We pretty much got around this by just deciding not to worry about lies. We don't invite the guy in the red suit for Christmas and do cover the various stories of St. Nicholas, Sinter Klass, Sankt Niklaus, and so on. I'd rather not worry about times later in life when my kid remembers that we kept some sort of game going while we're trying to impart values and advice. Besides, for us, we don't really like the focus being so heavy on "getting". There's just more to life than that. We do give presents, but we keep them to a minimum and try to enjoy our time as a family and/or with friends rather than numbers and quality of gifts.

We don't rain on anyone else's games, but we've decided not to take part in this particular one. (Though the various stories, traditions, and such can be very interesting topics.)

We typically just don't offer other choices, but started early so it's a lot easier. We make sure vegetables/fruits are appealing or part of a larger dish. Our kid actually asked when we were going to get more broccoli at one point (mostly because she didn't care for the other veggies). I get the feeling it's a lot harder to encourage if you don't start earlier.

There's another great "how to" for a treasure hunt party at instructables.com (though this was a great writeup). We tend to do a 50's party for my kid - music, sock-hopping, hot dogs (maybe burgers), soda and milkshake orders, and cake. No presents - we ask for donations for our local food pantry. We ask them first what they most need and just request that or generic items like cereal as donations. Our kid then brings the donations to the food pantry soon after that. The party is the gift and the kids have a blast. We like to sleep after that, though. :)

Great idea for a treasure hunt party, though. A bit more work up front, but it sounds like a bunch of fun.

I tend to agree - in general celebrities just don't make good role models. Too many of them are just out of touch with the average person's life. Some may have it together and know where to draw the line between celebrity and parent, but it sure seems like most celebrities just keep on going on with their lifestyle and leave others to raise the kids. I can't imagine why anyone would take a celebrity as a role model when there are likely much better ones nearby.

We started the day by watching Tangled (mostly empty theater, but a fun movie) and then went over to a friend's house and joined them. We ate, played a game, chatted, and watched the kids play. We're about to cook up some Chinese food to eat here.

Interesting. Hadn't thought of doing that before. I may look into drinking a bit more water prior to meals just in case. As for the extra trips to the bathroom, I've heard that the body adjusts a little bit to that, but haven't put it to the test myself. :)

Plan ahead, pack ahead, ship things if you can manage it, drive if possible. Try not to leave anything to things outside of your control if at all possible. There are a lot of guides to help with holiday stress levels floating around. Check some of the out.

I definitely agree with the travel tips. Avoid peak times or you'll be miserable or maybe even miss your flight. If you're staying in town, prep things ahead of time as much as possible so you're not rushing around at the last minute trying to handle all of the details.

I agree - while turkey is traditional for most Thanksgiving Day meals, it's not essential. The point of the day is to be thankful for what we do have, not to go all out and gorge ourselves, right? Right?

We've done stuffed chickens in the past, hams, steaks, whatever. We're equally thankful for all of it. Try doing something a little different if you want, but above all be thankful for the things you do have even if it's not a "special" meal. Even spending time making a pizza together could be a great experience.

I guess I'd have to know more about this. If the letter is going out in front of everyone, that is humiliating and shouldn't happen. If it's done privately as a genuine concern with the offer to help the family out if they so desire and/or an opt-out, that's different. I can see a desire to do this as something they think is helpful. However, I can also see issues around this if done in the wrong manner. This might be even more useful if there are warning signs of unhealthy weight (too low or too high). Some parents may not realize that their kid is starting to trend up or down outside of the "normal" parameters and it could really be helpful.

As this article as written, it sounds like it could be poorly implemented, but I'd hope that school officials would have the better judgment to realize that they could open themselves to a lawsuit if this is done in a way that publicly humiliates someone and also that it will not help the problem if done publicly.

I remember needing to be measured when I was in school, but we never got the results to take home and it was semi-private. Sometimes it was just to make sure that we were put into an appropriate group for PE, sometimes for determining health, but it was never done to humiliate.

I may head out to try to get a WP7 devices for my wife as part of the BOGO at AT&T, but otherwise I tend to agree. There are one or two really, really good deals per store and if you don't get those, you might as well stay home. Nothing really new here except that the last year or two have led to better overall prices as stores compete for $$$.