jerica388

Several years ago I told my mom I was going to try my hand at making the turkey for Thanksgiving. At the time my aunt said, "So Jerica is making the turkey. Sis, you are having ham too as a back up right?" Thanks for the vote of confidence! Anyway, I wanted to prove to her I could do it. I watched food network and any other cooking shows I could find, poured over cook books and drove myself nuts. I took different parts from several recipes. I brine my turkey for 24 hours before I cook it (like Alton). My brine contains sugar, salt, herbs, lemons, onion and orange and apple juice (like one of Emeril's recipes). Before the turkey goes in the pan I stuff the cavity with rosemary, sage, thyme, and orange and apple slices. It lays in the pan on a bed of carrots, celery stalks, and onions. I cover it with cheese cloth that has been soaked in a mixture of half white wine half melted butter (tip from Miss Martha Stewart). I cook it at a really high heat to start with and then lower the temperature after 45 minutes (several recipes suggested this). Since I usually do a really big bird I usually pour some more of the butter/wine mixture over the bird about once an hour. When it is 10* from final temp I pull it from the oven and tent it with aluminum foil. As soon as the foil is on we take off to Mom & Dad's. By the time we get there the turkey has had plenty of time for the meat to rest so the juices redistribute. There is never any turkey left. Last year I took 2 turkeys just so Mom and I could have some left overs to split. Even with two turkeys there were still no left overs!!!

I agree with missyjane that gifts aren't what make Christmas. That being said, I do like to see the kids open presents. My husband has one brother who is married with three kids and one who is single with none. We have two kids. A few years ago SIL and I were talking about it, and discussed the fact that all we were doing each year (between the adults) is exchanging gift cards. The single BIL agreed. Between the five of us (me, dh, single bil, married bil and sil) we decided that we would not exchange gifts between the five of us the next year. We all buy for the five little ones and my mil and fil. It is nice to see mil/fil open their gifts and we all enjoy watching the kids open theirs. I really did not miss the exchange between the five of us much at all. Last year single bil surprised everyone by buying gifts for everyone. He said that he had no one else to buy for (wife, kids) and he did not expect anything in return. He wanted to buy us a gift and that was that. This left the four of us (who did not buy him anything) feeling very uncomfortable. Not only did he buy for all our kids, he bought for us too. So I was talking to sil last week and asked her if she thought we should buy for single bil this year, or maybe draw names between the five of us (in hopes he wouldn't feel the need to buy for everyone). To confuse things even more, single bil has a gf now, and she will be spending the holidays with us too. We don't know if he will want to buy for everyone, or if he will be content to go back to the way it was before since he now has a gf to lavish gifts on. I guess the point of my rambling is that no matter what you do, make sure that the expectations are clear before the big day and make sure to respect other people's wishes. If there is a financial reason they do not want to participate, don't force them. And don't buy them gifts anyway telling them you expect nothing in return - that leaves them feeling like cads (voice of experience speaking). One other thing: In your post you said you wondered if they already spent a lot of money on their gs like they do every year. It is possible that they are having to spend a little less on him than in the past and decided that they would rather take that little bit of money they would spend on the adult gift exchange and add it to what they would be able to spend on the grandson. Bottom line: try not to get too bogged down in this. It can only ruin your holiday if you let it.

Best Buy Garmin Nuvi $99.99 Insignia Blue-ray Player $99.99 Toys 'R' Us Bakugan BakuBowl ($13.49x2) $26.98 Meijer Sungale 7" Digital Frame $29.99 gfm progressive scan DVD player $19.99 Bissell Sweep Up $7.49 Nerf Dart Tag Capture the Flag $17.00 Bop It $12.00 Battleship $9.00 Revlon Ionic Styler $9.99 Kohl's Interchangable word/photo jewelry box $9.99 Cootie game $3.99 Disney Pix Micro Digital Camera $9.99 Target Polaroid video camcorder $39.00 Nerf Vulcan $25.00 Rival microwave $24.00 Chefmate snadwhich maker $3.00 T-fal Simply Clean 20 pc. nonstick cookset $49.99 Total: $497.38 ($2.62 for the bucket)

toaster OVEN:) I do this in the summertime. It keeps me from having to heat up the whole house by turning on the big oven. I used to have one of those sandwhich thingies and I loved it! I bet my 10 year old would get a lot of use out of it actually...

Last year WM did texts for secret Sat. sales leading up to BF...

I would not pay over msrp (with the exception of shipping, as some of you have mentioned). My kids have been reminded many times that a Christmas list is a WISH LIST, not a list of demands.

Thanks for all these fun chances to win prizes!

I have had this happen at one of our local Wal-Marts and they walked back and checked then price adjusted and apologized for the error. At another Wal-Mart in the same town, I had another situation where something was shelved wrong and they refused to price adjust.

