Thrifty Thursday: Reduce Your Holiday Shopping List
My family has a Thanksgiving tradition that has nothing to do with turkey or pumpkin pie. Every Thanksgiving we draw names for Christmas giving. We used to have one drawing for the adults and one for the kids, but we've modified it a bit in recent years. The kids still draw names, but we recently instituted a "gift grab" for the adults. You probably know how such gift exchanges work. Each male guest brings a gift for a male, and the women bring girly gifts. The participants draw numbers and take turns choosing gifts from the pile. They can either choose an unopened gift or "steal" another player's opened gift. The person who draws number one goes first but also gets a turn at the end. Of

Wordless Wednesday November 25
I have a whole shelf of grandparenting books full of great activities, but when my granddaughter came to visit for the week before Thanksgiving, she had her own ideas about things to do. One of her ideas involved this turkey made of fall leaves, an idea sparked by something she saw on television. We used the computer to print a picture of a turkey and attached the leaves with rubber cement. Then we colored the head an

Where Grandparents Stand on Over-Parenting
Helicopter parents are not a new phenomenon, as we are reminded by the cover story of the current issue of Time. Douglas MacArthur's mother moved into an apartment near West Point so she could keep an eye on her son. According to Time, however, over-parenting reached epidemic proportions around the turn of the century, and we are now in the midst of a bit of a backlash. This counter-revolution goes by several names, including slow parenting, simplicity parenting and free-range parenting. Helicopter grandparents aren't unheard of, according to the Time article. In my e

Thrifty Thursday: Try a Car Boot Sale
While traveling in England a few years ago, my party happened upon a car boot sale. I think that this variation on a garage sale makes a lot of sense. Here's how it works. The designated venue is often a church or school parking lot, usually on a Saturday. Participants pack the trunks ("boots") of their cars with the goods they want to sell. At the designated venue, they pull into a parking spot, pop open their trunks and set up a folding table with their goodies. If it starts to rain, it's easy to pop everything back into the trunk. Obviously the car boot sale doesn't work for most furniture and other large items. Also, you'll need a large number of participants to make it work.

Wordless Wednesday November 18
I offer this photo as proof that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who want grandchildren (or children or nieces and nephews) purely for the pleasure of taking them to Disney World. Then there are those who would rather have a root canal. If you belong in the first group, we have helpful hints for doing Disney, and you are invited to