This is little off subject I think but Joan talking about making things with toilet paper rolls & oatmeal boxes made me think of all the fun I had making forts, school houses, or a fine house- all out of the refrigerator or appliance cartons. The ones we got were around a new appliance & had wood frame & heavy cardboard or maybe even lightweight paneling with reinforced corners. They did well in summer rains(I added some kind of roof) & in winter dad had gotten 1 for me to retreat to in the basement. I put 3-4 of them together on a vacant lot & "taught" school, played house with other neighborhood kids or fought off cowboys or Indians as we often changed which ones we wanted to to be. There was a tree on the lot, so we could escape the fort & go up in the tree & be lookouts, of course the lake was right below so we had to watch"on land & sea" it was quite a job & we were very serious about it. Too bad I didn't have my camera yet! I was shy but always road after the appliance truck & asked if I could have the crate, I think we ended up with 4 on the lot, they were very heavy but delivered right to spot I wanted.So disappointed when torn down & new house went up in there. Dad really started something fun by bringing that 1st 1 home tho. Jan

LOL..I am loving these stories! It's True Confession time. :-) As a young bride I decided to try to make gazpacho as one of the courses for a small family dinner party we were having. I thought a clove of garlic was the whole bulb. You can probably guess the rest. LOL The worst part was watching our family choking down the soup and pretending it was good so as not to hurt my feelings. As soon as I took the first sip, I stood up and removed every bowl. ACK! The second story came from a friend, also a young bride at the time, who was cooking dinner for her new in-laws. The recipe called for chopped green peppers. She kept slicing bell peppers and then tossing them into the garbage. Her MIL came over and asked what was wrong. My friend said, "There's something wrong with these peppers. I keep slicing them and there's nothing inside, just some seeds. I think they are rotten.". :-) Somehow her MIL kept a straight face through this conversation. LOL Marilyn

Try giving your children something from their past in their stockings. I saved a lot of things from my kids through the years and have lots of Christmas pictures of them in Boy Scouts, School activities, church groups, family group and neighborhood pictures of Christmas activities. I have framed pictures and include something personal to them from their past, e.g., #1 son edited his high school newspaper and I have saved all the papers. One year I gave him his first edition as editor, a picture of him going on a trip as a congressional representative from his district; #2 son had forgotten that he had gotten the John P. Sousa award in high school because it seemed unimportant but coupled with his first picture in his band uniform in junior high and the award it took on importance. #3 wrote a Christmas essay Christmas, 3rd grade and won the newspaper sponsored contest for his age group. They gave him an award, his picture was in the paper as well as the monetary award which was 5 silver dollars. It was not a big thing, but it was important to him that I had saved it to give him at Christmas, the picture, the original essay and the 5 silver dollars. I am running out of things to give. I had saved their favorite stuffed animals to use as gifts to their wives at their first pregnancy. Now we are down to some GI Joe's and baseball bats from significant games (to them). LOL. Two years ago #2 son received a baseball jersey he wore in 7th grade. His 9-year-old son loved it and is wearing it out! Incidentally, I made all their stockings of felt and sequins when they were young and they are getting threadbare now but this year, they get them as gifts and their wives can take care of them from here on out. Of all the things they get, they seem to love getting the memoabilia more.

I even take exception to the wording "let my Mom make a ..." I'm very close friends w/ my Mom & would never think abt "letting" or not letting her do anything. As she's 26 yrs. older than I, I may have my opinions, but I try hard not to tell her what to do or not to do (even tho' we sometimes disagree). Sounds right to me that you make a stocking for DS, to hang at your house, after all, he's your new baby son. Grandma can make one for him to hang at her house, if she doesn't get it done, no harm no foul, you'll still have yours.