<p>We are BIG Lego fans here…and all of it is in lidded bins.
Every break the kids pull it all out and dump it in the living room since there is space/light and the fireplace to enjoy etc…</p>
<p>We used to have a ton of PlayMobile…the camper, famiky, off road jeeps, soccer stadium etc. Those were expensive!! Gave it away to a friend/neighbor for her younger child. Now I am sorry i did (not only are we not friends, but that stuff would have been good to keep for “grandma’s house…” haha ;)</p>
<p>I will likely send this to kiddo and buy one for my hs kiddo2.</p>
<p>Is it a traditional advent box with little doors to open–or is it counting on the self control to pick one from the individual bins? Just wondering -hahaha</p>
<p>I have errands to run and will look for advent calendars with the chocolates as well.
Making grocery lists for next week.</p>
<p>On the subject of the meaning of Thanksgiving–my american born/raised kiddo2 recently commenetd how this is such a “minor” holiday and “whats the point”? I think since the faith part has been stripped away in the way its taught in schools and the traditions of going to your place of worship, working at a soup kitchen etc…the things that were attached to it 40+ years ago…It does seem often pointless… We talked about the faith/gratitude/hospitality part…I just thought it timely that kiddo2 even said such a thing.</p>
<p>Received a stern email from D1’s school telling us parents that not only has Naked Quad Run been cancelled, but that any student who attempts to take part will be suspended for a semester, and we should remind our students not to take part. It’s given me warm and fuzzy memories of when D1 and D2 were wee tykes and would run around the house in their birthday suits right before bathtime, shrieking with laughter. Maybe just as well we never photographed or videotaped that… ;)</p>
<p>Do your students’ schools have something like this? UCLA has an underwear run, and I seem to remember hearing about Princeton doing naked runs. There’s the famous 360 degree south pole run, where the participants go from the sauna (200 degrees F) to outside (with windchill, down to -100 or colder), and run around the south pole marker, wearing only shoes. And a sock, for the men. Ahem. :D</p>
<p>STove - It is a LONG standing tradition for students at Bluejr’s U to streak ‘the lawn’ before they graduate. They are to run from the steps of the Rotunda, down the lawn, kiss the statue of Homer (740 yards), and back. I honestly didn’t look into this when Bluejr committed to the university, I’m a native and the tradition is well known. This has since expanded to streaking the lawn during orientation, during the first snow, etc. As far as I know the university doesn’t do much to stop it. At orientation the Dean of Students told a funny story of crossing the lawn late one night only to be met by several young gentlemen casually strolling along buck naked. All he heard was “Excellent, it’s the Dean”. His response was “Gentlemen, do you know the difference between streaking and indecent exposure? It’s PACE Gentlemen, PACE!!”. This may give you a clue as to how the university feels about the tradition. Personally, I don’t really want to know if and when Bluejr decides to take part in this tradition (it’s his business, and a story he can share much, much later), but I find it fairly harmless in the context of college life.</p>
<p>Princeton definitely has naked runs (or had, anyway). </p>
<p>Glad to hear that your son’s recovery is smooth, Arisamp.</p>
<p>emilybee, I am on my nth cup of coffee today (actually cappuccino) at the lounge at Heathrow waiting for my flight to Brazil. I was really tired a bit ago, but generally I am pretty good at adjusting to time zones. I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and the following week, then I’m back the following week to London, The Hague, Copenhagen and maybe one other city (Basel or Stockholm, whoever claims me first). I prefer the trips that have me in London for the whole week (or Paris or Stockholm in the summer or …) but I’m visiting some old, some current and some prospective clients and they are in different places. </p>
<p>I try to go to interesting restaurants or places whenever I have time. My new assistant has picked up on this and is making sure I have people to meet for dinner. That’s the only main thing I don’t like about traveling – going to dinner on my own at restaurants. There’s no real dinner companion version of match.com for travelers as far as I know – I think the closest would be more like craigslist and I’d be afraid of what I’d get if I posted in craiglist (marriage proposals or escorts).</p>
