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The Kitchen Table

What gift would you like to pass along this holiday season?

13 years ago

Pick a person and what would you love to pass along to them this holiday.

I am choosing my Uncle Dan. I wish him a happier and healthier new year. I want his depression to lift, that he would seek help for it because I know how bad he is hurting. I want him to live out the rest of his life in a happy, positive state.

What would you gift to someone you love?

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Comments (12)

joyfulguy
13 years ago
Affection.

o j
User
13 years ago
Michelle, I would wish the same for my brother who has never been able to have a happy day in his life.

I would like us both to die knowing each other and would love to have him show up at my home on Christmas Day. There are no words to describe how awful it feels to not be able to help him.
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Oh, the season of giving is truly here! Hubby came home with a substantial gift certificate for one of the big electronics stores. (Back story: DH has been fuming about our phones for a long time. We have several cordless phones including one rather good one with an answering system and one phone with the cord. He has always refused to learn the control buttons on any of them. He had repeatedly demanded I get new phones but refused to tell me what kind he wanted so I have been saving to give him a new system for Christmas in the form of a certificate. I also got the wires etc. to run new wiring anywhere in the house he wants to put them. That was going to have to wait until I get over this back problem.) Well, he announced the certificate was going to the purchase of a new phone system and I said that messed up my gift to him and it was a good thing I had not yet purchased one and gave him the cash I had saved along with the list of phones that I had been looking at and their ratings. After a long perusal of all those, he decided they weren't good enough and he found a really high tech system with an answering machine that will take up to 8 extensions to the base unit. It came home last night (thankfully for our bank account with only one extra extension) and my technophobic DH presented it with the announcement that it was the first time one present covered gifts for both of us. So here I sit with 40 pages of instructions to figure out and apply to the new system before I try to explain to DH how to answer the phone, make a call, retrieve a message or find a number in a menu. Hopefully he will read the instructions but I won't hold my breath. Merry Christmas, every one. I hope you have all the parts and the instructions are all in the right language. Sandy
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I've never had much luck with growing good tasting eggplant Rachel, but I am going to keep trying! I am in charge of a children's garden and one of the beds is a "Farm Animals" theme. I have chickens and hens and cockscomb planted in it, and eggplant. Last year I grew an Italian variety and i got ONE eggplant from my plant. Next year I am going to try growing the little white ones, for the looks. But I might be able to sneak some long ones into the rainbow bed in the indigo row! Melissa I LOVE spinach pie. I make a version called "Albanian Spinach Pie" that I got from someone on CF. I think it was from Linda in Tennessee but that was way back in the day before I was fastidious about writing down the source. I don't make it too often though, since spinach pie gets soggy languishing in the fridge and with just me it would take forever to eat it up. I sometimes make it for parties if I have the time. My SO loves spinach pie which is a plus for him! OK, here's the molasses cookie recipe. There are two versions. One is mine which cuts the quantity down by a third, and the other is the original from Grandma. Pretty sure she used Crisco for the cookies but I use a mix of butter and margarine or all butter. Tillie Grieve's Molasses Cookies Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 2 eggs 1 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup dark molasses 2 tsp. vinegar 2/3 tsp. ginger. My notes say you can add 3/4 if you want them spicier. 1/2 - 2/3 tsp. salt 2 tsp. baking soda in 1 cup flour Add gradually 2 1/3 more cups flour Chill and roll into balls. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar. No notes on how many this makes. I also have instructions for making MORE, which may be the authentic recipe and the other is my cutting it down. 3 eggs 1 1/2 cups shortening 2 1/4 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups dark molasses 1 TBLSP vinegar 1 tsp. ginger 1 tsp. salt 1 TBLSP soda in 2 cups flour Add gradually 3 more cups flour. Follow directions above.
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Chisue, I have an Instant Pot and several good cookbooks to go with it. I think it's interesting, and sometimes fun, and I'm not sorry I got it. But don't use it as much as i thought I would. I think the reason is I'm rarely in a hurry in the kitchen. It's a great time saver, but I don't mind having soups, etc., simmer on the stove for long periods of time. However, if you enjoy pressure cooking, this is the appliance for you! I plan to try out new recipes for mine this winter. I live alone, and bought the 3-qt. model. I think it would be good for those who cook for two. To me, it's plenty big. But others tried to talk me into the 6 qt model, and one advantage of that one is that most recipes are written for it. Because of the cook times, it's not always a simple matter to cut the recipe in half. More cookbooks have been coming out with recipes for the 3 qt. Instant Pot though. Let us know if you get one. PS: You can probably find some old threads where we discussed Instant Pots at the KT. Lots of happy users, as I recall.
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I would not give a food gift to someone who sells food - either you buy the food from him (and then are giving him something he already has) or you buy it from one of his competitors, and that might be offensive. If someone gave me a Starbucks gift card, I would regift it. If you live in a small village there might not even be a Starbucks where you live. In fact, I regift all gift cards that I receive. Personally, I think that cash is the best gift in this case, as it will be the most useful gift. You can put it in a very nice card and hand write a personal note to tell him how much you appreciate him. If I were the store owner, this would mean to most to me. I see this as somewhat like giving a tip, as you might to your pool maintenance person or house cleaner.
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wildchild
13 years ago
I would wish forever and constant chemical (brain chemistry) stability for my Bipolar DH. He really struggles at times. The holidays seem the hardest on him.
User
13 years ago
wildchild, I wish that for you too. I have a friend, more than one who went to a psychopharmacologist and it was so very hard but he was finally balanced out. Both of them are doing so much better for many years. I think they have constant follow-up but times and meds would appear to have improved. I guess you know best. What a battle for you as I am sure you get the sick end of it.I admire you for your endurance. I see people struggling themselves with the diagnosis and they are always starting over making friends. Chemical imbalalances are so harsh.
OklaMoni
13 years ago
a more positive outlook on life! I am surprised at the amount of people that are grumpy, mean and hateful. Just look at the positive site of things... and you can feel so much better about yourself and your surroundings.

