Princess7915

The last few years have been much better than expected with the kittens that have joined the family. Grace, Lexie and Simon have all pretty well left things alone and played with stuff somewhat when it was first put out so I did it in stages as not to overwhelm them. After a few days they would sometimes get into something but pretty much stuff was left alone. I did not put up everything I had and I did leave a lot of the "table top" stuff in the box because it just wasn't worth having to pick up all the time. Anything that couldn't be put on a wall, set up high, or put on the tree just got left. This year is going to be harder. I have not put ANYTHING for fall out My new kitten is an eater! He has eaten two cat toys and we've had to go the vet - I don't dare put up decorations that he may chew up and swallow that have beads and glitter on them. We really may not have a tree at all this year if he doesn't outgrow this habit in the next month. He's only 5 months old - still a baby - but it's just too dangerous. I'll forgo a tree one year if I have to over a very sick cat and live threatening bowel impaction and possible surgery Hopefully I don't have to choose and he quits eating naughty things!!

Chesapeake and Virginia Beach VA

My grandmother has bought some of the food items and so has my DH grandfather here and there. I can tell you from my own person opinion and that's all. The Prindables apples are good but way over priced. They only last a few days once you get them before they get soft We cut them up off the stick and share - you can't eat them like you would a carmel or candy type apple. Def. a waste if you are not having a bunch of people over to share with. If you have a good chocolate shop locally (we do here) I'm sure they make better ones than what the Mrs. Prindables are and they would be fresher too. The Crab cakes from Chesapeake Bay Gourmet are not that great at all. Of course being from Virginia Beach I've had my fair share and am pretty picky :) I've had way way way better than these They are so small for what you pay for!! We buy crab meat at our grocery store on sale for $10 a pound and make our own that are better than these. Kansas City Steaks - Same as the crab cakes - over priced I've had the Omaha Steaks sent to us before and they were better than the Kansas City. Our Kansas City were pretty small and the filets were not trimmed well at all, I still cut a lot of fat of of mine. We also had NY strips that had a lot of gristle. We SENT a JR Cheesecake to a family member (had to buy for and no other ideas!) they said it was great, but I have not eaten one myself.

#1 - This IS the line for the new iphone right? #2 - Ha Ha! - We're already sold out guys! #3 -Crap! I lost that Binder she made! She'll KILL ME.

Snapfish does some nice ones I think

I get stockings every year - usually two. I also get "small gifts" and "filler" type gifts from people that are the stocking type gift variety. As a recipient of these gifts I have to say do not fill the stockings with junk that will just end up in a drawer or trashed I hate this. I would much rather have a few useable items rather than than a whole bunch of stuff I know I will end up junking. I always end up with note pads, candy, silly toys or games and car items that just get tossed and I feel bad about it because I know people spent money on it. But I do not like clutter and it is not things that I am going to use. Personally I would not do any perfume, lotion etc as scent can be a personal thing. Unless it's for a young girl - make up would be out too. Little girls have so much hair fodder I would hate to get this as a mom. Stick to a decent brand of Lip gloss and that works for girls of any age - Bath and Body works has a few decent ones and they do good sale prices. Burts Bees is good too. I like the slipper fuzzy socks everyone can always use a new pair of those and they take up a good bit of room in a stocking. Someone mentioned an ornament - that is a good idea. You can even do something specific to each person based on their tastes or a special memory. A small gift card is always nice - I would personally stay away from fast food chains unless you know the person eats there often, some people just don't do fast food much anymore. Small 4 or 6 size boxes of Godiva chocolate are a hit :) We usually set a limit on stockings (or try to LOL) they get expensive! I want to do one for my mom this year and I'm not sure what to fill it with. I need to start collecting soon if I'm going to put it together. It may prove to be a challenge.