<p>A sock with a rubberband holding it on?? ;)</p>
<p>I think our family does a pretty good job of the gratitude thing. Before we eat, we each take a minute to say what we are grateful for. The last couple of years, the “kids” (ages 25-15) have started it before those of us at the older table. </p>
<p>I am getting stressed about clearing out the college kids rooms which we’ve been using to put things in “just for now” the last few months! </p>
<p>kathie: did you hear the story on the news today about the teacher (I think in IL) who was suspended for showing The Daily Show to his students last week? (it was in reference to the Herman Cain sex harrasment issue)…so much for the 1st amendment…</p>
<p>rodney, I don’t think that’s really a freedom of speech issue – I think it’s appropriate for a teacher to be expected to get permission from parents before showing a video with “adult” content to 10th grade students. This is especially true in an area where, according to the article, “[m]any of the children don’t even have TVs in their houses because of religious beliefs.” We live in a much less conservative area, but teachers who have wanted to show segments from R-rated movies in class have required parental permission. This seems analogous.</p>
<p>^ Rodney–maybe because it was more political or completely not germain to the class/topics?</p>
<p>BlueI—PACE–lol That is hilarious. Gotta love the Dean’s sens of humor!
We enjoy the grounds etc and it ranked high on kiddo’s list. A friend of kiddo’s is a Jefferson scholar there. Full ride plus goodies. Quite the achievement.</p>
<p>Just picked up a bunch of Gerber Daisies…such cheerful flowers with so much variety!</p>
<p>OWM–Congrats to DS!!! There’s something to be said about finding the right “fit” and he has certainly embraced his choice! I think it was written in the stars!</p>
<p>Aria: Glad your DS surgery was successful and he’s already running up the stairs!</p>
<p>Mnmomof2–Happy Bday to your DD! Enjoy the multiple celebrations (with and without her–oh, that sounds like a song )</p>
<p>Thanks for the regional flat rate shipping tip! I will definitely check it out.</p>
<p>I bought both Ds’s the Trader Joe’s chocolate advent calendar. I like the suggestion to send to roomies–I guess I’ll head back for a few more! </p>
<p>We bought the Lego Advent Calendar once upon a time. I do believe it had individual “doors” to open with a bagged lego item inside to build. My boys had received the Playmobil advent calendars before that and we still use those each year. </p>
<p>Shaw–I don’t know how you aren’t jetlagged all the time. Do you have some tips for us on how you do it, or are you just Superman?</p>
<p>I actually got a start on my holiday cleaning and I’m happy to report I have clean carpets and a clean refrigerator! We’ll see how much else I can get done before Thanksgiving since I’d rather do just about anything other than clean. DH is a “piler” and leaves his stuff everywhere and it is very frustrating to clean everything then have him come home and drop stuff everywhere. My coping mechanism is to avoid it as much as possible! :eek: This is within reason of course, since I don’t like piles of stuff so I get annoyed and move all the stuff causing DH to insist I’ve thrown it away. How have we stayed married for 26 years??? (Hint: he travels alot!) ;)</p>
<p>I’ve never had to worry about DS1’s grades and never had to keep up with what he was doing or whether he had finished his homework. Always excellent and he has been sharing his current college grades on his own accord. DS2 is another story. I’m checking blackboard daily and trying to help him keep up with assignments and homework. He’s just started HS and was entering things in his planner at the beginning of the year, but now isn’t. Arghhh! He keeps forgetting that assignments are due. So far he’s doing well on grades, but only because I know to ask him whether he’s finished assignments. I keep trying to back off a bit, hoping he’ll keep up, but so far no luck. I hope we can work toward more independence, but with his LD issues, I’m not sure when/if that will happen!</p>
<p>For those with kiddos coming home this weekend, have a great reunion! My DS arrives Wednesday evening (he finally got his train ticket).</p>
