<p>Who would 
at a mother and son’s love for each other? Bah! None of us here at CC. Most of us would be quite jealous, methinks. As a surprise I did drive 5 hours roundtrip one evening to see S sing with his a cappella group. I got a great welcome from his whole group, although it was probably because of the homemade brownies I brought… Glad you had a great trip, oaklandmom!</p>
<p>Money very well spent! Creating joy!</p>
<p>The last parent weekend we spent $200.00 for dinner, the most expensive for us. Worth it.</p>
<p>Oaklandmom–that’s such a great idea! Have a fabulous time! It inspires me to think about doing something like that w/my kids, someday. A great, showy display of how much you value time with him. That’s wonderful!!</p>
<p>mythmom, thank you - I love the phrase “creating joy”. I came here to this thread as I’m not in a very good mood this morning - the buyers of my house need an extension and won’t be able to close until as late as the 24th of December…and my real estate agent for the house I’m buying has not called me back since I told her about the need to ask for an extension on the other end. I know the sellers were adamant that the deal close by the 7th of Dec and its not going to happen. I’ve been scouring the internet to see if there’s another house I can fall in love with(and quickly). I’d hate for us to be with out a house for the holidays. I was reading threads and saw one someone posted about magicians in Las Vegas and I remembered another trip I took with DS. He was in the 2nd grade. We’d had a garage sale and he made $40.64 selling his old toys. As we walked up our stairs I was trying to decide how to begin the conversation about saving at least some of the money when he spoke up and asked me how to divide $40.64 by two. Once we were inside, we sat together and I helped him divide the money into two piles and then I asked why he wanted to divide it by two. His reply “half the money is for my school to make it a better place and half is so we can take a trip to see the white tigers”. (he wanted to see Seigfried and Roy’s white tigers in Las Vegas). At the time I really couldn’t afford the trip. I saved and saved so we could go that spring. We had the most wonderful time. Who could resist a kid who wants to make his school a better place? Ah, there are more important things than houses. There is creating joy.</p>
<p>What a heartwarming post, oaklandmom. The story of your little boy (oh, I know he’s not little anymore :)) was touching. I hope everything works out for you. We’ve lived in the Bay Area and I know what the housing market is like over there. My best wishes to you!</p>
<p>awww! I missed this the first time. Yes, it was priceless! Glad it went well. You deserve a break.</p>
<p>Sure hope I can do the same when D leaves in the Fall. Just wish I could get there by plane and back, spend the night and see a movie for $400. Not having a major airport in town will be a bummer. No cheap flights.</p>