that the boyfriend’s family wasn’t being Covid safe (untested out-of-town family staying With them plus entertaining friends of said family members throughout the week). This meant boyfriend stayed away from our house and Dd stayed away from theirs. Boyfriend is the ONLY person we’ve had in our house for almost a year and we missed seeing him. Luckily the (adult) kids made these tough decisions themselves to protect my DS and I didn’t have to be the bad guy. We could practically throw a rock and hit their house so it just kinda sucked. 
 

Other than that the day and the gifts were both understated but nice. It was a cozy day together and we enjoyed having Dd a few nights before she goes back to her grown up apartment in the city. At one point we taught our kids to play poker and did that for a few hours. It was a bit hysterical since Dh and I were trying to remember the hierarchy of the hands when neither of us has played for over 20 years. We used Charlie Brown Christmas playing cards, poker chips, and had stress toys as prizes. 

Edited December 26, 2020 by KungFuPanda

[marbel]

Our microwave died Christmas morning. Not a big deal; it was just being used for melting butter which can be done on the stove. But over the day we realized how much we rely on it - not only for melting/reheating things, but for the fan, timer, and the light we leave on all night or when I am culturing yogurt (keeps the inside of the microwave just a little warmer). My husband uses it for heating up sinus wash, which he'd forgotten about till this morning.  I had given brief though to not replacing it, but that thought was very brief!

Win: dinner was perfect, with everything ready at the same time. There was some stress over dinner rolls. My husband loves to bake yeast and sourdough breads and is a bit fussy over technique and such. At Thanksgiving he made some sourdough rolls which were good but not the iconic rolls one of our kids was craving. So she suggested a recipe she found online for this year, and asked him to help her. Well, you know how this can go, he gave a little too much help, rolled his eyes a bit at the vast amount of yeast and sugar in the recipe, and she ended up feeling a bit dissed. He and I had a quick talk, so he backed off. When the rolls were done, we all gave them a sincere thumbs-up. They were delicious, light and fluffy. There is room for more than one kind of dinner roll in the world, after all. 

[Tenaj]

Lots of great gifts yesterday.  Kids enjoyed surprising their dad with a new step ladder.  The previous one was  at least 30 years old and not stable any more.  I kept putting it in the garbage and he kept picking it back out.  Anyway, new step ladder and they kept it hidden which I thought was great (they wrapped a toy playmobile ladder for under the tree).  Another big hit was the game, Code Name.  Also, duct tape in all colors, a duct tape warfare book and general duct tape construction book, lots of cardboard, pipe, pipe insulation and foam was a big hit with my two youngest.  My dh threw in a handsaw and some joints and the saw is already out and being used to cut pipe to the appropriate length for an Egyptian sword.  We did this gift about 10 years ago for my older group of kids so knew it would be a hit to repeat it again.

Only fail I can think of was a mis-distribution of gifts that wasn't my fault.  We do little stuff in stockings and then do a big gift exchange.  My mil insists on helping stuff the stockings for everyone and somehow two of my kids "big" gifts (high price - main gifts)from grandma and grandpa ended up in the stockings so they were opened first thing in the morning before my mil and fil arrived so they missed the excitement of the fancy gaming mouse and powerbeats being opened.  I felt bad about that but I understood why it happened.  She just saw little boxes and assumed they were stocking stuffers.  She was good-spirited about it though.

[Amy Gen]

We had a lot of wins. My 14 year old had no idea I was getting her a stationary bike. We haven’t put it together yet but I think she will really enjoy the help closing her rings on the rare days that she doesn’t have swim practice. Her LuLuLemon order didn’t arrive , but she had no problem with waiting a few days for it. 
 

I was really stuck on what to get my 11 year old. She has a December birthday, so we just got her every gift we thought she would like. She always wants books, so that was easy, but not quite enough. She mentioned that she would like the AG VW bus. Dh had to scramble to get it ordered in time, but it arrived Christmas Eve and she loves it, so that it a win. 
 

2 Christmases ago, I got Ds a switch. It was stolen by his roommate (who was in recovery so Ds was helping him out with a free place to live) I’ve been so upset about that. I replaced his switch and when we got it set up, all of his saved games were still accessible. There was much rejoicing! 
 

