triplej2002

I won't rant about it, but in my opinion, I do think that the children should be left at home or with a babysitter (if possible). As for myself, my husband and I always do the black friday shopping together. We leave our son (7) with grandparents and we enjoy the day together... we wake up, get ready, eat at Waffle House and then shop until we can't shop anymore or the car is too full. I enjoy the alone time with my husband. Our son isn't there to ask questions every two minutes, he's not there to bug me to go down every toy aisle, my husband and I can get in and out of the stores VERY quickly without a child in tow, and I can relax without worrying about "losing" him in the crowd. I love my son like crazy, but this is one day when it's nice to have a babysitter!

We bought our son the large Roboraptor dinosaur. He played with it once or twice and forgot about it. Waste of money!

Thank you to everyone for your input. I sincerely don't mean to sound like an awful person and believe me I feel awful for feeling the way I do. I mean, I was praying last night just for me to be a better person that I have been, so it's not like I'm trying to be mean spirited. But I don't think I'm the only DIL or person in such a situation. Thank you all for the encouragement!

I'm sorry to seem so negative about something like this. I know that we are her family, but as I said I had planned on having a gathering for us Christmas day. My son just hardly gets to see my parents (at best once a month). He sees my MIL all the time. When she shows up at my family gatherings (whom she barely knows) she is constantly trying to get all of my sons attention. She also has a way of being condescending (not rude, but just makes me look like a child) in front of family that drives me bananas. I guess there are just little things that add up and unless someone has to deal with those things it's hard to understand. I know she is not a down right evil person, but there are many other things that have happened in the past that my husband and I BOTH have to be upset about (too long a story to write here) and that's the reason she is not at the top of my favorites list. I guess unless I had a day to write it all here I would seem like the bad guy.

What is the most extreme or coolest thing you've ever done to show your child(ren) that Santa really exists or that Santa had visited your home? I remember when my brother and I were kids our parents had snuck out of our grandparents Christmas gathering while we opened presents and went back home. They went ahead and put out the presents and although we live in South Carolina and hardly EVER get snow that was about the one and only time we had gotten a light dusting of snow on Christmas Eve. My dad used something to make "sleigh tracks" in the snow. My mom and I were talking about this the other day and she said the looks on our face were priceless when we saw that. What have you done or what did your parents do to make it look like Santa had came? Maybe your stories can give me some ideas!

I hope that I do not sound like a complete Grinch with this post, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem, or if I'm just being difficult. My MIL is a widow and has no family close-by other than my husband. All of her family is about six hours away. Well, my family has been gracious by inviting her to Thanksgiving and Christmas the past few years. She has shown up for Thanksgiving, but never for Christmas. Please keep in mind, that this woman drives EVERYONE in my family crazy. She is nice, but she ALWAYS talks to my family members about a friend of a friend of hers (my family has NO CLUE who she is talking about and usually don't care). I can't carry on a conversation with my family that I rarely see without her interrupting to ask me something that doesn't pertain to the conversation. Being stuck in the car with her for an hour is excruciating (she'll be riding with us). She even drives my husband crazy!! Socializing with this woman is just awful!!! Now, we go to each of my grandparents houses Christmas eve. My husband had told her she had been invited to the first house, but my other grandparents have only met her once and they really didn't think to invite her. My MIL told my DH that she didn't want to impose, but my husband kept hounding her about it until she finally gave in and said yes. So I had to call to make sure it was okay if someone else came. That puts me in an awkward position. I thought I would burst out into tears right there! As a matter of fact, I did cry myself to sleep last night. If you had to be around this woman you would understand. I had planned on making us dinner Christmas day and she was supposed to have came that day so she would have something to do Christmas, but that wasn't enough I suppose. So, my question is, do any of you have any in-laws that impose on your real family gatherings? I know that I should be nicer than this during the holiday season, but I only get to see some of my family once a year. She lives 10 minutes away and we see her all the time. I would just like for my six year-old son to be able to visit other family too! Am I wrong or do I have a reason to be upset? Please don't be too harsh with me... I understand I probably sound like a Scrooge. I was looking SO FORWARD to Christmas this year and this has completely ruined it for me. I apologize for this being so long, but please just tell me I'll get through Christmas without pulling my hair out now.