I know a few years ago I did some pre-BF shopping after the ads had come out. We were in the market for a new t.v. because our old dinosaur was going to go. We looked at what was going to be available - but had no intention of waiting in line and fighting 100 people for the 3 sets BB was going to have for $8 LOL!! Anyway we actually found a better than BF deal because we had the time and luxury of shopping around :) Circuit City (that tells you how many years ago this was!) had a really good sale on a 48" Sony, and we used some Discover Card deal as well and ended up with it about $200 less than a listed BF price! We bought online and picked it up in store about an hour later no crowds :)

DH got a Xoom a few months ago and he really likes it. If anyone is interested some of you may want to check that one out as alternative to the ipad...

Ace Hardware October 11th

I second the Cannon or Nikon. I'm a Nikon girl myself. Most (good) entry level cameras are just not going to do what you are asking. The "digital lag" from slow camera reaction time is just inherent in consumer line cameras. To get better low light sensitivity you need to do a bit of research on the chip sets - some cameras and models just perform better than others. Regular flashes just are not going to help you out in a football arena setting as far as throwing light from your camera so getting a camera that has good low light sensitivity is key. You will also want to be able to adjust your ISO to compensate and that will help :) That's what those setting are for. Truthfully I know buying a camera is usually a chunk of change that people cringe at - but look at how often you use it! You are preserving your family memories! And for all the times you buy a "cheap" $200 camera you could have gotten a pretty nice one that you keep and love. Look into a Nikon - Pro-sumer model that comes with a decent but non changeable lense. If it doesn't have a real viewfinder then it's not a "real" camera" You can't see on those little t.v. screens in the back. Try looking at the Nikon CoolPix P7100 or Nikon P7000. My mom just got the 7000

We've had a fairly new cat for Christmas the past two years - and a new kitten joined our family a month ago! So again this year we'll take some extra precautions though I've been really lucky with my two hooligans so far! But I figure better safe than sorry because I do know people who have cats that have taken down a tree and eaten things etc. Though we did not actually tie our tree up we did go to the Home Depot and get the stuff to do it just in case we had a climber. We got those eyelet screws and some nylon cording. We figured we would put the eyelet screws into the baseboard and anchor the tree by wrapping the cord at the trunk running one end of the cord through each screw. Our tree goes in a corner so that's what was easiest for us. We are very careful with lights! I string them very carefully around our tree branches so none really dangle and loop but they stay tight to the branches - almost like an artificial tree look. My cats will nibble the lights! I hide the extra cord under the tree skirt and behind our sofa or something to the plug. I keep a check to make sure it hasn't been pulled loose and if we are not around the tree is not on. Our outlet is connected to a switch so we tun it off at the switch for safety in case of a nibble. I also have plastic (nicer ones) decorations on the lower part of my tree as my cats do take them off routinely and those glass globe break into tiny slivers that would cut them to pieces if they broke one. I don't put some of my most precious ornaments on the tree - just in case. The glass things go high up and you can't even tell as I bought plastic ones that look very similar to my glass ones and put a few plastic ones up high too. I use beaded garland that makes no difference when they pull it off - that metallic stuff is dangerous and they WILL eat it. My cats worst offense is the packages!! I can't have any package under my tree! They go nuts and unwrap and generally beat them up :) So my beautiful tree is naked underneath. Christmas morning we pull packages out of the closets LOL.

Well - I guess it's not really something I would want to do but can you and your daughter take a trip somewhere? If DH insists on no Christmas and makes it so difficult for you to have anything holiday related at your home why don't you and your daughter go the the holiday? I don't know your situation - so it's unfair to judge and I'll try not too. However off hand it sounds like DH is being unfair to your daughter. If he doesn't want to participate then fine - everyone has their reasons. But all of your other kids got to enjoy a Christmas in their house with their parents- why shouldn't your youngest daughter. IMHO - she's getting ripped a bit here. In any case - if it were me - I would take off at least maybe the week between Christmas and New Years if you didn't want to go away the few days before Christmas. Pick out someplace kind of special - or known for doing it up for the holiday. Don't know where you're from but the Disney Parks or New York City come to mind first. Or go winter skiing somewhere in the mid west maybe.