My biggest fail is that I started a quilt(of my dad’s old funny t shirts) for my oldest in plenty of time to finish and get it to her by Christmas. Then I went to the hospital. Then I had chemo. Now I have neuropathy in my hands that have kept me from finishing. But I’m getting stronger, so I told her to expect her present on Valentines Day. She couldn’t come for Christmas, but FaceTimed us all morning then played online with her siblings all afternoon, so it was almost as if she was here. 
 

What meant the most to me was seeing how improved my son is from last Christmas and past Christmases. He has struggled with debilitating mental health issues for 10 years, and we have finally got combination of meds that are really helping. He was engaged with the family all day, sitting next to me, hugging me, telling me thanks for always being so supportive. He played games with his sisters, was able to actually eat. Now he is up about to go pick up his girlfriend for the weekend. A year ago, I couldn’t have dared to dream that he could be this healthy and happy. That is the best gift ever. 
 

Second place goes to my 14 year old for the gift she made me. It is a jar with tongue depressors in it. On each one, she wrote something great that happened to our family in 2020. I just bawled reading them. We have had so many traumatic things happen this year, but my kid wrote a fortunately for every one of our unfortunatelies. I’m so proud that she thought of it, and so grateful that she shared them with me. 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Amy Gen
Typo

[kristin0713]

Update -- WIN!  They were able to exchange the guitar for one in the store that she LOVES.  She spent a lot of time playing it to be sure.  It was more than we had planned to spend, but it's fine.  Music has gotten her through this awful year and I really want to support her efforts and talent. Thank you for all of the encouraging comments and I hope everyone else's fails turn out ok in the end.  

[kristin0713]

51 minutes ago, Amy Gen said:

What meant the most to me was seeing how improved my son is from last Christmas and past Christmases. He has struggled with debilitating mental health issues for 10 years, and we have finally got combination of meds that are really helping. He was engaged with the family all day, sitting next to me, hugging me, telling me thanks for always being so supportive. He played games with his sisters, was able to actually eat. Now he is up about to go pick up his girlfriend for the weekend. A year ago, I couldn’t have dared to dream that he could be this healthy and happy. That is the best gift ever. 
 

This is wonderful! I'm celebrating this with you. 

[historically accurate]

Wins: Suture kit for future doctor DD15. DH really likes his gloves - made everyone feel them multiple times. Dinner came out well. Kids got some board games which were fun to try out. I talked to my mom in FL who had forgotten it was Christmas (in her defense she had oral surgery Christmas Eve so she was hopped up on pain pills), so she opened her gift from me while on the phone. My brother made 2 delicious cheesecakes. 

Fails: MIL was upset that we socially distanced from her during Christmas. She stayed for lunch and I let her choose where to sit, and then we sat with empty chairs on either side of her. She sent a text later saying she didn't feel welcomed at all. It continued that she is an adult and if she wants to risk COVID it's her right to die. The original agreement was 1-2 hours masked/no food; yesterday was 4 1/2 hours unmasked inc lunch. DH called her (I haven't responded) and talked to her for an hour last night. He says she is old and cranky and I'm not at fault, but DH and I fought over how to do this, and we both did the best we could honoring her wishes and our circumstances. I feel like nothing except normal squeezing in for selfies family holiday would've been appreciated. She was very generous in her gifts this year, so I think that I will write a really nice card thanking her and stressing how much I hope we return to our normal hugging Christmas next year. 

[athena1277]

No major fails here.

Everyone was happy with what they got.  As my kids get older, it’s hard to know what to get them.  I bought Rocketbooks for the 9-15yo nieces and nephews and both sil’s texted to say how much they liked them.  They are also hard to buy for, so this was a big win in my book.

[MEmama]

Win: last summer while watching The Good Place, I expressed how cute Kristin Bell's character's white sneakers are. DH not only found them for me, but they actually fit. I have very hard to please feet and these are miraculously as comfortable as my beloved Dr Martens. DS announced that I look *baller* in them, surely the highest of compliments! 
 

