that’s a full day. If you are making reservations and want one more I’ve never been but our friends went there and enjoyed it. impossible to go to without reservations 
We’ve eaten there! It’s a fun dining experience. Probably going to skip that restaurant, though, in favor of eating at the Hungry Bear right near the water so we can listen to the sounds around the Rivers of America.
We’ve done open to close before, including an epic day where we were in Disneyland from 7:30 am until 12:30 am. Went on over 20 rides. Saw fireworks, a parade. It was awesome.
…and then I had to recuperate for 3 days afterwards. LOL. We’d walked over 15 miles that day!
1 Like
Catching up on all the posts. It’s just before midnight on Christmas Eve here in Europe.
Congrats to the acceptances posted since I was last here!
We don’t yet have a post-graduation trip planned for C26. They will be spending some weeks (exact ones tbd) doing the art camp counselor job again, plus we have a long weekend set aside for comic-con in San Diego near the end of July. And not yet knowing where C26 will end up, we are cognizant of various colleges orientations etc being anywhere between June and August. It’s possible once we know all the dates we’ll end up doing something sometime during the summer, but it might also end up being a winter break trip.
4 Likes
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate!
Our Jewish family Is taking much needed rest
And recuperate time today. DH making gumbo, we enjoyed 70 degrees in December (yesterday was a record temp) and will be watching Stranger Things tonight.
I hope you all have a fabulous day!
20 Likes
Hope everyone had a nice day today!
We had such a chill relaxed day - just me, husband, D26 and older D plus her boyfriend (she’s 28 and I didn’t even used this terminology with her, but I guess she would have been D16!)
Somewhat spontaneously we’ve decided to go the NYC for a couple of nights early next week. Gonna see Book of Mormon, and check out the Met. Right now D26 and I are looking up restaurant reviews and trying to plan a couple of meals! Fun!
16 Likes
Happy Holidays to all! I don’t get to comment/reply here as often as I would like but have been enjoying reading all your posts!
Congratulations to all the recent acceptances!!
S26 got accepted to two more EA safety schools, both with very good merit! That gives him 3 very decent EA acceptances. Next set of decisions coming up are 1 more EA safety school and a couple of target schools. Crossing fingers!
We spent a couple of days on the lake house for a much needed time and place to be away from our busy life.
We have some tentative post-graduation trip planned for S26 - going back to the NE for a longer stay at the lake house or going abroad - all depend on S26’s college orientation, S23’s internship commitments, and S20’s work schedule. So much to juggle now!
Enjoy the rest of the holidays!
17 Likes
We have had a nice few days enjoying family time. We had big, fluffy snow flakes on 12/24 and some on 12/25. It felt very festive, like being in a snow globe. We got another couple inches last night so it looks so pretty now, but really cold out! D26 is completely recovered from her surgery thankfully. I have all of next week off before returning to work so I will enjoy the rest and relaxation. S24 has a trip to NYC for NYE, then down to DC for a fraternity conference and then he heads straight back to school from there. Busy times but we definitely enjoyed time together. Happy holidays to all.
11 Likes
Christmas here has been pretty relaxing. Grateful that we haven’t had to travel anywhere. Got a coveted Blue Bayou reservation for lunch when D26 & I go in early Feb! Reserved a hotel in Aug for our family trip to Disneyland, the Reagan Library, and we MIGHT go to 1 day of the D23 convention.
Kid is working this weekend at Wally World. I’m headed to the At Home store to scout out storage ottomans. My sister booked hers & D26’s travel arrangements for D26’s graduation trip to London & Florence. They’re doing a tour of Winston Churchill’s war rooms, going to see the Harry Potter musical in London, tour the Tower of London, and go on a historical tour of Florence (D26 is a big history buff). They leave the day after D26’s graduation & return on Memorial Day!
The new cat we adopted has settled in really well. She & our other cat are getting along just fine now and as I type this, they’re both napping about 3 feet apart from each other and there’s no hissing or protesting.
Took D26 to Tucson yesterday for a haircut w/my favorite hair stylist and the hair stylist did a fabulous job. Told D26 that if she attends U of A, she can continue going to this person to have her hair done & my sister (who lives in Tucson) is willing to take her to her hair appointments. 
