<p>MP its been a year for you and you deserve to have the holidays you want. Did your H extend the invite?</p>
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<p>Yeah. It’s hard to blame him too much because his parents are getting older and he rarely sees them. (He hates to go visit them because his evil twin lives next door.) But he invited them on literally the busiest few days of the year.</p>
<p>missypie - Hold on…did you do all those trees in the middle of app season last year?? My, my, my!! I’m impressed; I could barely get baby Jesus into the manger this time last year…</p>
<p>Ok…I would just go ahead and decorate with them there. Who knows, maybe they will be able to help in some small way. (trying to be positive!) 
Or…send them to the movies!</p>
<p>MP, my condolences to the loss of your private Thanksgiving. We narrowly avoided the same - lots of family coming in for the holiday, but spouse and I agreed not to volunteer either kids’ bedrooms as space for overnight guests. With one away at college and the other at BS, these are important days to us. So, we said, Come! Celebrate! Eat! Drink! Then go home, we want to spend time with our kids. :)</p>
<p>^Missypie, I would hand H a list of his tasks to be before, during and after the company is here…and give it to him now in case of the quite likely discord that will ensue. He invited, he can work. Seeing his elderly parents is fine. But he needs to help out.</p>
<p>Thanksgiving, I am thankful we are going to my sister in laws and all I have to responsible for is pie. No house guests here. The drive will be good and so will getting home. I will probably make our own mini meal for leftover sake. Interestingly, our favorite Christmas was actually spent unconventionally in Key West. We left just before New Years and definitely the place was gearing up for the big party. But the week before Christmas and for the few days after, the place was just wonderfully quiet, TONS of family time, small gifts under the tree and no need of a car. Perfect.</p>
<p>My suggestion, missypie: Enlist the inlaws. Get them involved in the kitchen, the cleanup, the tree decorating, sorting through Christmas music, whatever else they’re physically capable of helping with. Don’t worry about having the house perfect before they get there; include them in your real life for a few days. They’ll probably be thrilled to be part of the action. And who knows how much longer they’ll be around – get the kiddos to spend time with them before they’re gone. It can be a good thing to have them there.</p>
<p>And yes, Hubby should know he’s going to get the bill for this. A list of things for him to do before they arrive and after they leave… and quite possibly something sparkly in a small box at Christmastime. :)</p>
<p>We were planning on going to SIL. but idont feel I will be up to it. D2 thought she should cook, my H decided to order it from a place we have never done this but drastic times call for drastic measures.</p>
<p>DTE,
enjoy a less stressed Thanksgiving with your immediate family. Your H made a good decision, if you are feeling up to it maybe you and your D can bake brownies or decorate some cookies together.</p>
<p>dte–if he ordered from a good place you will be pleaed–just add a few seasoning–did this a time or two and it was fine.
missypie–wish you could post pics–your house must look lovely. We have a cut your own and have been getting a very small-4-5 ft tree for the last 5 years. D gone and S never wants to help. So he went to a friends house and when he came home looked at our tree (could have been the first time he even noticed we HAD a tree) and asked why ours is so small. I love it–loads of little lights and H can pick it up with one hand. I have started the stockpile of stocking stuffers and the few niece/nephew/aunt gifts we still get.</p>
<p>Hi All. Just wanted to share. DS is coming home for Thanksgiving on Saturday. It will have been exactly 3 months since I’ve seen him (well, one skype session) and I’m sooo excited. It sounds like he has experienced a million new things while away and is quite happy. My last short conversation with him was to set up a call this week to make sure he understood how to get to airport, get there on time, etc. Then he mentioned to me that he also wanted to talk about what the rules will be while he is home! How mature of him!(I think). What types of curfews & rules do you all have?</p>
<p>Well, D is coming home a day early- on Tuesday! School officially closes on Wednesday but there are last minute cancellations. She’s bringing home a friend who lives in the mid-West and won’t be able to make it home. We’re also having another student who she went to school with when we lived overseas. Now that girl is in college in MA. Should be a lot of fun although they get in about 8PM at Port Authority - not the best. H will probably meet them after work.