Win: a basket of silly Irish foods for DS. He is likely headed there for university so we figured he should get used to eating Mac and cheese in a can, Smash instant potatoes in a bag and Guinness potato chips like a good broke college student. It was loads of fun to put together. 😂

Win: DH has needed to replace his ancient phone for ages, but it takes him forever to research things and make decisions. He’s very happy with the one we bought for him. 
 

Win: a beautiful new bed for the kitties. Also a catnip rodent that makes them act absolutely crazy and then take turns napping in the new bed. 
 

Surprisingly, there were no misses this year, even from the in laws. For once they were receptive to DH's guidance. 

[teachermom2834]

Kind of odd win but I have felt off balance with Christmas gifting to my young adults. I have wanted to transition to giving them smaller gifts and off the same kind of expectation that the still not graduated from high school younger two. I haven't quite known how to do it but I do feel certain I do not want to continue to have big Christmases for my adult kids. I definitely feel different about adult gifts and kid gifts.

So my 22 yo got new bedsheets (which he had mentioned needing), AAA membership, socks, and a small package of K cups. My 20 yo got socks (more because that was what he requested), a t-shirt from my alma mater which he has started cheering for, and a document storage box. They got stockings with just candy and snacks (whereas my 17 yo ds got an expensive video game in his along with his snacks). They also got small things from their siblings. 

My 17 yo ds and 12 yo dd got more and fun stuff and more of a kid Christmas. It felt right and natural. I feel really glad that we are figuring out how to transition to adult style gift giving. Nothing wrong with spoiling adult kids. LOL. It's just not how we want to do it. I'd rather help my adult kids with adult needs than give them video games. Also, my 22 yo has a really good job and has more disposable income than we do. I will always want to buy for him but it would be awkward to buy him big gifts. 

So kind of an odd win but I feel like we had a balance that everyone feels good about. I think making good food is more important to my big kids than anything I would buy them anyway. 

 

[Shoeless]

No fails here that I can see. Kiddo got a kit for making a wood marble run, but it is WAY beyond his skills. No worries; DH has been happily assembling it all day, lol. I guess 50 year olds still like toys, too. 

Dinner was declared delicious, even though I thought it was kind of mediocre: instant mashed potatoes, jarred gravy, box of this, can of that. It was just the 3 of us, and well...it's 2020, and I wasn't feeling it. But they loved it and are looking forward to leftovers tonight. *Shrug*

Edited December 26, 2020 by MissLemon

[mommyoffive]

49 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Kind of odd win but I have felt off balance with Christmas gifting to my young adults. I have wanted to transition to giving them smaller gifts and off the same kind of expectation that the still not graduated from high school younger two. I haven't quite known how to do it but I do feel certain I do not want to continue to have big Christmases for my adult kids. I definitely feel different about adult gifts and kid gifts.

So my 22 yo got new bedsheets (which he had mentioned needing), AAA membership, socks, and a small package of K cups. My 20 yo got socks (more because that was what he requested), a t-shirt from my alma mater which he has started cheering for, and a document storage box. They got stockings with just candy and snacks (whereas my 17 yo ds got an expensive video game in his along with his snacks). They also got small things from their siblings. 

My 17 yo ds and 12 yo dd got more and fun stuff and more of a kid Christmas. It felt right and natural. I feel really glad that we are figuring out how to transition to adult style gift giving. Nothing wrong with spoiling adult kids. LOL. It's just not how we want to do it. I'd rather help my adult kids with adult needs than give them video games. Also, my 22 yo has a really good job and has more disposable income than we do. I will always want to buy for him but it would be awkward to buy him big gifts. 

So kind of an odd win but I feel like we had a balance that everyone feels good about. I think making good food is more important to my big kids than anything I would buy them anyway. 

 

Thanks for saying this.  We are not there yet, but I imagine feeling the same way about the adult kids and the younger kids.   I wonder how we will do it too.  Like do you stop it more when the kids are off on their own?  College graduate or just supporting themselves?  

[teachermom2834]

1 minute ago, mommyoffive said:

Thanks for saying this.  We are not there yet, but I imagine feeling the same way about the adult kids and the younger kids.   I wonder how we will do it too.  Like do you stop it more when the kids are off on their own?  College graduate or just supporting themselves?  