I make sure my ds(10) and my dd(8) have the same amount of gifts now, and I usually manage to spend the same amount on them (within about $10).

One more: Rip that plastic off! My daughter wants that hot toy! Out of my way, peeps!

We go to Mom & Dad's for Thanksgiving, but I always make the turkey. I literally have everything packed up and ready to go (including DH & kids) so that the minute I pull the bird out we can race off to Mom & Dad's. They live about 10-15 minutes away, so the bird has just enough time to rest and let the juices redistribute and then it gets carved as soon as we get there. I brine my turkey for 3 days before I roast it, and it is so good! There are never any left overs so last year I made two turkeys just so I would have some to take home. They ate both turkeys and I still had no leftovers!

I did it in 2000. I was about 5 1/2 months - no problems.

Coffee, money, ads and keys Black Friday I need just these To shop 'til I drop!

I vow to be patient while waiting in line with my purchases (I swear, it's like 2 minutes to grab the items I need and 45 minutes of waiting in line to pay for them). I know the cashiers are overwhelmed and just doing their jobs.

gp - I did not read it that way at all! I will send out a card and a few prayers with it.

That looks pretty cool. Might be worth the drive down to spend the afternoon. Thanks! :)

I do. In early October I start an Excel spreadsheet with a tab for each of my children and one shared tab for everyone else. On the kids' tab I have all of the items on their Christmas lists, the best price I can find on each item, and where I found that price. I look through the list and highlight the items in yellow that I intend to buy from me & DH or Santa. Once I buy and item I change the color to green and put in the actual price paid (if it is different than what I had listed previously). If I find the item on sale and go back and do a price match I update the price then too. It is really handy because I can look at the green items and see what I have already purchased and the yellow items to see what I still have left to buy. A copy of this list goes to my MIL after BF, and she knows that any items that are not highlighted are the ones I am not planning to purchase and she concentrates on those (so I usually try to leave 1 or 2 good items per kid for her to get). I pretty much use the same system for everyone else who is listed on the shared tab. I also keep a binder with hard copies of the lists and all receipts in my car, in case I need to check the list or need a receipt for a price adjustment while I am out in town. I really like to be organized.

Ooh, good one! That reminds me - can't go through a Christmas season without watching It's A Wonderful Life.

Oh, and we take the tree down the first Saturday after New Years.

Well, I am the opposite of some of you folks - I grew up with real trees but it was my job during the season to vacuum daily to get up all the pine needles so as an adult I say fake all the way! After I married my husband the decision was made for me anyway - real trees make his sinuses go seriously haywire, so no real trees in our house. We usually put up our tree the Sunday before Thanksgiving (but not the ornaments) and put all the other decorations out around the house. Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving we all go through the ornaments and hang them. The kids like to do this because there are a few ornaments that we hang (heirlooms, breakable, senitmental like for wedding, purchase of house, etc.) and the ones that they made or were purchased for them they get to hang up. The first year we started that tradition my daughter was still really little and we had tons of ornaments at the bottom of the tree and hardly any at the top. My husband asked if I was going to balance them out and move them around - I told him no, the kids were proud of their ornament hanging skills and I thought it was beautiful just the way it was :) sniff..sniff..darn allergies It's crazy the things that make me feel all sentimental...

I told my husband last weekend that I wanted to put up the tree and his comment was, "Rushing the season a little aren't we?" I took the hint. I figure I will wait another week or so and mention it again and see what kind of response I get. tntsmomie - We have 3 cats and I remember the first Christmas with the two youngest ones. They climbed up in the tree and peeked out from the top branches. I shooed them out, but the just kept going in there! I actually used a picture of them peeking out of the tree for our Christmas card that year. Somehow they managed to keep from disturbing the ornaments and lights, and they never got hurt. But by the next year they were over it, and decided to lay on the tree skirt with our older cat instead of climbing. allshoppedout - Like the new avitar!

You can't forget Rudolph!! My BIL is so obsessed with A Christmas Story that when the run a 24 hour marathon playing it back to back to back he just sits and watches it over and over. I like the movie but dang! Once or twice a year is enough for me.

The 7-in1 dude is a good buy. These are 39.99 at TRU and 34.00 at Wal-Mart.

I hit the Meijer 2 week toy sale yesterday and just about finished up on my kids and my nieces and nephews. I already got my mom and dad and grandma. Still have to get for MIL, FIL, and hubby. I should be grabbing the last few pieces on BF.

I will hit the outlet mall in Edinburgh, IN at midnight and a couple hours later I will head to Columbus, IN and meet up with my BF buddies (they outlet shop in Seymour, IN on their way up to meet me in Columbus).