Thank you to everyone for posting your ideas too. I love doing little projects like these with my son. Keep them coming! :)

One year my great-uncle gave my cousins and me styrofoam rocks. lol I don't even know where you could have found styrofoam ROCKS? Oh well, they were funny anyway. :)

The Santa Clause

I can't wait to begin making all kinds of Christmas goodies these next few days. The one I always look forward to making is Chocolate-Peanut Butter Balls... 2 sticks butter 1 Box 4X powdered sugar 2 c. graham cracker crumbs 1 c. chopped nuts (personally, I like pecans) 1 c. coconut 1/2 c. peanut butter 1 tsp. vanilla Mix all of the above ingredients and make into marble sized balls. Then melt these two things on low heat: 6 oz. chocolate chips 1/2 stick parafin wax Dip the balls into the mixture and set on wax paper until chocolate hardens. I LOVE these! Thanks to everyone for posting all of these great recipes. If I had the money and time I'd like to try all of them.

I didn't know if anyone would be interested in this, but my son and I made these to give out to family members Christmas Eve. You use hot glue to adhere all the pieces together. The chocolates in front of Santa are supposed to be gifts, but we couldn't find any candy wrapped up like presents, so we had to go with what is on it. These are very simple, quick, and fairly cheap. I would love to see pics if anyone else decides to make any. :) http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z303/triplej2002/christmastree037.jpg

Christmas Vacation The Santa Clause

Our son absolutely LOVES M&Ms... merchandise, the commercials and ofcourse the candy. He saw that stocking at Garden Ridge and wanted that one. I hated to replace his cute Blue's Clues one, but he's growing up. You're mantle looks very nice and that is one unusual stocking that you have (in the other pic). lol And thank you to everyone else for the compliments as well. :)

Thank you. I bought that paper at Target last year and had a little left over, so I finally finished it off a couple of days ago. I always love Target's wrapping paper. They seem to have the coolest designs. :)

Oh, and putting in my two cents... I have seen "Deck the Halls" and it's an okay movie. But I've also seen "It's a Wonderful Life" and in my opinion I think it's WAAAY overrated. It's alright, but there are a LOT of other Christmas movies that I would rather see in a 24 Hour marathon. I'm probably in the minority here though...

Christmas Vacation A Christmas Story The Santa Clause Deck the Halls

So, someone started a thread for posting Christmas tree photos, so I thought it would be nice to see photos of your stockings/fireplace mantles. Well, we don't actually have a fireplace, but here are our stockings... my husband's is the highest one, followed by mine, my step-daughter, our son and our dog, Goldie. :) http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z303/triplej2002/christmastree040.jpg

Here is ours... we don't usually go with a theme. Our tree consists of keepsake and handmade ornaments. We just like it colorful! http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z303/triplej2002/christmastree039.jpg

Gotta put my two cents in... Serendipity Music of the Heart Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio Sweet Home Alabama A Walk to Remember Devil Wears Prada Where the Heart Is Bridges of Madison County Oops.. just saw it had to be one to watch with my DH... okay, so he wouldn't watch any of those with me. But we both like the movie "Deep Impact" with Morgan Freeman and Robert Duvall. It's got enough emotional stuff for a woman and the action/sci-fi stuff for a man. :)

My picks would have to be: Christmas Vacation... my husband and I just love laughing at Eddie. lol Home Alone Elf Nightmare Before Christmas The Santa Clause Scrooged Deck the halls Jingle All the Way (I don't care for this or White Christmas, but if I have to choose :)

Hmmm.. I haven't thought about teacher gifts. I better add that person to my list. (BTW, I homeschool my son.)

Your tree is gorgeous! I haven't really thought too much of the revolving Christmas trees, but the way it makes everything sparkle makes me want to go out and get one. :) I'll post a pic of ours later... I think we may string popcorn... no, ours won't look like a showroom Christmas tree. lol

We have spent a little over $900 and will probably spend about $50 more or so and will finally be done!

Our six year-old son wants these things... Night Vision goggles Moon in My Room (that shows you the different moon phases) Martian Matter More Tinkertoys Electronic Guess Who Let's Go fishing game Guitar Anything with Pixar Cars Magic Set Alvin and Chipmunks Soundtrack CD He wanted a few more things, but there are things on his list we didn't get (junk that would have been thrown aside) and some things we bought that we knew he would get more use out of.

I think we'll be heading to Wal-Mart around 4:30 or so, then to Sears, Target and then a few other places. Then my husband and I will enjoy a nice, long, quiet breakfast with no kids around. (I love Black Friday a lot because of that... time away from kids!) We'll be avoiding Circuit City and Best Buy until later in the morning.