<p>haha…just thought I would mention that…lol.</p>
<p>I need advice. My mom is having her 70th birthday this year. We have a relative that is having a party for her that will be expensive and over the top. (Think bad TLC over the topness…) H and I are really on the same page when it comes to gift giving and prefer meaningful gifts over “mass produced, bought it because it was expensive, therefore it must have value kind of gifts.” (but we are the minority in our family) I would like to get a nice gift for my mom, but I am at a loss. She is hard to buy for anyway because of the above mention, but also, if she wants something, she really just buys it herself. So trying to keep things in the $250-$350 range does anyone have any great idea? We donated to a charity she likes years ago, but we got razzed for that from family and therefore we have taken that off the table. She already has the iphone, ipad, kindle, mac laptop, etc…so that kind of stuff is all out…and did I mention…meaningful?</p>
<p>Any help would be awesome…</p>
<p>And on a side note…YEAH to everyone with power back!</p>
<p>collegeshopping: What about a nice weekend getaway – just you and your mom? That’s something I wish I could do with my mom but can’t because of her health. Wouldn’t have to be over the top, just a nice location that you would both enjoy. Depending on your tastes – near a historical site of interest, museums, sports event, shopping, whatever.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was thinking tickets to something…musical, ball game, whatever.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping - what about having a surprise portrait taken of all the grandkids and having it blown up to a canvas print…the kind that doesn’t need a frame. I had a 16x20 done for my inlaws from a groupon for $45. It’s stunning (if I do say so myself). You could also collect family portraits and make a very nice hardbound book where each family member writes a note (you add text next to the pictures). This can be done for under $50 depending on how many pages. </p>
<p>I’m all about meaningful as well. Maybe these ideas can get you started.</p>
<p>College Shopping, I think we have the same relatives. </p>
<p>I never get the parties some throw - my sister wasnted to do one for their 60th anniversary but I said what is the point, an expensive party with the same people there who they see all the time and who they will see at another celebratory party the next week!</p>
<p>For my dad’s 80th we sent them on a Mediterranean cruise - pricey but most likely the last time they’ll go to Europe as it’s so tiring. </p>
<p>How about a professionally done family portrait? Does she collect anything? My mom collects crystal animals and we (my sister and I always go in together) have given her those in the past. </p>
<p>There is also the pricey bags if she likes that kind of thing. We bought my mom a Prada make-up case for her 70th. </p>
<p>A spa day is always nice, too.</p>
<p>BI, great minds… :)</p>
<p>Collegeshopping - One of those photobooks of pics of her over the years would be cool, there were some wonderful pics of my mom as a teen, young married, that we hadn’t seen for ages or some I had never seen at all. But you would need to have access to all those old photo albums for the beginning years of course.</p>
<p>(No power for my Dad, just in case you’re wondering…and the shelter goes on.)</p>
<p>BI, I third that choice!</p>
<p>In case you missed it this am, #1 is where we will head for our cc meet-up, yes? I want to see those sheep.
[TODAY</a> Video Player](<a href=“http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/45133094#45133094]TODAY”>http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/45133094#45133094)</p>
<p>I haven’t checked in here in awhile so I am just stopping by to say “Hi” to everyone. I will read back through the threads to catch up on all the happenings. Hope all has been well with everyone’s kiddos. We’ve had our challenges, mostly with D learning what it’s like to be an adult. I can’t believe the first semester is almost over.</p>
<p>Power is back :):):):):):)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the ideas. The professional photos are covered, as a photographer was hired to be there all weekend. The photo book was done by a sister last year. Spa day may work but pretty typical in her life. I may do a sculpture for her, have been wanting to work in that medium for years. At least I know it wouldn’t be a duplicate.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that so many of you are getting power back; I hope that the rest comes back soon.</p>
<p>EB - still thinking about you and your family. I just almost can’t wrap my mind around that poor boy’s situation.</p>
<p>I am struck by how many of us seem to have been unhappy on some level with the guardians we had selected for our children. I’m in that group also but thankful that both of my DDs are now old enough not to need them. My brother is the executor for us and will control the money for awhile but we’re still happy with that selection.</p>
<p>got waaaaay behind, but think I am mostly caught up now – I did skim so I probably missed some news. </p>
<p>I hope everyone who lost power has it back now! We got lucky and only got a few inches of snow, and did not lose power or have much tree damage (likely because most of the leaves were off the trees here already)</p>