The year my oldest went off to college when he came home that first Christmas I way overdid it for everyone. Biggest Christmas we ever had. I was definitely struggling and trying to compensate in some way but the kids just didn't care. They were polite and liked their gifts but it wasn't like they loved me more or were going to be more likely to come home or whatever. After that Christmas I changed gears and decided kids that have graduated high school are in a new category. For one, they just need so much that can't be wrapped up and put under the tree. Helping them with cars, insurance, rent, etc. is all more important and meaningful for our family. So, in our house, those graduated from high school are moving into the adult category. Now, I don't care that they play video games but I'm not buying them anymore. But I'll get you a coffee maker if you need it. My brain just works differently for the big kids. 

If you say college graduate what if they don't graduate? And supporting themsleves is also a kind of fuzzy zone. For example, my 22 yo graduated in May and is in a good job and 100% independent. My 20 yo just graduated in December. He is not anywhere close to being financially independent and it is going to take longer for him to find his footing career wise. We still help him but it's not getting wrapped up and put under the tree. 

I also set a stocking policy...LOL. Anyone that sleeps in my house on Christmas Eve gets a stocking. If you aren't here I'm not mailing it. It's just candy and silly stuff anyway. I just know that 15 years from now I don't want to be mailing stockings for kids and spouses and grandkids all over the country. Some moms love to do that stuff. I know that I would regret starting that eventually. 

I also ask for food requests and try to make anyting they want. Easier for me to love them that way than with wrapped gifts. I try to make coming home for the holiday warm and fuzzy and I let them sleep late and offer them a variety of pillows and I don't make them take out the trash and I just try to make it relaxing and comfortable. That feels more like how I want to love my adults on Christmas than a new pair of Airpods. 

[cintinative]

Fails: the Costco ham my dad bought which apparently had a hole in the inner liner and was all moldy. We didn't know until we took the outer foil off and no groceries were open.  There wasn't even pizza open.  We had pigs in a blanket and mac and cheese for dinner instead.  😃 

Wins; being together and eating hot dogs with cake and pie

[GoodGrief3]

Fail/Christmas Miracle: the Great Dane overcame his longtime anxiety about entering the kitchen and consumed 4 1/2 lbs of prime rib right off the kitchen counter. Did not even disturb the plate.

[mommyoffive]

4 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

The year my oldest went off to college when he came home that first Christmas I way overdid it for everyone. Biggest Christmas we ever had. I was definitely struggling and trying to compensate in some way but the kids just didn't care. They were polite and liked their gifts but it wasn't like they loved me more or were going to be more likely to come home or whatever. After that Christmas I changed gears and decided kids that have graduated high school are in a new category. For one, they just need so much that can't be wrapped up and put under the tree. Helping them with cars, insurance, rent, etc. is all more important and meaningful for our family. So, in our house, those graduated from high school are moving into the adult category. Now, I don't care that they play video games but I'm not buying them anymore. But I'll get you a coffee maker if you need it. My brain just works differently for the big kids. 

If you say college graduate what if they don't graduate? And supporting themsleves is also a kind of fuzzy zone. For example, my 22 yo graduated in May and is in a good job and 100% independent. My 20 yo just graduated in December. He is not anywhere close to being financially independent and it is going to take longer for him to find his footing career wise. We still help him but it's not getting wrapped up and put under the tree. 

I also set a stocking policy...LOL. Anyone that sleeps in my house on Christmas Eve gets a stocking. If you aren't here I'm not mailing it. It's just candy and silly stuff anyway. I just know that 15 years from now I don't want to be mailing stockings for kids and spouses and grandkids all over the country. Some moms love to do that stuff. I know that I would regret starting that eventually. 

I also ask for food requests and try to make anyting they want. Easier for me to love them that way than with wrapped gifts. I try to make coming home for the holiday warm and fuzzy and I let them sleep late and offer them a variety of pillows and I don't make them take out the trash and I just try to make it relaxing and comfortable. That feels more like how I want to love my adults on Christmas than a new pair of Airpods. 

