When I was a kid it was so easy. Mom and dad were still married and came from the same hometown. So a visit to the grandparents meant a trip to only one place. We would stay a few days with one side, and a few days with the other. It was great. When my parents got divorced it got more complicated. My brother and I had four Christmases one year: I drove home from college in Missouri to Florida for Christmas with Mom/granny; flew to Maryland for Dad/stepmom/stepbrothers; drove to PA for cousins; then on to Ohio for Dad's dad, then drove back to Maryland, flew back to Fla. and drove back to Mo. It was exhausting. Now I am married to DH, whose parents are also divorced. The four parents live in: California, Arkansas, Alabama and Florida. Oh, and his mom and dad can't be together. And my mom and stepmom can't be together. Then there are DH's kids and their own in-laws . . . it's like that riddle with the farmer trying to cross the river with a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. Our Christmas solution? DH sees his dad about twice a year when he comes from CA to Ark. to visit his brothers and have a fishing trip. We used to go to DH's sister's (his mom lives on the sister's property) for Thanksgiving, but there was a huge family meltdown back in '04 that put a stop to all that. So now DH sees his mom on those same spring and fall trips to Ark. and we go out (with my mom) for Thanksgiving. My mom always gets the actual holidays, because she is single and, frankly, the most pitiful (I know, I know -- but it's true) and lives here in town. Dad and stepmom fit in where they can, usually coming up before or after Christmas. DH's boys are usually with their Mom on Christmas. We have DH's daughter and family over usually the week before or after Christmas, or meet them halfway for dinner -- and invite the boys to this. My brother comes in from Tx. some time around Christmas, but also goes to his girlfriends' folks in Ky. Whew! I'm tired already! There is no way the kitchen will be done in time for Christmas this year, so there will be a lot of eating out. There will also be liberal use made of hotels for visiting relatives, as my mother informs me that the cute little pull-out sofa-chairs I got from IKEA for the spare-bedroom-turned-home-office are not beds at all, and should be donated to the CIA for interrogation purposes.

When we moved from MA to Tx, I went to the mall in New Hampshire and bought me a travel purse. It is a fanny pack thing similar to the one posted. It was marked $12 and to my surprise, rang up $6.00 on a half price sale...That was 5 years ago and I am still carrying it. It holds just the right amount...the keys, phone, checkbook, coin purse, cards and there isn't room to junk it up with everything in the house. When I see the purses that some people carry I just wonder what in the world they have in them that they might need just to run from their home to the grocery store. I will never ever carry another big purse. I actually have bought two or three purses since we got here trying to convince myself that I should change and nothing feels as good as the little fanny pack purse. I don't very often wear it fanny pack style, but it fits over my shoulder and fits my body so good that it is the perfect purse for me. I would never be sucked into the designer bag thing...If you have that much money and want to spend it on a purse, I certainly don't have a problem with it, but I admit that I could easily go and spend that amount, but it would be on something that I wanted and that wouldn't be a purse...but I'm not a purse person ...but a doll or sewing something so I don't think it's a money/status thing...it's an "I want" thing.

Well I probably spent more than I should have on a couple of things but they were things we were planning to get anyway. I bought DH a laptop computer. Our main computer is down in the basement and he is having a lot of trouble walking these days and stairs are difficult for him. It has WIFI with it so he can play with it upstairs. Our other computer is really old to today's standards so there is a bit of a learning curve to it. We also have a fortune spent in vet bills this year so I am putting a bow on his dog! We bought something nice for my sister and her husband that they wanted and have a few little things for under the tree. Since she reads this forum, I'm not saying what it is but I know she will be pleased. I just exchange Christmas cards with friends as we all have cut back since most of us are retired or have large families to support. We adopted two families for Christmas and spoiled them completely. We delivered to one family yesterday and will do the other family today. It gives us much joy to know that these families will have food to last at least a week and the kids will get the toys that they wanted under the tree. I really had quite the time searching for the one gift that a little boy wanted. In our neck of the woods Elmo wasn't anywhere to be found. I finally found one in about the 10th store I had been in at the very top shelf and he was their last one. Elmo says 60 sentences and does some really cute antics. I fell in love with him and bought extra batteries as I figure he will be played with non-stop. I know my gift already.....DH had to buy me an alternator and battery for my car. PFFFT! ;-)

Thanks Rita Re alternate cooking weeks: some things you do for maintaining marital harmony :) because our grocery shopping, meal palnning, our cooking styles and our clean up routines are so opposite to each other.. in fact that's true for a lot of how we both think and work... so different .... reminds me when we were at Sedona many years ago and got our auras read(it's the new age method where they read the energy you generate as colors ). And our aura reader was amazed that DH and I were Married because our auras were so contrasting, none of our colors matched..except this teeny tiny bit of green ..and she claimed that's what made us click in the cosmic sense. We both had a good laugh about it afterwards anyways back on the kitchen : our current kitchen is one cook\one eat space. Wonder if our cookin schedules will change with our new kitchen ....