FORT Koffee Klatch

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Originally Posted by prhoshay;3238742;

I saw my first full-blown (overly full-blown, actually) yard decorated for Christmas yesterday. What is with people?? I guess, with the crappy economy, it could bring you some comfort...until the power bill comes in?

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My sister in law does this every year. People around here jokingly refer to her house as the Griswalds. I'm sure there are people who think it's attractive, but I sure don't.

We don't usually decorate the outside of our house for Christmas, but my grand daughter has really fallen in love with Christmas trees this year, even pointing out undecorated evergreens in a field. So I guess I'll have to get some lights and spruce up the one we have in our front yard for her.

Welll... we put up our decorations last Saturday. For us it's a time issue. We usually put them up the day after Thanksgiving but we're going out of town this year. This weekend was out because we are out of town again. Then after Thanksgiving the weekends are crazy with shopping and parties so last weekend was the only good time to get the trees and decorations. It's been nice anyway. I love the holidays. :biglove

ETA: oh, you were talking about going overboard not decorating early. Never mind!

I absolutely refuse to put up decorations before Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving or the weekend following that is typical for us.

I've finally got Mr. Rattus on board - no gifts, no decorations. We will have our traditional walk/movies/nachos day, but that's as far as I'm willing to go anymore. And for the first time ever, I am looking forward to Christmas.

I've never been much for Christmas.... I love the idea of getting together for holidays and enjoying family but the idea of shelling out so much money every year on presents defeats the whole purpose of Christmas.

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Originally Posted by Rattus;3238799;

I've finally got Mr. Rattus on board - no gifts, no decorations. We will have our traditional walk/movies/nachos day, but that's as far as I'm willing to go anymore. And for the first time ever, I am looking forward to Christmas.

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Good for you. Now that we've been officially disowned by my in-laws, we won't have to drive 180 miles to have dinner and then sit around and wait for someone to bring up some slight from the past which always snowballs into a major fight, after which we all get in our cars and drive back home with hurt feelings. I am now free to enjoy Christmas with the people that I love the most in the world and every year it's something that I really look forward to, especially now that the grand kids are here. :winkgrin

We actually already have all of our outside Christmas lights and decorations put up - simply because all of our kids (16 - 22 yrs.) are coming down next week, and since they won't be here for Christmas, we wanted to celebrate it while they were down. Of course, we refuse to plug them in yet . . . they are just out and ready for when they get here. I'm still working on the inside decorations for the same reason.

Decorating the tree is a huge tradition for us, and they have all asked if they can do it while they are down - so we are doing that Thursday night. What they don't know, though, is that when they wake up on Friday morning, their stockings are going to be filled, presents under the tree, etc. It's early, I know, but I'd rather do that than simply mail everything to them later on, and this way they get a "surprise" visit from Santa while they are down here!

Cheesy? Maybe . . . but now that they are all out on their own (except the 16 yr. old who lives with her mom four hours away from us), we just wanted to do something special - even if it meant having an early Christmas!

So prhoshay, if that was my house you saw :blush please forgive me :blush - I'm not trying to rush the season . . . just trying to take advantage of having my kids home!

I wish we had put up the outdoor decorations two weeks ago when it was somewhat warm. It has been sooooo cold lately, windchills in the single digits and teens, that I know it is going to be that much more of a pain to do this year. (We would have just put them up, not turned them on!)

I love decorating for Christmas and usually spend the weekend after Thanksgiving doing all the indoor decorating.

Come on out to California!! It's actually hot enough that I've turned on the a/c today.

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Originally Posted by Stargazer;3238714;

Thanks guys. I think that if I go for it, I'll do the 6 month online subscription that gives me access to all three levels. Its a lot cheaper and I know i could make it through all the levels in six months. The only complaint I've really seen about it is that it doesn't get you fluent in *writing* Spanish. I mostly want to help my kids with their work, anyway. I might get something supplemental to teach me the grammar and writing part of it. Unless anyone knows of a better resource that teaches both??

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Yes -- a good tutor!