Santa brought D26 some dorm & travel related gifts this year…a pacsafe backpack, a money belt, RFID blocking passport wallet + some towels & bath mats for her dorm room and a few other odds & ends.
10 Likes
My gift giving is simple:
If I like them, a GC to Amazon. if I dont like them, a gift card to Outback Steakhouse - no offense to the bloomin’ onion fans.
I said this to someone and they thought I said a GC to “OnlyFans”. I had to clarify this pretty quick.
11 Likes
Did they think the people you like, or didn’t like get onlyfans GC. 
4 Likes
I think they heard what they wanted to hear. I clearly said Bloomin’ Onion fans.
3 Likes
YOU GUYS.
Competitive spreadsheeting is a thing. Who knew? Apparently it’s been an Esport for like a decade!
I am not at that level of spreadsheeting at all, but if they streamed it, I would watch the sh*t outta this competition. 
15 Likes
hah I remember in business school we had a class on this and it made me realize I had no desire to ever be an investment banker. There was an entire speech on learning shortcuts and never using the mouse. meanwhile I am still using the chrome address bar to do math.
3 Likes
I minored in business for no good reason except I thought it might look good with my journalism degree. I enjoyed macro and microeconomics, management and marketing. The two accounting classes I took over the summer while at home because my dad was an accountant, and he tutored for free, lol.
But then I got to business finance. Good lord.
My fondness for spreadsheets is not because of the numbers.
LOL, I studied engineering in college and had a summer internship at a local power plant. After the job offer, but before I could start working, I had to take an eye exam where they discovered that no, I should NOT be working near big machinery, lol. So, they sat me in the main office next to the head of the engineering department who was working on budgets. I spent the summer DEEP in Lotus 1-2-3. So much for using my engineering degree with that skill on my resume!
5 Likes
My first job out of college, I worked for an aerospace company doing general ledger accounting. It was incredibly tedious but I had my own office. My phone was set to speaker if anyone called. One day, someone called and asked if I was Ok, because it sounded like I was crying.
I wasnt crying. I was snoring. I fell asleep.
9 Likes
We just finished Pluribus. Really enjoyed it! Ended on a huge cliffhanger. Too bad the next season won’t be out until late 2027 or early 2028.
ETA – also watched Dead Poets Society with S25 and D26. It holds up! Both kids were deeply appreciative and marveled at how good Robin Williams is (you don’t say, lol).
D22 is on a strict self-imposed schedule for studying for the GRE and did not join us.
6 Likes
We’re in sunny Florida, where it has been 80 and sunny since we arrived on Wednesday. Had a lovely holiday. My daughter and I are headed home tonight because she has practice tomorrow. My husband and son are staying another few days. I am NOT looking forward to the cold, but I am told that it at least didn’t snow that much at home, which is good because our snow blower is out of commission so I’d be shoveling.
6 Likes
This was a really good one!!! Really liked it. Made Hubby and I argue though- He did not have time to watch it with me (we got through the first 2 together) and I had the audacity to watch the rest without waiting for him 
We also finally made it through season 4 of Stranger Things. Now we can get started on season 5- I promised I (and D26) would wait for him on this one- lol.
1 Like
Haha! DH and I don’t watch a ton of shows together – he watches all kinds of junk that doesn’t interest me, LOL – but oh yes, for the ones that we’re specifically watching together, it would be a fight if one of us didn’t wait.
Sigh, we have not started on Stranger Things – first MIL was here through the day after Christmas (and it’s definitely not her thing), and now the kids have been staying up half the night and sleeping all day, while DH and I keep normal non-vampire hours. 
And then, D22 is planning to take the GRE on Jan 1 (apparently you can arrange to take it remotely from home, even on a holiday?), so she’s been crash-prepping. And then she has 14 essays to write for her remaining grad school apps before she goes back to school on Jan 10.
I’ve calculated it will be about 12 hours of Stranger Things after the finale drops on New Year’s. D26 starts back to school on Jan 5. You’d think we’d be able to get it in – I have called a family scheduling meeting, LOL – but so far it has not yet happened. 
1 Like