turtle_elf

Rum Sweet Potato Casserole or Candied Sweet Potatoes Has he ever tried carrots that aren't just plain carrots? Such as glazed baby carrots (glazed with a mixture of honey, butter, and brown sugar). Broccoli casserole (broccoli, cheese,creamed soup whatever you have on hand, rice, salt, pepper, and a bit of butter)

Mine are all kind of still in the nest persay. Our oldest goes away for school but is home for 2 weeks of December and 2 weeks of January. So Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are done the same as always. What we do on Christmas Eve is, after we have a nice dinner and do the dinner dishes, we all go in the family room for a glass of eggnog and Christmas music. We have a tradition of letting the kids open their Christmas Jammies (us too). Afterwards they go up to take their showers and baths and when they are all dressed in their new Christmas Jammies, we all gather around and I read them Twas The Night Before Christmas. Then we go and sprinkle reindeer food outside and they all(5 of them). Get to choose a home made cookie or home made piece of candy to put on the Santa plate. My husband poors a cup of eggnog for Santa in the Santa Mug and we tuck them into bed. You could maybe start some new traditions to take away some of the sadness of missing their older siblings.

I have an 11 year old and some things she has wanted recently for birthday, Christmas etc are: Jonas Brothers CD Camp Rock Soundtrack CD Camp Rock DVD Ripstick Lipgloss Nice Jewelry Gift Card for Music online Clothes Skater shoes docking station for MP3 player SD cards Subscriptions to some magazines she likes to get wii and games for it

Ornaments are a lot of fun! Anything crochet, learning is fun too! Stationery set with stamps, or scrapped cards for them to give out for different occasions, scrapbooks. Homemade coupons, with favors to do.

DH DD DS DD DS DS Mom Dad MIL FIL StpMIL SIL BIL BIL SIL nephew nephew GM friend friend friend friend friend friend friend friend friend friend friend friend teacher teacher crossing guard gardener houseboy husbands boss So that puts us at 36, plus my hubby and kids buy for me, lol.

Oh, I soooo love the holiday flavors!!! Pumpkin Spice, gingerbread, peppermint. Love, love them all! We have only gotten them here 1 out of 3 Christmas w have been here so far, so I'm hoping they will have them this year. I missed them last year

We always do a Ham for Christmas, which is much trickier since we moved here. But we still accomplish it. We sometimes also add a turkey. Not often though, as we do turkey for Thanksgiving and the two holidays are close together. Usually when we are having a lot of people for dinner, than we do it. Candied sweet potatoes, butternut squash casserole (taste more like a dessert), mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, green beans with pearl onions, glazed baby carrots, corn, cranberry relish, homemade baked loaves of bread and rolls, homemade cheesecakes (the baked kind), potato salad, coleslaw, a vegetable tray, fruit tray, and a tray with a variety of pickels and olives, rum sweet potato casserole, asparagus with holandaise sauce, and I always make up a rum raisen sauce for those that like to put it on their ham. And always some kind of fruit cobbler. We pretty much go all out. Plus if we have guests, they usually bring something to add to the huge spread.

When we go back to the USA every year for our annual repat, we shope for things we don't usually find here. We ship it here in those nice dish barrel boxes from Uhaul. Well, space is limited, so the kids know we have to keep some of the stuff in those boxes until it is used. So underneath some of it we hide Christmas gifts. They don't think to look there. We also have a lot of luggage, there is 7 of us afterall and we have a set for each of us, because when we repat it is for a month or just over. Well, we put stuff in those too! Works great, and they never think to look there either. Another place is in the back corner of my husband's closet, becaue we have those shelves for sweaters and behind the last one makes for a nice sized hiding spot. And last but not least, we have totes for everything and the only ones they ever get into, are the gift bag totes and wrapping paper totes. Therefore, I hide things in totes too!

Ours used to be a big full tree with literrally thousands of lights. The ornaments were a variety of oranaments from my tree when I was a child, my husbands from when he was a child and ornments us and our children have accumilated over the years. We had strands of silver bells that we put around the tree, and always a large beautiful angel on top. When we moved here our tree was confiscated by customs (thankfully not our ornaments). I was so upset I told my husband I was going to cut down one of their precious palm trees(which is a huge no no here) and use that since they took my tree. Well as a joke, he ordered a beautiful fake palm that had lights all the way down the branches. Well, me being who I am...I went with it and made him put it up for Christmas and we decorated it. Now we cover it with cute tropical ornaments, most from Hawaii. We still put our beautiful angel on top.

Of Course! Stockings are my favorite! I love filling them for everyone, and love seeing whatever my husbands finds to put in mine! He also gets a few things for the kid stockings as well, so it is fun to see what he gets to put in their's as well! I had them as a kid and so we carry them on for our kids. We hang them when we put up the Christmas decorations, and they get filled after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. They are the last things we open on Christmas Morning....I like to save the best for last!

Since moving here my kids don't have a bus driver because we are close to the school and they walk. They do however have a crossing guard and we always get her something. She loves coffee and we have a daughter that is going to school in Hawaii. So last Christmas we put her a little gift basket together with 1lb of 100% Kona Coffee Beans, a travel mug, a box of mac nut clusters, and a handmade coffee coozy. She loved it! We will most likely do something similar this year as well. In the past when they had school bus drivers we always gave them a gift card to starbucks coffee or to bath and body works, with a tin of homemade candies and cookies.

On Christmas Eve it has always been a tradition that we open the Christmas PJ's, new slippers, (and robes if new ones are needed). After dinner dishes are done, we all sit down and enjoy Christmas music and eggnog and open up our Christmas Jammies. All the bedrooms are upstairs. And all of our kids know not to come downstairs until we do to. Soooo...we usually hear them grouped outside our bedroom door until we come out and go downstairs. Lol. My husband heads for the coffee pot and switches it on and I had for the camera. Then we both head for the family room and have the kids come down. I'm ready and waiting so I can get their reaction on camera as they come down into the family room. When they kids were younger we let them open their gifts one at a time, taking turns so that we could capture it all on film. Then while they were playing with theirs, my husband and I would open ours. Now that the oldest is 16 and the youngest 2 are 9 we all take turns opening them. Of course the thank you's are all given when the gift is open. I love capturing their faces and expressions as they open their gifts! Stockings are always last. They get passed out or everyone goes and gets their own, and once everyone has theirs, we all sit down and open them at the same time. The stockings have always been my favorite thing, so we save the best for last:tongue1:

For the last few years, my husband get's Cinnabon as a special Christmas morning treat. We are expats that live outside of the USA, so Cinnabon is open on Christmas. He knows the guys that work the one here on the compound, so he lets them know the night before what we need and they have it fresh and ready the following morning. It gets delivered here at the house and we tip them for bringing it. In the past we have made a breakfast casserole.

Amazon has them from $55.95 up. Overtock has them from $79.75 and up. It really depends on the model you are wanting.

I've been looking at the Dell Vostro 1500 for $549. I thought it might make a good gift for my husband for Christmas. Does anyone have any input on this computer? Is it good quality? Does the specs look like a good combination? If I get it, it will most likely be with XP because he us used to that and likes it.