<p>Wow I get the feeling we are the only ones having a light Thanksgiving repast. Our family tradition strangely enough centers around us all getting up early and heading out to the Black Friday Sales together. Then breakfast and a collapse at home. Sat my wife’s sister comes over and we celebrate then. No turkey, but steak, focaccia, potatoes and other assorted goodies. Will have DD back from cal lutheran, and her older brother comes back from UCB.</p>
<p>It is hard to keep the kids focused on the meaning of the holidays. With Thanksgiving I borrow a tradition one of my Aunts used to do. We get a large piece of muslim or other light colored cloth to use as a tablecloth. Everyone is then given markers and writes what they are thankful for on the tablecloth. It’s fun each year to pull out old ones and see what the kids wrote when they were little! It is a small gesture but it’s our way of keeping it creative and fun. We now have Thanksgiving dinner at my SILs house so the tablecloth is just done here at home earlier in the day, usually at breakfast. DH’s family is way too formal for something like that!!</p>
<p>Now THAT is a gentleman and a scholar. LOL, Blue!</p>
<p>kathiep, glad to know that ours is not the only family that has to clear out dumping ground mess from the college student’s room. D1 isn’t even going to be using her room–it’s going to be used for two toddler cousins, who’ve just graduated to toddler beds. :eek: We’re going to have to batten down the hatches.</p>
<p>^ Agreed STove. I can’t even give the story justice online…he really is funny. My girlfriend went to orientation with her DD after Bluejr and I did. I told her if she did nothing else she really needed to hear the Dean of Students speak. We both agreed he missed his calling in entertainment but are VERY glad that he’s there with our kids. I follow him on twitter and he really seems to be very involved in student life on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Having administrators with a sense of humor about undergrads is a great thing. A friend told me about being at Caltech when David Baltimore began as president. Not everyone appreciates Caltech undergrads, especially if you are the respectable public face of the institution, so there was some concern at the time among the undergrads about how Baltimore would react to the campus culture. This was during student body elections, and the flyers that encouraged students to vote were, uhm, quirky. As in a stick figure, holding up one arm with an index finger extended upward in an “aha!” moment, with the caption “I know! I’ll go get my te$ticle$ laminated!” and below that in tiny type “Or, you could go vote in ASCIT elections.” :)</p>
<p>My friend saw Baltimore walk by, and then turn his attention to read one of these flyers. At which point he doubled over laughing. No worries about how he’d fit in.</p>
<p>Congrats to OWM’s DS! That is such exciting news.</p>
<p>Happy Birthday to MnMomof2’s DS!!! Love your idea of celebrating in her honor.</p>
<p>I don’t have a ton of detail about younger DD’s grades either. We talk about her classes, especially if something is going on, but not about specific grades… she thinks they will be high B’s and A’s so we’ll see. Her older sister, OTOH, can always tell you exactly what her grade is in every class throughout the semester. </p>
<p>On the subject of over-sleeping, younger DD has a taxi coming @ 5:30 AM next Wednesday to take her to the airport shuttle that will then drive her 2 hours to the airport for her trip home. Who thinks I’m going to be a nervous wreck until I hear from her that morning???</p>
<p>^I know, S2 has an airport shuttle arriving for him on campus at 6:00am after The Game the day before, if Yale wins I’m quite sure he will not be going to bed until at least 3…so what are the chances he makes that shuttle?! I don’t even want to think about it!</p>
<p>Kathiep- at the risk of becoming a pest, what is the secret to Daily Show tickets? :)</p>
<p>lol shawbridge, I can’t even imagine the host of characters you’d get as dinner companions advertising on foreign craig’s lists! But I do think it might make a great reality show!</p>
<p>fogfog, I’m glad I’m not the only one out there that is actually thinking about saving stuff for future grandkids- although not in the NEAR future!</p>
<p>proudmom, Did I miss a post, did you decide to bring D home for Thanksgiving?</p>
<p>OWM - so happy for your son. He certainly is on the right path to achieving his goals.</p>