Moni
anne_ct
13 years ago
If it were within my power to do so...WORLD PEACE!

I'm a news junky so my eyes and ears are always involved in one media form or another trying to keep abreast of the world. It's always been my dream to turn on the evening news and have it be one story after another only involving positive events. Wouldn't that be amazing?! IMHO...money doesn't make us poor. It's our attitudes that deprive us of contentment and/or gratification.

Anne
marie_ndcal
13 years ago
Accepting people as they are and not trying to change them.Look at their view points--you don't have to agree but ???
Try to accept new people whether it is in your town, neighborhood, church or work.
No matter what income people have don't ask for more than they want to give. Give Thanks and move on.
patti43
13 years ago
I would tell every young person entering the work force to start saving NOW for their retirement. Those words fall on deaf ears, I'm afraid, but so important.
joyfulguy
13 years ago
Hi Patti43,

Along the line that you mention ...

... on the day that you start work ... you have brains and hands at work ... and no money.

On the day that you retire ... you have brains at money at work ... and no hands.

When considering retirement ... if you're inclined to invest a substantial portion of your assets in issues that can't grow ... you'll need to give serious consideration to the ravages of inflation on your nest egg.

'Tain't no fun being required/forced by hunger to return to work at about 80.

ole joyful ... comfortably living on pensions at 80+
cynic
13 years ago
I'd like to give a shot of common sense to everyone. To the ones who have to stay in the lane to try to get just one more car length before cutting over and making everyone panic stop. The ones who think a flu shot will keep them from getting sick. The ones who think they're saving money by putting things on credit cards with minimal monthly payments. The ones who think they're doing themselves good by moving every few years, refinancing to lower their payments rather than the amount paid and the coupon queens who think they're saving money by buying things they won't use and only bought it because they had a coupon. And the ones that think paying an annual fee to walk in the door of the Grab-n-Grunt is saving them money.

I could go on, but I'd sure like to share that rare commodity called "common sense".
wildchild
13 years ago
Thank you Ellie. Actually DH does pretty well. His Bipolar is pretty well controlled but it does seem to be a "as good as it gets" type of illness. We are going to see the doctor next week to talk about his meds. I think he may need to change the schedule he takes them on or up the dose on one. He takes an anti depressant in the AM. and an anti anxiety one in the afternoon. I think he may need to take the later pil earlier or maybe deg crease the dosage of the am pill. But our doc is really good at adjustments. I just need to go with him because my DH forgets to mention the important stuff.
susanjf_gw
13 years ago
after having lunch with several of my girl grands in a casual dining place...better table manners...

know 2 were really hungry (just got off a soocer field) but wow! they shoveled the food in...sad to say dil and dd didn't do a thing! nor did ds and sil...i thanked the server after...

neither set of parents were raised that way...in fact, dd1 was in the masonic program for girls and they were very heavy on deportment...

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