The Front Porch Swing

[perchie.girl]

This will be my oldest daughter's second Christmas without a tree. Destructo-cat took care of that. She's even consulted with cat trainers about how to control Vader around the tree, her plants, her knick-knacks....her home has gone from a Christmas wonderland to a Christmas wasteland. He' s 9 year old Evan's cat and even though he is out of control he's still there. Yet Vader is gentle with people, openly affectionate to Evan and Tam, and very sweet. He just can't stand to see a surface with anything on it. She doesn't even have curtains anymore - he not only ripped them out of the wall but he took part of the drywall with them because the curtain rod hardware ripped out. She went to vertical blinds and they drive him crazy because he can't climb them. He's a PITA.

I used to use a sprayer set on squirt filled with water. Bark a NO and squirt. I had one cat named Earnie who weight about twenty pounds and was a buzz saw. I also built a Cattery for him and his best buddy Bert... For when i wasnt there. Kind of like a coop. Made of PVC and chicken wire... Cat box in the bottom and a free standing cat tree. I fed in a bowl on the cat tree. Safe spot for them house secure when I couldnt be there.

Cats are as trainable as dogs but lack motivation.... LOL. What worked for me probably wont work for others. I even retrained one cat to NOT PEE in the chair. Bert... Tuxedo kitty that was heading to the pound because of it. Just took a Giant cat box and flipping the chair upside down. I also found out he had a bit of a urinary issue so switched to low ash feed.

Gosh that was almost 30 years ago.... I am done with cats now... no more. Ever since my roommate Mule moved in she had five and I had a momma with five kittens. Then I found out Mule was a Cat Nazi... her way or the highway. a whole other story... shes gone the cats are gone and the house is empty now.

deb

 

[Tomtommom]

Ok guys, this is going to be a long one. I was hoping to get some of your guys opinions on this.... Here it goes.

I was at a friends house when a commercial came on. In the commercial a woman said that a man bought her a stove and a refrigerator as a gift. Another woman looked horrified and made some comment like "I would have gotten rid of him then" or something to that effect. Anyways, my friend turned to me and said "well that is a pretty horrible gift." I completely disagreed. I said I would be thrilled if I got a new stove or refrigerator as a gift. We went back and fourth on this for a bit. I said maybe if it was a bad one or if it was in bad condition I wouldn't be happy, but if I went to the store and said "I love this stove or this fridge" and my husband got it for me for my birthday or Christmas I would be thrilled and I still thought its a great gift. We went back and forth a bit more and then I said how it's such a practical gift. My friend responded with "that's why it's a bad gift!"

obviously we weren't going to agree. Now to be fare, my friend is old enough to be my mom and was raised in a different generation, but I still think it would be a great gift and something I would use every day. I was just wondering what you guys thought. My friend said that it shouldn't be given as a gift and could be bought another time. We know my thought. Anyways, chime in if you would like. I was just smoked by her response and it's been bugging me.

My dad would buy my mom things like a vacuum cleaner and she hated that. She felt that cleaning is a chore and why would you get someone a new appliance to do chores with *laugh* I could see both their points, they just weren't compatible people.

Christmas tree stories.......... My dad died when I was 9. He left Moma with 7 children. You can imagine how tight money was. My Moma pinched pennies until they SCREAMED! But, Christmas was always very special for our family. We cut our trees off of the property we owned. Some of those trees were ugly. Most of them were white pines, so they were rather sparse, tall but very see-through! But, when my Moma got done stringing lights on the tree, starting with lights strung starting near the trunk and going round and round, that tree was beautifully lit up! What a joy to hang decorations on! When we were done hanging all the decorations on the limbs, Moma would put the tinsel over the tree. Such a sight to behold! A wonderful tradition. When my brother was dying from liver cancer, the doctors discharged him so he could come to Moma's and die in the house he grew up in. He lived for 5 more weeks. The family was by his side as much as possible. There were many conversations about Christmas's past, as his bed was in the living room that held so many Christmas trees. I found it simply amazing how many Christmas stories one family could hold in their minds.............. My Moma didn't put up any more Christmas trees in her house after that summer. Our family now gathers at my youngest brother's house............ A new tradition..........

