May 2008 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
holiday traditions you love, holiday traditions you could live without
what is one thing your family does that you love? what is one thing that you could really do without?
Me:39 Dx LPD, Fibroid, AMA and all that goes with that. H:37 Dx low motility and low morphology. TTC since 3/12. Clomid 8/12 and 9/12: BFN. 11/12 on a break for Myomectomy sched. 11/26. Resume TTC early 2013.
Re: holiday traditions you love, holiday traditions you could live without
in the last few years h's aunt and i have worked a puzzle on christmas day. i have really come to enjoy this. it's nice because it's an excuse not to socialize (ha ha) and we have really good talks. she is a nun and a social worker and has worked with death row inmates for years, so she is really interesting, not to mention hilarious.
i really hate his family's tradition of doing a gift opening free for all. i wish we took turns like in my family. i usually try to put a lot of thought in my gifts and i like to see people's faces when they open them. it's hard to be opening your own presents but also trying to keep your eye on several people so you can see their reactions.
I love that J and I started the tradition that we eat Lucky Charms and watch Die Hard when we decorate for the holidays. I also really like just getting together with my family to celebrate Hanukkah.
I could do without my family's white elephant gift exchange on Hanukkah. It takes forever, someone always pouts because they got a lame gift and there are usually only 1 or 2 really good gifts for about 14 adults.
I kind of need to split mine since we go back and forth every year.
My parents:
Love: When all my dad's family comes over on Christmas Eve. They're a hoot.
Could do without: The tree. They always decorate this tree that's in a pot - it's so small I call it the Christmas potted plant. I know they do it because we don't have any kids around, but I want a big tree!
At the ILS:
Love: Family dinner. They're family isn't quite as entertaining as mine, but they are all really sweet and you can tell there's a lot of love in the room
Could do without: The pile upon pile of present for the kids. It's so over the top and when one of them asked me last year "Do we need to open any more presents??" and they still had half of their Santa presents and a whole other "Christmas" to go to at my SIL's family it really made it clear that it was over the top. The adults in that family are definitely "more gifts the better" and it wears me down. We now give the kids each a book and an art thing that they can "do" and that's it. I'm thinking of just opening them a college account because they're parents haven't.
I like that B's family all get together on Christmas eve. Santa comes and give out the gifts to everyone in the family.
I hate that at my dad's we are now dong a $10 gift card excahnge. Its the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. A $10 gift card is a joke really. Most places you have to spend more the $10. My step mother reads this poem and that's how the gift cards are exchanged so there isn't even any control of what gift card each person gets.
B's family does a dirty santa / joke gift exchange. I've never liked it from the first time I participated and I got a Jenna Jamison Orgasm Keychain that wouldn't stop moaning. It has its funny moments but in recent years its gotten down right hurtful. People making up "custom" joke gifts and setting up certain people to get them. Like last year B got a "How to clean up you drunk wifes puke 'kit. Aimed at me and then infamous NY wedding. LET IT GO PEOPLE!! Its just gotten very personal and vengeful. I think this year I may just "forget" to buy a joke gift and not participate.
My brothers just go in and get Audrey a savings bond every year. I think it is a good gift. They gave her one with a tiny toy or a balloon or something like that.
My brothers just go in and get Audrey a savings bond every year. I think it is a good gift. They gave her one with a tiny toy or a balloon or something like that.
We are blessed to have quite a few Christmases..... so we have a lot of traditions with a lot of different people.
I like how on DH"s side we take turns opening gifts youngest to oldest. My mom's family does a freaking free for all that I like to call the Christmas Orgy. It is ridiculous... paper flying, toys tossed aside and done.
I love driving around looking at lights, my dad's clark griswald job on my parents' house, baking treats.
I want to try to make sure we have Christmas morning at home. I love how we get together with my extended family still over the holidays. It makes me happy.
I do love midnight mass but unfortunately that doesn't work with toddlers so we are doing an early mass.
I like how in DH's family everyone waits at the top of the stairs Christmas morning and Daddy goes to see if Santa came. THis way, you can see your kid's face when they come down the stairs to see the gifts under the tree for the first time. My brothers and I were allowed to come down and eat candy from our stockings while my parents caught a few more minutes of sleep. We decided to follow DH's tradition instead of mine on that one.
All of our stuff includes lots of yummy yummy food for sure.
i don't like that. mean spirited.
Edit: iPads apparently hate paragraphs.
Oh the present opening free for all is the worst! H's extended family does it and it drives me insane. There's usually over 20 people there and it would take forever. But I like to see what people got and be able to thank my gift givers when I open something. My family always goes in order of who has the most presents.
The very traditional late night Christmas service on Christmas eve is my favorite. It isn't Christmas without singing Silent Night by candle light.
This ones silly, but I love the Menards enchanted forest they do every year. And my sister and I every year would sit in her room and listen to Christmas music for hours one night. Both of those are things that haven't happened for awhile and it makes me sad.
H and I started a few traditions we want to keep. One is buying a nutcracker every year. The other is buying each other an ornament.
Christmas present free for all would be overload to my organized self. I can't even imagine. I would just sit there and not open anything!
I forgot about the lights too - I love the lights. I miss Christmas in the Oaks in NOLA. I also used to love going to the little Christmas thing in my home town - the girl scout troops each deocrated a tree. It's really cute.
love - 11pm candlelight christmas eve service (although i'll be going to that solo this year, after we go to the childrens service as a family), opening one gift each on christmas eve, opening gifts with my family on xmas morning, my dad's "christmas bread" aka one big cinnamon roll he stays up all night making
hate - getting together w/ my mom's extended family every christmas day...it's a joke, we all hardly know or like eachother, it's been less and less people as the family is growing b/c they are staying home w/ their own families, my grandma whom i love dearly talks *** about everyone who isn't there or remarks if you haven't been there in awhile...i don't like most of them but i try and put on a happy face but dh is in a crabby mood the whole time. I'M REALLY EXCITED! lol. i would just skip it but the guilt from my parents and grandma would not be worth it.
love: christmas eve fish dinner (tummy rumbling already!), drinking hot cocoa and watching a christmas story with my dad after the exhausting 2 days.
hate: opening presents. always hated opening things in front of people because i can't fake if i hate something! also, i hate that no one wishes me a happy solstice or saturnalia, but i'm expected to wish them all a merry christmas (just from my immediate family, everyone else i don't give a flip about)