<p>Both of our kiddos have Dr Dre Beats as well…</p>
<p>Just asked younger kiddo about noise cancelling ones–and the response was “they are too expensive. I would wear them if I had them but they are too expensive…”
Awww what a good kid. Being economical ;)</p>
<p>Dh thinks it is so funny—many moons ago the headphones were big / cushy and over the ear…then the trend was to get smaller…and smaller…and smaller til they were ear buds. Those ear buds grew hooks to hold them in…and bamm…back to the over the ear Dr Dre Beats which are fashioned large…</p>
<p>ohiomom, VAmom, thanks for the pineapple shopping thoughts. There’s sadly (or maybe fortunately for her budget ) no Whole Foods within walking distance, but peapod does indeed deliver. I am vaguely tempted to send her a whole one, as a sort of life skills test. :)</p>
<p>The noise-cancelling or noise-deadening headphones discussion is intriguing. I’ve not heard anyone complaining about noise, either here at home or in the dorm. Except the spouse. Maybe it’s the parents who need the headphones. ;)</p>
<p>D1 said that though she and her roommate aren’t best buds, they do get along very very well. One big factor is that the two of them share the same annoying traits that would drive anyone else bonkers: they both hit the snooze alarm repeatedly before getting up, and they’re both very messy.</p>
<p>Studio and Pro lines are the noise-canceling headphones
My HS son has the Solo which is the lowest in cost and almost noise-canceling. Amazon may have better prices.</p>
<p>Our house is VERY quiet. S2 said listening to the music helps him focus better when he is doing HW. My college freshman never complains about noise in the dorm either. He has cheap headphones bought from Best Buy and he uses them mainly for listening to music or watching movies.</p>
<p>On the subject of headphones, D1 asked for noise-canceling headphones her sophomore year- the girl she roomed with hummed constantly, couldn’t seem to stop herself. They were kind of a spur-of-the-moment purchase so we went with Bose and paid too much but they did the trick. </p>
<p>Like VAMom, we live far from our families also so typically have pretty tame holidays also. This year, it will be only DH, D1 and me since D2 is staying in Texas. Her plans are evolving and it now sounds like she’ll only spend part of that long weekend with her friend’s family. They are within an hour of my family so my SIL is going to meet them halfway on Friday and my D will stay with her and my brother for a couple of days. I think it will be good for her - she’ll see all of her aunts, uncles & cousins on my side as well as my parents and will, I know, be the center of their loving attention. I had begun to worry that she would regret not coming for the holiday as all of her friends will be home but this will nip that in the bud and then she will be HOME two weeks after that and will be here for 5 weeks!</p>
<p>EB, sounds like a great weekend of sailing. Did your son sail in High School? Just curious as my 9th grader is very into sailing and wondering about it as an advantage for college???
Living away from family for so long we have developed our own family traditions that my kids cherish. This year we are back around family for the first time in 20 some odd years and the thought of having all that family (both sides) around stresses me out! </p>
<p>All is gon ok deep in the heart of Texas…Did get thrown for a loop this week though. One of our older sons bought his first this year about three hours away and has made it clear he wants to host Christmas Eve this year. I had never expressed it, but expected that we would be home this Christmas for two reasons, one, college D was soooo looking forward to being here for Christmas, and my baby girl, 9 is still a believer in Santa, and being in a hotel on Christmas Eve is just not magical. With all that said, my husband very seldomly gets passionate about anything and is so darn proud of older son buying this very nice house 100% on his own and feels we should be at his house. And because H is passionate about it, I feel I need to let this one go. (I typically stand my ground for what I want, but he…H…hardly speaks up about what he wants, so it feels right)</p>
<p>I have broken the news to the younger ones…100 questions…will Santa know where we are?..etc…will our stockings still get filled?..we have formulated a plan…they think Santa gets email…a special address just for parents to report behavior issues…(what am I going to do without that in the next few years)…and they think I should ask Santa to just drop off the gifts at our house while we are gone, because it would just be easier all the way around and they can wait!! How sweet is that! Now I have to figure out how to make that happen.</p>
<p>I am not going to let that keep me from getting the house Christmas ready though…going to drag it all out this weekend and take inventory what I need (new house this year) So just a small bump in the road…</p>
<p>^ EA…
We have done holidays many different ways over the last 25 years…with extended family stateside, and overseas “alone”…and even “alone” stateside…cruises, Mts, etc etc…have brought an extra duffle bag of wrapped packages on a few trips over the years. </p>
<p>The extended family is definitely stressful…</p>