I'm hearing so much sad news in recent weeks. Makes me glad for all we have, but so sad for those who lost family. Most recent tragedy that plane crash in Maryland.. their holidays will never be the same.

I think it depends on the person receiving the gift.

If you want a new fridge and DH buys it for you, great. He should know you well enough to know if it would be well received.

My DH is not really good at gifts, that's okay. If I want it, I buy it. If it is near a holiday, I tell him what I want and he will get it. I must tell him EXACTLY which one I want, how much it costs, which store has it, and when to buy it. Sigh, I can just do it myself. For years, he would ask me what I wanted for Christmas as he was headed out the door to do his Christmas shopping ... on Christmas EVE! I would tell him something only to be asked how much it costs and where would he be able to find it. I would tell him the store I saw it in or where I thought it could be found, only to get a call twenty minutes later saying it was not there and where else should he look? This would go on for a couple of hours and ending in him being mad and not being able to find it. It would start over. Then he would get mad at me because I wanted things that were sold out (on Christmas Eve.) I found it easier to just buy my own gifts as I see them and pull them out for him to give me. I get the best gifts that way. Last year, he gave me a GQF Sportsman Cabinet incubator and boy was he surprised!

I hate gift card exchanges, too. If I am going to get my MIL a $50 gift card and she is going to give me a $50 gift card, what's the point?

Give me a hug and we'll call it even.

Good job on the incubator

I hate gift exchanges. I just bake cookies. No strings attached.

I don't want anything for the holidays, like I told hubby "we pretty much buy whatever we want throughout the year, unless we cant afford it... if we cant afford it, Christmas is no reason to buy it anyway." Presents are for the kids.

My husband is the same way. One year I needed new cloths (you might now like this

). I told him "I want money for Christmas and my birthday (3days after Xmas) so I can get some cloths. He got me a gift card to a store in the mall with poor quality cloths. He tried and I was thankful, but the next year I said "I need some new pants and I want money because then I can go to the thrift stores and find ones that are agood brand for a few dollars". I love thrift stores. I get almost all my clothes and my sons from thrift stores. My husband wouldn't get me anything if it was up to him. Not like he's mean, he just honestly wouldn't think about it. I know that it would hurt my feelings so I just remind him. I tell him even if it's just a card. My birthday and Christmas aren't very happy times with happy memories, so I don't do much, but I want something small.

But I love gift cards.... I definitely don't want a hug from my mother in law! Lol. But she would never give me one anyways. Haha.

My husband is the master at picking cards. I don't know where he finds them, but they're perfectly sappy and make me cry. Every. Single. Time.

Hearing all this talk about gifts, makes me want to share a book with you. It's called "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Smalley. He goes into a lot of detail explaining how we all interpret and express affection. It can be regarding affection between husband and wife, parent and child, or even friends. He explains that we're all wired differently regarding "what makes us feel loved". So, if a wife's primary love language is "gifts", and her husband is the type of guy who forgets to buy an anniversary gift, and stops at the dollar store to do his Christmas shopping for her on the way home from work on Dec. 24, she's going to feel very unloved. But, if her love language is "acts of service" and he always starts her car and clears the frost off for her in the morning, she could care less about his lack of buying the perfect gift for her! To sum it up, each person has a primary love language, and the way to their heart is to SPEAK their love language. Want to buy the perfect gift for your loved one? Get this book and share it in your relationships!

Sounds like a good read

 

[LadyCluck77]

The five languages of love is a great book!

The Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus book is also a huge relationship eye opener, because people also communicate differently.

One good tree story, my sisters and I proudly cut our own spruce tree off our property when I was around ten. We sawed it, hauled it half a mile, got it inside, placed it in the stand, and then... Sniff, sniff, when it started to thaw, we realized we'd gotten a cat spruce by mistake!
Everyone who visited us wrinkled their nose that Christmas and said "what smells like a huge puddle of cat pee?"

I like practical gifts, but not everyone does. That's why I ask my mil what she wants for Christmas, she's ultra descriptive with what she wants.
I don't care much what I get, I prefer not to get anything. Actually, ..feels like I'm too old for gifts, I also think presents are more for the kids. We get to drink gramps' "special" eggnog, and that's enough for me!

 

[Tomtommom]

I can't wait to play with the kids' toys.