I love your ideas and thanks for the food for thought.  I was just discussing a little of this last night with dh.  Our oldest is 14, but man time goes so fast.  When the kids were all younger most of the gifts were joint gifts.  Play kitchen, ride on cars, climbers, doll house it was so easy.  Now they are spread out so much and have different interests.  We could do big family gifts, but this year we just wanted to spoil the kids a lot because of how crappy this year has been. But I don't know if we actually kept it fair.  And how do you do that?  Amount of presents? How much they cost?    

And then the next step is what you are talking about, how do you treat  your adult kids?  And I know it can change over time.  My family gave me presents up until a few years ago.  

[Melissa Louise]

Win: DIL embroidered me a gift. Incredibly thoughtful, and healed a experience I had with my own MIL when I first knew her, where she threw away a gift I handcrafted for her. My gift will have pride of place!!

Band t-shirts for teen. Good quality, perfect fit, arrived in a timely manner from the UK.

Fail: I waited till Christmas morning to make shortbread for my Dad's present and it totally failed and turned into cookies. Luckily I had another part to his present already wrapped, so just told him he will need to wait till New Year's for the rest!

[Kareni]

3 minutes ago, GoodGrief3 said:

Fail/Christmas Miracle: the Great Dane overcame his longtime anxiety about entering the kitchen and consumed 4 1/2 lbs of prime rib right off the kitchen counter. Did not even disturb the plate.

Oh, no! All I can say is, Good grief, GoodGrief3! And I'm reminded of the movie A Christmas Story.

Regards,

Kareni

[teachermom2834]

3 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

And then the next step is what you are talking about, how do you treat  your adult kids?  And I know it can change over time.  My family gave me presents up until a few years ago.  

At this point I feel certain I will always do something for my adult kids. Actually, my first three are boys and I expect I will always have something for their spouses. I feel like treating their girlfriends/wives well is probably more important. I just know that MIL/DIL relationship will be hard and I will probably always want to do for them. Another wrinkle is that at least some of our dc will likely be better off financially than dh and I are, pretty early in their careers. I think it will embarass them if we spend too much on them. I bet we do alot of food/drink gifts as they get older. Or babysitting and a night out for young families. I don't know exactly other than I don't want to be buying a TV or laptop or whatever for my adult children. But I'm happy to bless them all with a fancy Christmas Eve dinner and their favorite cookies. 

I fully expect to spoil the snot out of grandkids (within their parents' wishes). 

Christmas for my family, culturally, has always been kid focused. I'll use it as an opportunity to love my adults, for sure, but not looking to make a habit of big ticket items. 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, teachermom2834 said:

At this point I feel certain I will always do something for my adult kids. Actually, my first three are boys and I expect I will always have something for their spouses. I feel like treating their girlfriends/wives well is probably more important. I just know that MIL/DIL relationship will be hard and I will probably always want to do for them. Another wrinkle is that at least some of our dc will likely be better off financially than dh and I are, pretty early in their careers. I think it will embarass them if we spend too much on them. I bet we do alot of food/drink gifts as they get older. Or babysitting and a night out for young families. I don't know exactly other than I don't want to be buying a TV or laptop or whatever for my adult children. But I'm happy to bless them all with a fancy Christmas Eve dinner and their favorite cookies. 

I fully expect to spoil the snot out of grandkids (within their parents' wishes). 

Christmas for my family, culturally, has always been kid focused. I'll use it as an opportunity to love my adults, for sure, but not looking to make a habit of big ticket items. 

As an adult my family used to spoil me with tons of gifts.  Then when I became a mom half the gifts became household or kid focused.  Then when all the adults were giving crazy specific lists to each other we just decided to stop.  They all spoil my kids instead.  There are no other kids in the family so that is where the focus goes.  Totally fine with us.  

[cintinative]

22 minutes ago, GoodGrief3 said:

Fail/Christmas Miracle: the Great Dane overcame his longtime anxiety about entering the kitchen and consumed 4 1/2 lbs of prime rib right off the kitchen counter. Did not even disturb the plate.

So what did you eat? We had a similar issue as our ham was green. 

