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Panda
Member
07-15-2005
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 4:26 am
wow you are always doing such great things with the kids! Seeing the train sounds great, I bet my 2 yr old would be excited.
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Capecodkathy
Member
07-10-2005
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 4:44 am
Here is a fun Holiday website involving Disney. You can email to your friends and surprise them with pretending to have the park dedicated to them for a year. The lucky person's name is even spoken at the end of the video - provided it is a common name. http://www.sun7news.com/spread.php
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 6:50 am
Here, Santa brings one present. The kids have 4 presents under the tree (one representing each wiseman and the baby Jesus). My hubby does the stockings and everyone knows it. He goes to the dollar store and comes up with the most random stuff and it's quite amusing. I usually throw a few things in them too. My folks tended to forget the stockings or give us an orange/grapefruit. I was always so envious of my neighbor across the street who had all this candy and stuff in his!
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Zgoodgirl
Member
08-22-2003
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 7:09 am
Stockings for us were always stuffed by my mom and we knew it. It was also the free zone when we would get up in the morning before everyone else. We could get into our stockings before the family woke up. It was usually stuffed with practical stuff, when we were smaller it was Bonnie Bell lip gloss, hair ribbons, small toys. As we got older it was filled with nail polish remover, makeup, and things like that.
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Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 7:14 am
You know, I am in my late 40s and I think Nancy Drew was old-fashioned when I was growing up. Still I loved them. And the Bobbsey twins, also old-fashioned, but I read every one. I also remember reading a few books from my mom's childhood and I loved them, too. I guess it depends on the kid, but for me they were ageless. I still have all of my old books in storage and keep promising my nieces I will let them read them. They are fascinated that I have books where Barbie is a teenager! These nieces are 10-14, but they have some of my innocent nature from that age so I think they will enjoy them. And if they "spy" old fashioned things I think they will giggle and enjoy telling me about them! I already have them fully versed in classic disco music, so I may as well cover the spectrum!
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 8:46 am
Our stockings have always been for new underwear and socks! Every year. And maybe some chocolate or a treat! 
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 9:22 am
Stockings were always stuffed with a combination of parent and Santa gifts. We knew the orange in the toe came from my mother (and we had 4' tall stockings to stuff!). The practical gifts in the stocking were from the 'rents, and the goofy things and toys were from Santa. And like ZG, stockings were the one thing we could look at before everyone else was up (of course, we'd get everyone up as soon as it was daylight, but still). I miss that 4' stocking. It used to hold some really cool stuff. Nancy Drew may have been old fashioned, but her stories were well written and easy to read. And while women's rights were barely a gleam in her eye, she still taught good from bad and it was a world that was enjoyable to inhabit for a few hours a day. She's as traditional as Raggedy Ann/Andy and if I ever had daughters, the entire series would be in the bookshelf.
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Landileigh
Member
07-29-2002
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 9:55 am
The original Nancy Drew books were started in 1930. Scooby Doo was created in 1969.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 9:55 am
War, I used to take Dylan to the Metro train every year, it is awesome!!! Get there a little early so you can have the little ones sit up front. They stop train and characters come out and put on a 15 min show. the whole train is lite up! I even went one year with my friend when Dylan didnt want to go anymore.
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 8:39 pm
War, I'm with you about the argh! when people mention stocking stuffers! I protected that so much with my kids. Santa was the only one who ever put anything in the stockings. (and he also brought one or two wrapped gifts for each kid wrapped in paper that no gifts from us were wrapped in. It/they were usually what the kids wanted most.) I told my kids that stocking stuffer just meant a gift small enough to fit into a stocking. I also used to never wrap santa gifts until Christmas eve in case they were found. I went to great lengths to have nothing found. If there was wrapping paper left over, it went out into the recycle bin before we went to bed. The reindeer left a popcorn (3 flavors) tin for us every year! We used to have a neighbor or coworker write out the santa tags which were also more beautiful than the tags we used.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 8:51 pm
until my kids got older, Santa's gift was never wrapped. now, the kids wake up to a letter from Santa sending them on a scavenger hunt where they find their wrapped Santa presents. i use completely different paper that is kept at my neighbor's house.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 11:03 pm
Ack, I haven't bought my Santa paper yet! Santa will wrap some, just depends on how much time he has on Christmas Eve, lol. Besides the stockings and the one gift they really want, he brings a few other things like fun notepads for school (mom and dad only buy solid colors) or art supplies. Oh, he also brings at least one book (cuz Santa thinks reading is very important) and the gc's for the movies (he also thinks family time is important, lol.) I'm looking forward to the train. Dakota's bff is spending the night tonight, but wants to go with us too. Friends of ours are going to join us as well. I had bought a box of hot apple cider (indiviual packets) and one of hot chocolate at Costco, going to take those to sis' along with cinnamon sticks and marshmellows. She's going to make sugar cookies and get candy canes, so after the train we're going to all head back to her house for a hot drink and treats. This is a great time of year to find free or cheap entertainment. We always try to find something to do, but this year it's been so much fun to do the different stuff like this. I don't know if it's cuz the kids are a little older, but still young enough to enjoy it or that we're spending a lot of time with family and friends or that stuff like this just forces us to slow down and enjoy what's going on instead of stressing about gifts and shopping and hassles. This is late to mention, was late to mention when I read about it last week, but maybe for anyone interested to think about next year. Theres a Polar Express train you can actually go on. I searched for it and found that here in CA it runs out of Sacramento (if I remember right was only out of Sacramento.) It's a bit expensive, but not too bad, I would have done it if tickets had still been available. It only runs though for a month or so on the weekends. You can dress up in your jammies, ride the train and they read the story.
