IS IT HERE YET???!!!! is it Christmas eve yet??? Can I open my present yet??!!!Oh, wait, I'm 50 something years old..LOL...I'm an adult...I have a job, and responsibilities, and and an aching knee from standing all day at work, and cookies to bake and a..OMG...fishing pole and a barbeque grill to wrap...why oh why do husbands have to make "just one last trip" to the store for one last gift...where are my huge green trash bags?..and how many will it take to disguise a fishing pole..and the stocking's still not done and the only gift I've wrapped was my Secret Santa Gift (glad it arrived...big smile)...but I did find my missing Hallmark ornaments..the foolish old woman put them in...HA!!!the box of ornaments waiting to be hung on the tree that I hadn't bought yet!!!I don't know where this old woman gets her ideas , but I sure wish she'd write 'em down once in a while! My craft room looks like an explosion at a Christmas shop, and I have not taken even one picture with my new 2GB card that I ordered way before Christmas so I'd have plenty of memory and not have to upload every 15 pictures...and it's Saturday...WOOHOOO..only 3 more days..can I open my present now???..Oh wait, I have to go to work...can't I just send the old woman in my place??!!!??? Merry Christmas, y'all....*Elaine*

I've had my Kindle now for about 6 months and I love it. I've never had an electronic book reader. The Kindle is easy-to-read - I've had a problem reading books for a couple years with my changing eyesight. It's hooked up to Amazon's site, so you can peruse, try sample chapters of books, then decide to buy, then download a whole book in seconds. I also subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. Just turn the wireless connection on (no fee - it acts like a cell phone that way) and your subscriptions download automatically. You can't check your email or cruise the web - that's still in beta and very bad. But as a book reader it's wonderful. You can read it on airplanes if you don't turn on the wireless access. You can store lots of books and you can have Amazon archive your previously-read books so you can free up room on the device. You can read any and all of your books - the Kindle will take you back to the page you left off on any book. You can also bookmark pages, write notes, and look up words you don't understand in the built-in Oxford dictionary without leaving the page. It's great for anytime you find yourself waiting - doctor's office, etc. Just stick it in your purse (I know most you ladies are like me and carry behemoth bags!) and go. As a bookworm, I love it and I think it would make a nifty gift for any book-hound.

Stacy your Shepherds Pie looks wonderful...so what about the instructions for posting a pic!!! Kathleen your soup presentation is outstanding, you set such a beautiful table. I could handle that frittata too. Ann I have been thinking it was time for stuffed ribs and now I have a serious craving! Last night was good old fashioned spaghetti with meatballs. Clive is out tonight so I may just have to have some of Diane's cabbage rolls. I made about 50 ,or so, last weekend , they are sooooo good!

We stopped doing the whole family gift giving when the whole family just kept growing and growing and we would all be broke if we kept it up. So I buy for my sisters and Mom only on my side. My husband buys for his Mom. We send our kiddos one big check for them to use for a big family gift or to split among every one. They love that. Makes it very easy. Hubby and I usually have a little something that we buy at some point that we designate as our Christmas this year. Ours this year was the new mattress for the RV, and man that one was a great gift! I ordered him a new tablet it happens to be at Christmas but it because he needed one, my old one he was using has developed a problem with the charging port. So not actually a Christmas gift. But since it was Christmas I was able to take advantage of the good prices. In several of the clubs or groups I am in we do the Dirty Santa swaps. The gifts are real nice gifts not gag and we put a spend limit on it. All the wrapped gifts are in a pile and each person gets a number. When your number is called you can either go pick a gift from the pile or if you like something someone else has already picked then you can go steal that gift and that person then has another turn to pick and she can do the same either take a pick from the pile or steal someone's gift just not the same one she had. We put a freeze on the stealing of an individual item at 2 or 3 steals if not it can go on too long. We always have a fabulous time doing this. My sisters inlaws do this every year and it is such fun. Men buy men gifts and women buy women gifts the kids are not included they have their regular gifts. I tell you it can get down right hilarious with the men stealing and fighting over a good tool! lol Or when a man picks one of the women gifts how fast he can get rid of it! The fun and laughs of the whole family are worth much more than the actual gifts.