I like the White Elephant we do with my in-laws. Grandparents, children and their spouses/partners are involved and we spend about $30. (Last year that meant two Echo Dots in the mix plus two duplicate board games we’d enjoyed at Thanksgiving). Each of the 5 grandkids gets something from everyone but it’s not…

FYI, last time I bought one I had to use cash, not my card. I just keep the tag in my car and mention it every time we go through the drive-thru. I can feed myself and two toddlers with a 4 for $4 with one added item but we also get the junior frosty to dip our fries. 

Maybe that’s just online. I know you could buy them at my local one as of two days ago.

Long Beach updated its terminal recently and it's lovely. Much better than the old trailers they were using. I especially like how easy it is to park and walk to the terminal. It doesn't hurt that it's 4 miles from my house. John Wayne/Santa Ana is really nice too.

My father-in-law gets confused for Billy Bob Thornton all the time and he barely looks like him and sounds NOTHING like him.

The buzzer is truly the hard part. Everyone on Jeopardy knows almost every answer. I was so bad at the buzzer that the producer came over to coach me at every break. My husband says I shouldn’t have studied but just played mortal kombat.

I definitely do this. I’ll take my 3.5 year old into another room to talk to her. Her “time outs” are usually us sitting together, away from everyone else. 

I think she just seems tall compared to the actresses she’s appeared with and she’s not a waif. Michelle Williams and Linda Cardellini are both short.

Aren’t these tiny and watered down? It seems like three of those equals a single “real” drink.

We’ve got one at the Lakewood mall (they tore down the Arby’s). That’s not too far from LA depending on what part you’re coming from. It’s just a little south of the 91 between the 710 and the 605.

That’s awesome. I didn’t turn 18 until I was in college and I always tried to vote absentee (home was 2000 miles away) but they never managed to mail it in time for me to get it back there by election day. I didn’t get to vote in person until I was 21 and that was a painful one (Gore/Bush)

I got cookies and cream M&Ms on clearance at Target yesterday but I haven’t tried it out yet.

There’s a grocery store we used to go to in LA that didn’t have a cart escalator as much as it had a cart people mover (like a moving sidewalk at the airport). It was at a slight incline to get from the underground parking to the Ralphs above.

It’s fun but I usually have my kids in the cart and that’s a no-no in the cart escalator so we end up in the elevator.

The one at my mall has two stories and the cart escalator. And there are several around here with the store above a parking garage so you still have an escalator but the store itself is still on a single story. (Maybe it’s common in Southern California, I can think of several in each of these layouts)

I would’ve had a great answer ($7,000 plus the price of injectable meds) for IVF but I’m one of the strange people who showed up to make that first payment and start my bloodwork, only to a get a call later that day that I was already pregnant. We’d been trying for 2.5 years, gone through all the diagnostic testing,…

Mine was double the price but SO worth it. So far, it appears my children have inherited my husband’s perfect eyesight, but they’ve got my mouth and braces will probably be my next most extravagant expense.

I don’t bother lying about my height, it’s pretty obvious I’m 5'1".

At Boo at the Zoo this year they were handing out these at one of the booths: https://www.claires.com/us/surprizamals-halloween-blind-pack-228923.html?pid=228923 My 3.5 year old is obsessed now, I should really hit up Claire’s and look for some on clearance.

It feels like it’s been several years since they bumped up the IRA contribution limits so I’m glad to see that it’s happening.