<p>So sorry to hear about arisamp’s S’s JRA diagnosis</p>
<p>Emilybee, so sorry for your loss! What a tragedy, and I really feel for the poor son.</p>
<p>Did Pepper’s son get the jury duty thing figured out yet? </p>
<p>Momofboston – what a Jury duty story! My only jury duty was a stalking case and the jury hung, but it was a good experience and I’d like to do it again. </p>
<p>Collegeshopping, I’d also suggest either photographs or an “experience” – we have given my parents orchestra tickets and the like. Also one year we gave my mom an electronic photo frame loaded with photos of the grandkids.</p>
<p>My S is having some minor medical drama. He was seen by health services and will follow-up with them tomorrow. But he felt too unwell to do his work, and my H and I had to convince him to go to bed and forget about it (or try again in the morning, if he feels ok). He is convinced at least one of the profs won’t give any leeway, though college policy suggests that they are supposed to be “reasonable”. He doesn’t know how much the homework is worth. I asked, doesn’t he have a syllabus that says how much everything is worth? No. I found one of them online. Any individual homework is worth less than 1% of his grade. It’s nice that he doesn’t want to throw points away, but it’s not worth stressing over if medically he can’t do it right now. He finally agreed and went to bed. I hope he feels better in the morning.</p>
<p>In better news he just pre-enrolled for next semester and got all the classes he wanted (including a couple with only a few seats left for freshmen after the upperclassmen had pre-enrolled)</p>
<p>Ditto to mathmomvt recap…sorry about your son’s health issues</p>
<p>Still trying to catch up on cc reading ;)</p>
<p>kathiep, yes, the regatta was in Philadelphia…</p>
<p>A huge congrats to those who have their power back on! Hopefully the difficulties are all behind you.</p>
<p>collegeshopping, I’m catching up from yesterday so my ideas have largely been mentioned…first thought was tickets to a show (or whatever she would like) and dinner with you. Second is, while I know photos have been and are being done, you could make a DVD/montage as in ‘this is your life’…for my 50th D3 made one that was shown at my party–she made sure that at least one photo of every guest was included. Added music, some graphics and a touching note at the end and it’s something I’ll treasure forever. Good luck!</p>
<p>Emilybee, I just want to add my condolences to everyone else’s…there really aren’t words…</p>
<p>Happy Thursday Epeeps,</p>
<p>Coffee is ready…Enjoy :)</p>
<p>EB~So sorry, what a terrible experience for a child. There are simply no words :(</p>
<p>Have a great day ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the coffee 2edu! So glad to see you powered back up. Not having heat and gadgets for that long would drive me batty! Hope you survived okay! :)</p>
<p>Collegeshopping - Boy, the gifts have been covered! I am partial to anything personal so the sculpture would be an amazing gift of time and love if it would be appreciated. I also like the DVD idea. I’ve done several for clients for this type of occasion and they are always well received. They are not hard (just time consuming…), and good, flexible, software is under $100. I’ve tried a LOT of software, so if anyone is interested I’m happy to share what I use…just PM me. I’m sure you will come up with a lovely idea.</p>
<p>I got a call from Bluejr last night saying he may go a different direction when he declares his major within engineering next semester. I was pretty shocked but supportive. He’s had one required class in the area he’s talking about so it’s natural that he’s gravitating that way. Sadly he is unable to take any intro class in his original area of interest before declaring to get the same exposure. Kids have stops and starts all the time, change their major, and do beautifully. His university holds them to eight semesters so he has no room to really explore a lot within the e’school. He knew that going in. Summer is always an option I guess… I’ll let it sit a week or so and have Bluedad follow up and see where his head’s at. With kids it is hard to tell if they are telling you something important or sometimes just thinking out loud. Bottom line, it’s his decision and I want him to be happy!</p>
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<p>Any time. Just give warning if there are vegans. 
We are acquaintances with the owners of the Old Sheepherder’s Farm that was mentioned. While a bit more insular than shown on Today (the foodie stuff is spread all over the county not concentrated in Kinderhook) it truly is a great place to live.</p>
<p>collegeshopping - for my mom’s 70th, we borrowed an idea from a friend. We sent “requests for cards” to about 40 significant people in her life and asked them to mail the cards to us. On her birthday, we gave her a box with dozens of cards from relatives, former neighbors, long time friends, etc. Many people included old photos and stories from the past. my mom loved it and we enjoyed going through them all with her. The nephew and nieces sent particularly wonderful letters. My mom felt so loved and appreciated! Since then, some of the card senders have become card requesters for similar situations.</p>