[Lady Florida.]

Win: Our 2yo granddaughter loved my Italian meatballs her first time trying them. 

Fail: The shirts I bought dh don't fit. In my defense he lost a lot of weight, just apparently not as much as I thought. 

Pretty much everything else was a win. 

 

[GoodGrief3]

3 hours ago, cintinative said:

So what did you eat? We had a similar issue as our ham was green. 

And not in a fun Dr Seuss way, I presume?

The good news is that we did get a meal out of it. But no leftovers, and it was quite a large piece of meat and atypical indulgence for us. I left it out while I visited a friend because my husband was going to eat more. He did, but then left it all out when he went to bed. The gate to the kitchen was askew and I guess it was just too tempting.

[purpleowl]

We had a lot of wins. My girls both love the mp3 players and headphones we gave them. They have both been bopping around listening to their music so happily. 😊 DS's favorite gift was probably the button that ILs gave him. It's like a Staples easy button, but you record your own message and then press it to play back. He loves that thing so much. 😄

I am excited about the new bath towels my parents gave me. DH got a couple of video games he's happy about.

Closest thing to a fail: DH has, probably, a cold, but the fever he had Christmas night meant we took him for covid testing yesterday; rapid test negative, waiting for longer test to confirm that negative. (The chances that he has covid are really really small given the limited number of places he's been.) No covid = a win, certainly, but it's sad that he's not feeling great.

[cintinative]

11 hours ago, GoodGrief3 said:

And not in a fun Dr Seuss way, I presume?

The good news is that we did get a meal out of it. But no leftovers, and it was quite a large piece of meat and atypical indulgence for us. I left it out while I visited a friend because my husband was going to eat more. He did, but then left it all out when he went to bed. The gate to the kitchen was askew and I guess it was just too tempting.

Yep, moldy. eeew.

I am glad you did get to eat at least! 

[ScoutTN]

The Birchbox I ordered for Dd arrived yesterday and is a hit. She is enjoying experimenting and figuring out what looks good on her, what she likes.

My mom liked all her gifts - small box of pears from Harry and David, k-cups, Christmas socks, a sweater, novels and light history books, and some chocolate. We did more for her than we usually do because she's stuck in her assisted living place. 

Christmas dinner was beef tenderloin and it was fabulous. 

Fail: cookie baking pretty much didn't happen this year. Dd made some and never iced them. Ds made half a batch and ate them all within 24 hrs. 

 

[Carrie12345]

Biggest win: I had 99% of everything done before dh got COVID. Usually I tend to leave stocking stuffers to almost the last minute, then spend an hour or two leisurely strolling Target and collecting items and maybe hit a CVS and/or dollar store on the way home.  But I did almost everything early, due to COVID fears. So, yay?

Almost a fail: I ordered ds10 the Black Panther gear he wanted on December 5th. I got a post office package slip in my group boxes on the 24th.  Drove 7+ miles to the post office and got the package 4 minutes before they closed!

The Japanese sodas ordered in November never came. Technically not a big deal, but it had become a weird tradition that the kids liked. Dh ordered a small item that hasn’t arrived. Dd ordered something that didn’t arrive. And we ordered something for friends that hasn’t arrived.

We’ve been cutting back on Christmas presents for about the past 4 or 5 years, and every year I worry that I’ve gone too far. This year, I REALLY worried.  It was a pretty big cut back, and we told the kids we wanted to do it so we could give more to those in actual need this year. The big kids were all in favor, but the 10yo was pretty worried about just how much that would impact him.  But everyone was very cheerful on Christmas morning and pleased with what they did get! (Thank goodness I made it to that post office!!!)

[prairiewindmomma]

We went with a board game theme this year for presents and I bought a ton of snacks with our grocery order. We’ve been spending every day playing games as a family and it’s been great! Picwit has been the surprise hit—Sagrada was fun, Betrayal at House on the Hill was good, and we still have several games to go...

For gift giving outside of the family, I arranged for the seller to ship directly to the present recipient. It’s been fantastic, and a huge cost savings since we live cross-country. I think the days of mailing packages personally may be over for me.