S is in school in Canada, so for yet another year, he won’t be joining us…
Dizzi - I think the rules will be few and rather lax around here…</p>
<p>S2 registered for spring classes this morning. He says he was up at 6:20 and “just chilled spamming the button” until it let him in and he got exactly the schedule he wanted. I think registration officially opened at 6:30 am. Sure sounds nice. I remember having to physically go to the coliseum and stand in long lines for every class. </p>
<p>In terms of Thanksgiving rules, we have asked S2 to help pick up leaves this week-end, which he said was fine. He and H will probably spend most of Saturday on that job while I clean and shop. We have a pretty big yard, although it will be under construction soon. We are getting the pool filled in now that the boys are gone and that may start this week. We got a bunch of rain last week that delayed everything. </p>
<p>We dropped curfews on the boys when they turned 18, tied to the driving rules. They can come in whenever and we don’t attempt to track their schedule–way too complicated. Now that they carry cell phones, we can always get ahold of them if needed. I work out of the house, so they have to be pretty quiet during business hours, particularly when I’m on the phone. The younger one is excellent about that. The older one tends to forget, which can be a problem, but he won’t be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year.</p>
<p>S2 and H will leave early Friday morning after Thanksgiving to catch a Friday football game at school. He thinks being home a whole week is way too long, but they close the dorms so not much choice. He has a job lined up for over Christmas so won’t be so bored.</p>
<p>No real rules will be imposed at our house. Now they are expected to help out but that is just part of being a family. Both will come and go as they please but with one car that they share when they are home they need to coordinate with one another. </p>
<p>D has the entire week off and will be arriving Sat. S we pick up on Monday evening. We have seen both of them this semester but will be good to see them both. Now if I can just get everything done that I want to prior to D landing on Sat. evening.</p>
<p>Missiepie - I keep thinking about your trees. How large are they? I am trying to picture them all in my mind…but haven’t had my coffee yet. :)</p>
<p>DTE - Just get through the day this year. That’s all you have to do.</p>
<p>Y’all are so sweet to indulge my self-pity party. I know that I have no right to complain when folks like DTE have *real *concerns. (DTE, you get to call 100% of the shots for the holidays this year.)</p>
<p>Yes, all the trees went up last year (during app season) - all of Son’s apps were either EA or rolling, so the button was pressed on everthing by mid-November. </p>
<p>The main tree (FINALLY artificial after ruining carpet and walls for years) in the living room is 14’ with all glass shaped ornaments. That takes the entire day on Friday to decorate. The others are smaller artificial - 8’ vintage aluminum, a cluster of 3 threes for the bird ornaments, 2 small kitchen themed trees, etc etc. </p>
<p>Y’all are underestimating the degree of mess in our house to get this all done - think recarpeting the entire house and it’s like that. At some point during the weekend, we won’t be able to use the front door because there will be so much stuff stacked in the entryway…no dining surface because every table will be covered with ornaments. Besides the 14-18 trees, there is my collection of Santa & Mrs. Santa salt and pepper shakers, my collection of Peruvian and vintage plastic manger scenes. H’s collection of Rudolf (the movie) figurines, etc etc etc. Beautiful? Probably not. Tasteful? Definitely not. But a lot of fun. The inlaws could really fall and break a hip if they try to move around the house once everthing is pulled out from under the stairs, in the shed, under the beds, etc etc.</p>
<p>I wonder if they actually would lift a finger if given a job to do. I about starved when they came to visit after I had my babies because they wouldn’t cook and I thought “I’ll be damned if I get out of bed after a c-section to cook for them.” Poor H had to do it all; once when he wasn’t home I was so hungry and finally mentioned food to the inlaws and they said, “oh don’t worry about us; we made ourselves a sandwich.” No thought of offering* me *a sandwich. </p>
<p>I’m a terrible terrible person - I just finished Man’s Search for Meaning and Viktor Frankl didn’t hold a grudge after returning to Vienna from the concentration camps and I’m still getting angry over trite things that happened 18 years ago. It will just take me a few days to process this all in my mind and decide what activites will be accelerated and what activities will be delayed.</p>
<p>Thanksgiving is my family’s favorite holiday and it’s a 3 day affair! My daughters put out all the tacky decorations on Wednesday night/Thursday morning while my husband and I prepare for the meal. We have about 30 people (all relatives), 2 tables and a kids table. Thanksgiving night we always watch a movie in our media room after the younger ones are put to bed. We fit everyone into some sort of sleeping arrangement throughout the house. Friday morning we have bagels (courtesy of my mother-in-law) and all the fixings then a hike for those interested, lasagna for an early dinner, then swimming for those interested. Some leave at that point, most stay one more day and leave Saturday morning. It’s exhausting but I love it!</p>
<p>I do wish my daughters school gave them the whole week, all but one class was canceled for Wednesday (and it’s her 18th birthday) so she’s skipping the one and will land at our local airport at midnight Tuesday night. Now that it’s close I can’t wait!</p>
<p>Missypie, you are making me feel lazy! I used to put up three trees and decorate every room. Now I just put up one tree and don’t use any live greens in the house, don’t put out my Dicken’s village or make my own ice luminarias any more. Seemed like no one wanted to help and I am too tired any more. Gosh, this is making me feel old and “Scroogey” ! I do have to decorate because I am always nominated to host December book club, cards and Bunco. I love to entertain but not so much the clean up. Will host a big dinner on Dec 13th. Wish the girls would be home but they will still be at school.</p>
<p>I also host Thanksgiving dinner for H’s family. I usually buy lots of wine for me and the day goes quickly! ;)</p>
<p>Note to self: Buy lots of wine.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention the Dickens Village. My mom gave me her pieces when she got sick of them. It takes a while to put up, but I love it so.</p>
<p>amtc, it sounds like you enjoy entertaining. NM, don’t I remember that about you, too? It’s fine to have people over for a day or evening, but I really dislike having overnight guests. The inlaws always drive, so we never know when they’re arriving and we never know when they’re leaving.</p>