The year she got the tin cup and the peppermint stick she also received a heart-shaped cake made with white sugar and a penny. The cake and the penny were from her parents who had not laid in any presents, and the candy and the cup were from Mr. Edwards who had walked to town and back to bring them. French is slipping…

And she got a peppermint stick, too!

There are a lot of things that we’ll lie to our kids about as they grow up. Lying about a jolly, benevolent type whose mission revolves around giving gifts to people isn’t the worst thing. And learning that Santa isn’t “real” isn’t as painful as you might think. The key is to not overpromise or use him as a threat.…

I’ve heard that parents will explain that Santa is the spirit of giving, and that some people believe that he’s a real person and don’t ruin the surprise, etc. Then, you could call yourselves “Santa” and go volunteer in a soup kitchen or wrap toys for kids in hospitals, etc (I dunno, whatever floats your boat to…

What strikes me is how, to our standards, small and modest the Christmas haul was for kids until well into the seventies. Everybody knows the story of how Laura Ingalls got an orange and a penny and thought it a hoard beyond price, but well into the sixties you got maybe ten gifts, counting everything from relatives.

I think this is less for people in intimate relationships and more for those where the guy has ‘moved on’, so there may not be as much nakedness and hugging

Seriously. People keep wondering if it’s ethical to the dead woman, but the potential child would be put in one hell of a super fucked up environment and have tons of unbearablke expectations put on her.

IDK, I assume if you're friends with someone on social media you care about their life. Why would someone's pregnancy be deemed less important or interesting than another person's lunch or "what mythical creature are you?" quiz results? Then again, I'm not friends with anyone from middle school on facebook.

I'll do you one better: my parents' house has popcorn ceilings, which according to HH, is the devil's handiwork.

I would totally watch that. I love seeing other people's houses. It's like 90% of the reason I socialize at all. Sometimes I go for walks when it's dark out so I can get a glimpse of people's houses where they've left the curtains open and lights on. House plans are a must.

Yes! HGTV needs to tap into the house-porn market better. No quick pans! We want details! And if you don't show the bedrooms and all of the bathrooms, you might as well give up altogether.

I felt a little betrayed when I first heard this about a year or two ago, but it did make a lot of sense so I got back on board with the show pretty quickly.

This is why I'm glad I was on Jeopardy. It's exactly like you think it should be. The only illusion going on is that all the shows for a week are taped in one day and that people have to stand on a box so that they all look the same height. And unless taping has to be stopped to fact check a response that was…

I would just like to know where they find all these first-time home-buyers with modest jobs ("Kelly works as a kindergarten teacher and Steve is in graduate school") and a budget of $400,000.

I like House Hunters International because it's neat to see all the features that are staples in other countries that we don't have here, and vice-versa. There was one country (Morocco?) where all the bedrooms in every house were teeny-tiny closets, but each house had HUGE rooms just to receive guests. Then there was…

OMG YES! No one entertains as much as these people claim to...

I still love this show, but maybe I will just turn it into a drinking game (one shot every time they say they want to have space "for entertaining" because they "love to entertain).

I actually like high ceilings— in small places. My last couple of apartments had dinky rooms, but the second had 12' ceilings, and it really made things feel a lot less claustrophobic.

I am the opposite of the people on this show (which I've watched some but not every episode). I hate cathedral ceilings. Hate the way they look, plus they waste energy. Don't want granite counters, because really a lot of them are ugly, and I don't want a large kitchen (if you go too big with your kitchen, it is…

Friends of mine where employed by a mortgage firm and where making money hand over fist when the markets were hot. They wound up buying a million dollar Mcmansion with some 0 down, barely any interest 30 or 40 year mortgage. I don't even think they were clear on what they had signed. The rooms were enormous and the…