Love reading all your stories! Great thread. My sis & I were 15 months apart and we usually got the same thing every year. One year we "graduated" to 20 inch J.C. Higgins bicycles from Sears cira 1958 or 59. They were identical but we realized after a couple of days that the reason we could tell them apart is because my Dad, excuse me Santa had put the handle bars on Sis's bike upside down lol. Believe it or not, she wouldn't let him change them to the correct position. She liked being backwards LOL. Mother always put a lot of thought into our stockings, the best fruit and candies. Daddy always read from the same Night Before Christmas book when he tucked us in on Christmas Eve. It had this red velvet stuff on Santa's suit on the cover. My birthday is a week before Christmas and I believe that book had been a birthday gift. When you have a birthday that time of year, you get used to birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas wrap LOL. We always were involved with the Mary & Joseph manger scenes at the church, and with the Christmas program as my Dad was the church pianist. I was always Mary, apparently because I was chubby lol. My cousins were the other actors in the play each year. Nice to look back on that period, because I don't see any of them very often now. Mostly when a relative dies, or maybe a reunion once a year. And I remember the year we got Thumbelina dolls (they moved slowly when you cranked them up), my Barbie (it had 3 wigs!), and the year I got a Polaroid Swinger camera and GoGo boots, white of course, LOL. Still have that camera, and it always made terrible pics (black & white only), but my parents went to a lot of trouble to find that one, they were sold out because it was the trend that year. The way they found my camera was because my Dad worked part time that year at the Camera and Craft store, and he was the photographer for the Santa photos. I remember waiting on him at the mall while he worked. He had a full time job, and used that camera store job to buy equipment for his home darkroom. That was a fun experience too, developing film. Now it's mostly digital, but I enjoyed doing that at home when I was a kid. Ended up in printing profession myself and got more than plenty of darkroom work later in life. I enjoyed my kids each Christmas, now I'm making new memories with the 2 small grandsons. They're such a joy! Holidays hugs to you all ~tenderlee

Our school had a junior-senior prom. It was a small school so I guess they needed two classes to fill the Elks Club ballroom. Don't remember my gown or date my junior year. I'd have to get out the yearbook--wherever it is. :0 My senior year I was dating a guy from the next town. I was very small and we had a terrible time finding a gown to fit. I don't know why my mother didn't make it. She always made our clothes. About a month before prom, mother and daddy went to Columbus, Ohio to visit my aunt and uncle and mother found the prettiest dress. It was a size 3 and she had to alter it. It was short, dusty rose organdy with spaghetti straps (nothing to hold up a topless gown). Across the bodice was a row if deep rose and dusty rose organdy flowers that could be removed (I kept them). I loved that dress! My date brought me a corsage of pink baby roses with babies breath that I pressed and kept for years. After the prom ended at midnight (a treat for all of us to be up that late back then), the Seniors had an all-night party. It was also at the Elks Club. We all changed into bermuda shorts, which were the new hot thing, and danced, played games and ate until about 5 when they served us breakfast. It was a lot of fun and emotional because we were graduating and sure we'd never see each other again. You know how emotional HS girls can be. A lot of kids in my class ended up back in R-ville. Nice little town to raise a family. It'll be 50 years next month since that prom night. Sure wish I was going to the reunion in June!

All of you are so busy. Punk, I hope the new location will work well for your business. I doubt that I'm good enough with the Cricut to do any professional lettering! LOL Your fresh tomatoes sound yummy, and those gourds will be perfect with your fall decorations. ;o) Anj, I'll bet your cards are coming out really cute! Have you seen any of the sites where they do the wrappers for candy bars or even the mini ones? I think they are so cute--just a sleeve of scrapbooking paper with some cute stickers on top. I love looking at things like that. ;o) And I thought of you recently when I saw where they had used those neat clear veggie containers and decorated them with paper then put some shredded paper and votive candles inside. I should have shared the link with you cause I know you are always looking for neighbor gift ideas just like I am. Belle, your kitty sounds so sweet. My two dogs are always right at my feet when I'm on the computer. My youngest one is obsessed with our lazer pen light and begs for it every night when it starts to get dark. I need to go outside and play with her before it gets to late. Punk, I think you saw the finished witch on the Holiday forum. I posted her over on this forum too. Want to know what I'm doing? Take a look at this mess! I think this last one says it all! I must be crazy to do all this decorating! Now I got it all out of the shed, I just need to start putting it up so things will look pretty. Luvs

kkny, first of all, I did not attack you, I was just making an observation about your behaviour and asking you if you had ever heard the term "displacement" because you seem to have displaced anger. You say that you " offer advise becuase I see a woman who sincerely wants to help her D, and a father who evidently beleives in the "marriage first" school advocated by many SMs here, even when SM explodes unnecessarily at his own daughter." This was your "advice": (see it below in quotes) - for the OP to apologize and "put the blame on herself". What does this teach the OP's DD, about relationships, about how to deal with other people in the world? You also tell the OP to "Grovel if she must" at some point in your posts. OMG, you are telling a woman to grovel? What century is this...?? No one, man or woman or child should be told to grovel to anyone...!! -you tell the OP to tell her DD to "stall if Dad wants to "help" her with shopping" and "not to tell Dad about any parties" Is the DD now not supposed to shop with her own father?? Is she supposed to keep it a "Secret" if she has a dance to go to or a party? The OP's DD is now supposed to not be honest with her Dad, to lie to him, to omit information? Is this the advice you give to your OWN DD?? Finally, you tell the OP to "check that you are getting the max child support and discuss with lawyer. Since dad cant handle clothing, make certain you get as much CS as possible. And please, make certain you deal with college as early as possible. If you are going to have to negotatiote with dad and SM you want to know. OTOH, some states will order NCP to pay tuition." The OP states repeatedly that she usually gets along well with her ex. Why would you try to have her start a firestorm and bring attorneys into it,which will cost her lots of $$ and bring emotional havoc on her, on her DD, and on her ex?? Why would you take what the OP has said is a fairly good relationship between ex's and turn it into a possible hell-on-earth scenario? The only reason I can see that you would give this advice is that this is the sort of thing that you have experienced, and that's why I mentioned the term "displacement" to you. Finally, you said to LoveHadley that you are all about supporting and helping CHILDREN. Teaching a child to lie or withold things from her Dad (or to do this to anyone for that matter), and to have her Mom "take blame and apologize" when she hasn't done anything wrong is not supporting or helping anyone. -----------------------------------------------------------Here is your post kkny: Posted by kkny (My Page) on Mon, Oct 5, 09 at 16:52 "OP, a lot of advice here. To summarize, my recco, 1. Call your X and apoligize, blame on you. Dont worry if not true, you and mom can have a few laughs later. And there are an awful lot of SMs here who complain when mom buys inappropriate stuff. 2. Tell D not to let Dad berate her. Call you if problem. 3. In future, tell D to stall if dad wants to "help" her with shopping. Dont tell Dad about any parties til you two can work it out. He is way overly sensitive. 4. Again, check that you are getting max Child support and discuss college with lawyer. Since dad cant handle clothing, make certain you get as much CS as possible. And please, make certain you deal with college as early as possible. If you are going to have to negotatiote with dad and SM you want to know. OTOH, some states will order NCP to pay tuition." ----------------------------------------------------- PS: JNM, I guess you are right about the horse...:D PPS: LoveHadley, you are right. The OP never said that the "SM explodes unnecessarily at his own daughter" as quoted by kkny.