What do grandparents want for Christmas?
10 years ago
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10 years agoRelated Discussions
Update to Grandparents Won't Respect...and Grandparents Dogs!
Comments (3)Boy, do I know what you're going thru. I have two children to a previous marriage, my first husband was killed. I remarried a few years later to a wonderful man that loves my two kids, and three years ago, we had a child of our own. Our daughter was born with Down Syndrome. She is beautiful and healthy. My husbands parents didn't react so well when they found our she was downs. They treated her like a sick child, they told people she had "a touch of Down Syndrome". Well, to make a long story short, we told them that we didn't want her treated differently than the other gkids. She is healthy and wonderful, and she need to be treated that way. They were angry and didn't speak to us for 8 mos. That was almost two years ago, and still to this day Alison isn't attached to her grandparents. We visit pretty often, but it is almost like they missed the bonding time when she was a baby and Alison knows it. I really hope that your mother realizes that building loving relationships with her family is too important to throw away on a stupid power struggle. If not, she will miss out on so much that can never be returned to her. I understand your frustration, but you can't make her resolve these differences. She made this decision to be angry, and she has to make the decision to get glad! You need to not be so hard on yourself. She's a grown woman with a mind of her own. Maybe you both just need a little distance right now....See MoreChristmas traditions ! What do you do ?
Comments (40)Christmas gift-giving within our family is minimal so our first tradition starts a couple of days before Thanksgiving, when all of our family members go out and buy $20 worth of $1 holiday or winter themed scratch-off lottery tickets. Our gift to ourselves is seeing surprised and then mostly smiling faces when we give them away to a clerk at the supermarket, a woman with a whining child, or whenever the mood strikes us. We usually have refill our pocket as the month progresses and itÂs amazing to see the power that a dollar can still have. On Christmas Eve, we usually have beef or cheese fondue or both and then attend a church service. Most years, DH was singing in the choir. Starting when our children were young, Santa never put presents under the tree. Instead, theyÂd open their Christmas stockings and in the bottom was a clue to find the first gift. TheyÂd bring it into the living room and open it. On the back was another clue to find the next gift. As they got older, the clues got harder, sometimes involving going outside. It slowed down the pace of Christmas morning and seemed to make them stop and appreciate the gifts they received, instead of having a frenzy of unwrapping. This tradition continued when grandchildren came along and what they all remember and talk about most was the scavenger hunts themselves instead of the gifts. I think thatÂs why we just do small or handmade gifts now. Another family tradition is NOT to cook a sit-down Christmas dinner. When I was growing up, my parents always had an extended Open House on Christmas Eve and added a few hot items to the buffet for Christmas Day. Most things were made ahead of time so it was always a relaxing day with people dropping in as their schedules permitted. Soon after we were married, DH and I began hosting a Christmas Day brunch from about 10 to 3 and a buffet of homemade soups, breads and cookies on Christmas evening. Chicken-rice-leek is the one that always has to be on the menu. Both DH and my parents are now deceased, as are all of our aunts and uncles except for the two we visited at Thanksgiving. Our children and GCs are scattered about the country so sometimes even when they were at home, weÂve done different things on Christmas, like serving Christmas dinner trays to hospital patients so more of the food service workers could spend Christmas with their families or shuttling truckers who had to spend the holiday at a truck drop to a Christmas dinner. Last year, we went to FL and spent the holiday at SD & SILÂs, cooking a Dickensonian goose on Christmas Eve and learning salsa dancing at their South American neighborÂs holiday celebration next door. This year, DD will be here for her last Christmas before reporting to the Army and her only requests were no gifts, saving a tree for her to decorate and chicken-rice-leek soup on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day....See MoreWhat books do you want for Christmas?
Comments (41)Second Acts, huh? Ok, I'll look up the book. I've mostly been interested in presidential politics, more specifically the campaigns. I don't know if you've read Teddy White's Making of the President series? I haven't really been keeping track of presidents after their terms had expired. Well, that's not true -- I've always been interested in Nixon after '74. I'm not sure where I read it but yes, apparently Ford was quite surprised by the public's reaction. I still think it was the right thing to do for the sake of the office of the president. Nixon, as a person, may have been deserving of a hanging, drawing, and quartering but the damage such a fate would have on the office of the presidency would have been devastating. That's kind of why I was hoping Clinton's impeachment proceedings would crash and burn (and it did). I can see why ex-presidents would become friends. After all, they have a commonality of experience that very very few people would have. They can relate to one another. And, if they were political enemies and political contemporaries, then they would have even more commonality! I mean, c'mon -- Bush Sr. and Clinton would have tackled the same issues except that they would have been on opposite sides. This could be why Mary Matalin and James Carville got married..... And yes -- I'm sure Ford has repeatedly said there was no deal. But can you imagine the damage/uproar if Nixon HAD said that there WAS a deal and the Ford had reneged? At least Nixon kept his mouth shut after the pardon ...... Maybe that WAS the deal -- that Nixon would shut up and leave Ford alone in exchange for a pardon? Anyway, I'll have to look for that book. Thanks for recommending it!...See MoreWhich books do you want for Christmas?
Comments (47)I certainly did better than usual on the book-front this Christmas. From the DH I had asked for Katherine Swynford by Alison Weir. I gave the DD Selective Memory by the well-known English journalist Kathleen Whitehorn . . to be read by me later! From an American friend Memories of Times Past a collection of stories/articles on the slower pace of US life in years gone by. From a US Aunt In the Shadow of the Blue Ridge by VA writer Carolyn Feagans (Mary, do you know her work?) and finally from the boyfriend of the DD Roy Strong's A Little History of the English Country Church. I must say these books press all the right buttons; I can see those I have from the library going back unread....See More- 10 years ago
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