<p>This year we are opting for no extended family for either Thanksgiving or Christmas…and we are good with that.</p>
<p>We have some family traditions we have enjoyed and have developed some new ones in the last few years. Thankful that we have learned the happy holiday is when we are together–regardless of where that is and what we eat…</p>
<p>College Shopping–Santa found us in several countries…Santa is very magical!! Our kiddos were excited to find even token tings from Santa in different placews and USPS helps get it there if luggage can’t handle it all.</p>
<p>Holidays have been so varied …so my kids don’t have just “one set” of traditions…and don’t have memories of “regular” holidays
–I hope that makes them more flexible when they marry and have new tradtions etc…
and not that they will feel a “lack” because we didn’t have “one way” to do it…kwim</p>
<p>Santa has found us at Grandma’s in 2 different states. He usually brings a small, but special present to Grandma’s, but left most of the gifts back home.</p>
<p>I suppose I lucked out in the holiday stress because my husband’s father is in China (far far away) and they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter - bonus!! The torch of holding Thanksgiving and Christmas was handed to me a few years back when my Mom couldn’t handle it and it’s just us, my Dad and perhaps one or two of my siblings and their families. My siblings are the ones balancing between in-laws and such. </p>
<p>I bought the Bose headphones for Dd1 who had to room with Dd2 for the last 5 years and dd2 snores like a wild beast so…it was necessary. They have been great. I’m pretty sure they will come in handy for her when she goes off to college.</p>
<p>My Dad has come down with pneumonia suddenly (could’ve been something related to our weather/power issues but I won’t whine again), please say a little prayer. Thanks.</p>
<p>amandakayak - hope your dad gets better really soon. hugs!</p>
<p>we have moved across the country this year away from all family and old friends - and can’t fly “home” so planning to start some new holiday traditions for the 3 of us. DD goes with her new hubby for the holidays - they live nearby to lots of his relatives, but they’ll come and see us at some point this winter…hard when they grow up!</p>
<p>Amanda, +++++++ for your dad. Pneumonia is nasty. </p>
<p>EAO, he didn’t sail in high school but spent 8 summers at a camp in the Adirondacks that had a great sailing program. He took to it like a fish takes to water. </p>
<p>He wasn’t recruited and Bates sailing is just club but in talking to the sailing coach at Hobart (they have one of the top teams in the country) he would have been able to sail there, too. Most of the schools he applied to with teams he just contacted the coach.</p>
<p>emilybee, congrats to your son–how exciting!</p>
<p>EAO, my 2011 graduate had a classmate who sailed competitively and, while I don’t know the specifics, she goes to a great school and I know sailing was part of her acceptance.</p>
<p>The info about headphones is interesting. D walked on to the crew team and, starting in January, she’ll have very early practices. Getting enough sleep is in the dorm is going to be a challenge so one of her hanukah presents is going to be a collection of ‘sleep aids’…sleep mask, ear plugs, etc. I was wondering if I could find noise cancelling headphones that would be comfortable enough to sleep in–Amandakayak, I’m not up for springing for bose but could you post a link of the ones your D sleeps in–would help me identify a style that she might be able to sleep with. If anyone else has suggestions for things that will help D sleep when her floor is in party mode, I’d love to hear.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping, we did go away a few times when the kids were little and still believed in Santa Claus. We wrote Santa to tell him we were going to be gone and then had a friend slip into the house while we were gone to set up the scene with presents. It was always fun to see them trying to figure it all out. We made sure they saw us lock the door to the empty house! Fun! You must be proud of your son buying his first house. Last year we went skiing over Christmas and when we got back we did Christmas just as if it was the actual day, maybe you can do that?</p>
<p>Went to a meeting last night with the principals from the city schools and a parent group. The big issue is heterogeneous grouping and people are up in arms about it. They deny it but many accuse school board of doing this because of two lawsuits brought against the county for discrimination and access to education honors classes etc. Don’t know enough about it but need to look into it. Daughters Biology class although labeled honors is heterogeneous and she says teacher gets nothing done because of the behavior issues! UGH, gonna be a long 4 years!</p>
<p>Other issue is the early start time, there is a petition out there and a discussion chat on this parent forum regarding it. Funny as I “discovered” a few of my fellow meeting goers on CC last night as I was reading the posts. So many of us in one town!</p>
<p>Sun is coming up and coffee is on…enjoy the day!</p>
) no Whole Foods within walking distance, but peapod does indeed deliver. I am vaguely tempted to send her a whole one, as a sort of life skills test. :)</p>