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Beckie03
Member
07-05-2007
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 11:08 pm
war, my mom and i want to try and do that next year. it sounds like so much fun...i hope we can and if we can...i can't wait till next year. supposedly she said the tickets sell out in october...eek.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 12:13 am
Oh wow, we'll have to check early. I read an article about it last week and thought it sounded like a lot of fun and went to check it out and they were all sold out. I also meant to mention that my Shutterfly photo books came in today and I love them. They look great and the pics look fabulous (I think they might have retouched them even!) Both grandmas, my aunt, and sis will be really happy with them.
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Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 10:29 am
I love hearing about all of the traditions. I remember when two of my best friends had children their biggest argument came from whether Santa wrapped gifts or not. They called me for the deciding vote....and I did make one mad (the dad, my longtime friend) when I said that in our house the things from Santa were always wrapped in paper with Santa's picture on it(well of course Santa had his own paper!) My sister said she always would buy different paper for each of her children. That way she could wrap and have them put away and easily figure out which was which, and who had the most presents to open. I love all of the free Christmas entertainment. One of my nieces and nephews and I went to our town's Christmas parade last Sunday afternoon. We had a blast. We waved at all of the beauty queens (doing the beauty queen wave, of course) and the kids scamper for candy when it is thrown. We cheer for the high school bands and yell "Merry Christmas" at everyone riding in the parade. Since I moved back to my hometown I don't think I have missed one....and always with nieces and nephews in tow. This year we had fewer of us due to a lot being sick or busy, but I enjoy that they will all have these memories when they grow up. I just got back from vacation with a friend and am having a mug made for her covered with a collage of pictures from our trip. A lot of times our pictures from fun times get stuck in a drawer (or these days on our computer), so I thought this would be a fun thing for her to have to enjoy all year long. That may be a neat thing for people with young kids or grandparents or godparents to do. And speaking of godparents, I buy my godchildren Christmas ornaments each year. For my god son I buy pewter ornaments and plan to give him a pewter star tree topper when he turns 18. I buy angel ornaments for my god daughter. I do this alongside their "real" gifts and seldom spend much (often I will buy next year's at the after Christmas sales), but they will have a collection when they are out on their own.
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Couchtomato
Member
09-09-2008
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 5:39 pm
Wishing all those of the Jewish faith a Happy Hanukkah!
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 9:40 pm
Thank you Couchtomato.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 10:24 pm
Happy Hanukkah!
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Biscottiii
Member
05-29-2004
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 11:02 pm
Happy Hanukkah from my snowbound hibernating house too!
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Christy358
Member
07-10-2007
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 11:03 pm
At my house wrapped presents were from mom and dad....Santa left the unwrapped ones. He also filled stockings. Happy Hanukkah!
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 11:34 pm
Happy Hanukkah!!! I hope everyone who celebrates it has a wonderful holiday! Yesitsme, one of the few things we've skipped this year was the Christmas parade. They are great fun, but ya have to get there way too early in the morning, lol. We had a great time going to see the train tonight! Besides us and my sister and her family, we had 2 cousins and their families and 3 friends and theirs go with us. 12 kids, ranging from 10 months to 13 years old. The train was late, but it wasn't a big deal since Rudolph, Deputy Dog, and the fire department were all there before hand and the kids got to visit them. The show itself was really cute, lots of lights, singing and dancing and it was funny. When it first rolled into the station, I thought, "Oh look, how cute, they have all the reindeer in their little stalls." The reindeer even sang and moved their heads. Then Caleb said something to Darren and Darren leaned over and pointed out to me it wasn't the reindeer in their stalls....their heads were MOUNTED to the wall!
Caleb and his 13 year old cousin were the only two kids in our group of kids to notice that, think if the younger ones had it might have upset them, lol. There were so many people there they decided to add another show. Since we'd had pretty good places for all the kids to see we left to give others our spots. We dropped off Kota's bff (she had to be home) then went for apple cider and cookies. Brought my 2 oldest nieces home with us for the night.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 5:16 am
Happy Hanukkah!!!
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 6:44 am
I took the boys ... my nephew and son ... to see the holiday lights this year just as we go every year.
Unfortunately, at 15 and 11 they don't enjoy it like they used to. I couldn't even get a smile out of them. lol!
But that's okay because Mommy and Maggie still had a great time!!
Happy Holidays! 
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 7:14 am
Awww, you and Maggie look so sweet!! The boys are cute too, but no smiles, huh? I'll be back later to post a picture of ds from when I was attempting to get a picture of him and dh. He was so uncooperative, you would have thought he was 2 and not 9!!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, December 22, 2008 - 7:19 am
Vnick dontcha just hate that?? My boys never ever smile in pics anymore. Lol great pics even without smiling lol.
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