New board games and crafts to do

 

[vehve]

I got very lucky in the better half lottery. Mine is very logical, save for a few days per month when for some reason she becomes mentally unstable. I'm thinking it might be some form of werewolfism.

 

[Alice28]

I can't wait to play with the kids' toys.


New board games and crafts to do

Haha! True! I got my son two dinosaur toys for .50 at a yardsale and then the big gift for him is his velociraptor with feathers. Then he needed a rain jacket (grew out of his last one) and I couldn't find any his size at thrift stores, but I found one online that the hood looks like a T. rex! It was more then I like to spend as I'm use to spending like $5 max, but he will love it and I ordered big, so he will have it awhile and lord knows he will use it around here! Maybe Santa can bring me a board game to play with him. I think he will sit still long enough to play one!

 

[MistyMountain]

Haha! True! I got my son two dinosaur toys for .50 at a yardsale and then the big gift for him is his velociraptor with feathers. Then he needed a rain jacket (grew out of his last one) and I couldn't find any his size at thrift stores, but I found one online that the hood looks like a T. rex! It was more then I like to spend as I'm use to spending like $5 max, but he will love it and I ordered big, so he will have it awhile and lord knows he will use it around here! Maybe Santa can bring me a board game to play with him. I think he will sit still long enough to play one!

Velociraptor with feathers--- that's important . We visited the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park, CO on our road trip this summer. Pretty awesome place if you ever make it over that way. We were lucky they were short-handed that day so our tour was lead by the lady who pretty much runs everything in there. She made a point that if velociraptors are in the next Jurassic Park that they more accurately represented with feathers. She also said they were closer to the size of a dog.

I don't know if you ever make it out to UT, but there is a place north of Moab (among others in the area) where there are petrified dinosaur tracks! We went there this summer as well. I was so excited. Everyone else… not so much. The boy were just OK with it, but we had just hiked all through Arches NP and it was the HOT afternoon. There are tracks of a brontosaur, some small carnivores and a suspected injured Allosaurus. It's off the beaten path, and we were probably one of 5 groups that visited that week.

Sorry, had to jump in… I'm a dinosaur fan   Adding pics in a sec...

 

[Alice28]

That looks like a blast! I know way more about dinosaurs then I ever thought I would! Lol. It's a big obsession in our house.

This is the dinosaur I bought him, but now the price has gone up! So glad I ordered it when I did. We have dinosaur encyclopedia that's more for adults (my brother got it for my son for his birthday) and my son likes to read some of it for his bedtime book. He also really likes the dinosaur documentaries, but not the ones for kids, for adults. This is why he HAD to have one with feathers and he will tell people the velociraptor was the size of a dog and had feathers, utahraptor was the big one. His dinosaur obsession... Ahhh! I think this summer we might go to Fossil, oregon. There is a place to go dig for fossils where you are guarantied to get one. They are like trilobites or sea shells, not really dinosaurs, but he might get a fish or something. I would love one day to go somewhere with dinosaur footprints! One day. That would be great!

 

[Tomtommom]

I love archeology

I was the kid that would rather have pretty rocks and fossils than girly things.



Fun board games.. Last year I got him Quirkle (think rummikub/scrabble with colored shapes), this year I got him:

https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/fat_brain_toy_co/animalogic.cfm

and

https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/fat_brain_toy_co/cheese_louise.cfm

Learning while having fun

He likes playing matching games with me... I'm really good at it, so he loves the challenge of trying to beat me, a few weeks ago he finally did

He's gotten pretty good at Jenga too. We'll be playing Scrabble when he gets a little older.

 

[Alice28]

Both those games look like fun! I'd never heard of either.
We're very similar in not being into the "girlie" stuff. My son was going to be an archeologist for awhile, I think he is going to be a cowboy now. Haha. My uncle, who lives close to us, is an archeologist. He's well known is are area. My son thinks he's pretty awesome.

I do find a lot of the things people have discovered very interesting and it's pretty crazy, my sons dinosaur encyclpedia goes from before dinosaurs all the way to early man and to look at all these bones and to be able to see how things have evolved (like small horses and elephants) it's pretty crazy. There are worse things to have your kid obsessed with! This is something that teaches me a lot too!