In store also or just online?

A weekday and a weekend would be good. For those that have kids something during school hours would be nice because once the kiddies get off the bus real life begins!

I have had to call customer service twice for a credit card mix up (cc # no good and purchase rejected, yadda yadda) and had no trouble with B&N customer service myself. Don't know about anyone else. My husband also purchased a book when the unit was brand new that he didn't intend to and it was refunded with no problem. All he had to do was call. Of course he did it right away - I can imagine if you waited a few days there would be a problem as you could have read the book by then. I know our unit came with some sort of a breakage warranty standard, we did not buy the upgraded policy. If we had a problem during the standard time my understanding is we could go to the store for replacement, however do not quote me on that as that is my memory and I do not know for sure. I'm pretty careful with mine- had it for over a year with no issues as had DH - No breakage so I suppose it's pretty durable - sorry to hear you've had to replace your Kindle twice. Glade they fixed it quickly, that's quite the inconvenience.

Here is a tip for the Nook people. I have one and we got my mom one a few months later and she loves too. We found out that you can register up to 5 Nooks on the same account which is handy if you read very similar books and you don't mind "sharing" in some ways. We didn't know you could do this. So we unregistered my moms unit - and she did lose the 2 books she had bought but we chalked it up - and then we re-registered it to MY BN account online. Now our units are basically identical units when you look at them. When I get a book,it shows up on her unit and vice versa. The credit card we use is mine and we keep track of purchases and we split a book price if it was something we would have both bought. It works out well. The only thing is that you can't both read the same book at the same time but it's never been a problem.

Maybe it's just me... but after the last two years of such disappointing ads I just don't know that I'm going to be that excited. I say that now but I'm sure I will be as it gets closer - I hope so anyway.

Yeah I think people were having trouble with 1 and 7 tracks. I don't really know because I didn't get it off of Amazon and I'm not familiar - Just from reading the banter on the Amazon boards.

LOTS of problems and Amazon knows about it - give it a little while to download and if you don't have the whole album then contact tech service. It's because SO MANY people are buying the album. The recommend NOT getting any other digital downloads today

I looked at Walmart and it had it listed for $59.96 PS3 price and the egift card can only be used at Walmart online I don't think that's the best deal. I'll probably stick with Amazon and get the $15 off a future purchase like at Christmas time. - If you use Reward Points with BB, it's a nice deal there though.

Love that lemon blueberry tea too! I also like the Timothy's white tea orange indulgence. As far as brewer models go- I just have the mini, I like it fine. When I was selecting one for my mom as a gift a difference between some of the models is the ability to use tall latte style mugs. So if that affects you make sure you take note of that, it didn't matter to us, but your travel mugs will all be those tall mugs. Mine is in the kitchen with little counter space so not having a water tank is actually my preference.

I love mine. I got the mini awhile back before they changed it and it came it colors. I was never a home coffee drinker, just Starbucks once in awhile. But I really love it, and I like it for tea too. Glad you are loving yours! I use subscribe and save on Amazon for the flavors of k-cups I like.

My mom loved her digital frame so that was great. DH loved loved his Tom Tom that I got him. I wasn't sure about it when I bought it so I'm glad he can't leave it alone. And thanks to a suggestion from a forum member my grandmother really enjoyed a family photos calendar I made her on Snapfish.

I agree on the no declaw. It's not removing the nails it's amputation of pat of the toes. If you provide enough proper places for kitty to scratch you will live in harmony. I have two kitties with claws we trim nails once a week very quick and easy. Neither cat has ever scratched anything that isn't theirs. The key is tall cat trees with Sizle rope.

You could try the Aqua Globe plant waters. Or What about a Sham Wow! I'm dying to know someone who actually buys a shake weight :). We have an AS Seen ON TV store in our malls sometimes in our malls so you may want to check that our for ideas even if prices are high.