<p>We have infrequent contact with DS. It is almost always initiated by him when he wants to communicate. He prefers to Skype, I think to see the dog. He rarely answers my emails and I don’t text. I suppose this is partly his personality and partly his way of establishing his independence. Based on prior experience, I know we would hear from more frequently if he was lonely or unhappy. So our once a week Skype call will have to suffice.</p>
<p>ShawDad - you may be on to something there. Maybe you can develop a website in your spare time or make it part of a business social network like LinkedIn.</p>
<p><em>♪♫</em>Happy Birthday To MnMomof2’s DS<em>♪♫</em></p>
<p>Owm ~What a wonderful morning call to receive Congratulations to you and your ds :)</p>
<p>Yalemom~I would say skip sleeping all together ;)</p>
<p>Blue~Lovely tradition. We had a similar one. During the month of November, we would write our thanks of the day and put the note in a jar. On Thanksgiving Day, we would take turn pulling them out and reading them out loud. </p>
<p>Eao~You are Wonder woman…do not exhaust yourself. Perfection is a process :)</p>
<p>FLmom~S1 and S2 always ask to see the animals during our skypes :D</p>
<p>Advent calendars, bought them a couple of weeks ago. Bringing one for S1 + GF, S2 and roomie.</p>
<p>As long as I remember, they woke up to the Dec 1st Advent Calendar on their night stand. We also have a family one, I made years ago. It is an hybrid of a quilt and counted cross stitched, with our embroidered Family Motto as a border. </p>
<p>Regarding grade we have no access, but are updated whenever…
S2 has his schedule set for second semester. Looks rather interesting, this was discussed at length for quite a while.
S2 send me this very long email with all the various activities he has organized for our upcoming trip to his campus. He also made some reservations for dinner. Thought it was rather sweet of him :)</p>
<p>Great to hear that daughters of Shaw, kinderny, and EmmyBet and son of amandak are all adapting well!</p>
<p>And great advice from Shaw to remember the kid we see now is NOT the same kid who graduated last May/June. I’ve already been reminded of that a few times and maybe eventually the lesson will stick.</p>
<p>Grats to Yalemom’s oldest son’s internship – may all our current freshmen have similar offers!</p>
<p>And grats to owm’s son for making the student board!</p>
<p>Glad arisamp’s son knee procedure went smoothly (Cheesecake Factory is always a good ending…)</p>
<p>EAO (and others…) hope you’ll have a great time even if all the “remodeling” isn’t finished!</p>
<p>Oh, and in relation to samuck’s question about Thanksgiving, I have to give due to the Brits: When we were living in Germany, we did a Thanksgiving driving trip to the UK and we were staying in a Scottish castle/hotel on Thanksgiving. We knew they didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so didn’t expect anything special. But the chef had been alerted that Americans were there for Thanksgiving and he whipped up an extra special dinner, including turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. Wonderful! (And I echo what others have said – no need for your son to bring anything. A note from him and from you would certainly be appreciated.)</p>
<p>Our Thanksgiving is still up in the air. We were going to drive to St. Louis to be with husband’s parents, but now I have the flu and of course none of us have had the shots, so husband is paranoid we’ll have a carful of sick people.</p>
<p>Yalemom - yes, DD is coming home for Thanksgiving! She had plans with a friend but then her friend was hired for a job @ the mall and will be working the whole weekend. I was able to find a somewhat decent fare but it involves the super-early cab/shuttle to the airport. </p>
<p>So is anyone going out early to hit the sales on Black Friday? We’ve only done it a couple of times (and not TOO early either time) but are considering it this year if we can find good deals on a couple of things we’re looking for.</p>
We talked about the faith/gratitude/hospitality part…I just thought it timely that kiddo2 even said such a thing.</p>
Personally, I don’t really want to know if and when Bluejr decides to take part in this tradition (it’s his business, and a story he can share much, much later), but I find it fairly harmless in the context of college life.</p>
LOL, Blue!</p>
I follow him on twitter and he really seems to be very involved in student life on a daily basis.</p>
Thought it was rather sweet of him :)</p>
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