What do you now remember as hits and misses these past few weeks?

My favorite Pretty Cheap Jewelry Family Hit ~

Christmas Eve and all through the house, the family was playing, including our mouse! Not really, but all our visiting with relatives was over (whew), the shopping was done, no more dance and stage performances, and my small business events were finished.

Since we had not done so during Chanukah, I made a latke dinner. Candlelight and good dishes. After which my teens hung around and we had a really wonderful UNPLUGGED family game time. EXACTLY what I'd hoped for. I had planned ahead and gotten a few $1 lottery scratch off tickets earlier in the day hoping these would attract the kids to some sort of family time.

It worked! First, while I washed up the kitchen, my son challenged Dad to some simple card games for a few minutes. Then my daughter ran and got her big white board (for organizing her school and social life) and we had a rousing game of Pictionary.

Seems my husband put a little Pictionary game app on his phone (my husband cannot keep himself from finding all manner of free stuff and playing with his phone). Of course my daughter eats this stuff up and loves doodling with her iPod the same way.

So how would YOU draw these:

'Japanese Monster Film'
'Phone store'
'Bouncy Castle' (I think they meant those jolly jumps)
'marksman'
'ferret'
'cop and robber'
'kazoo'
'anxious' (this was hilarious, my husband tried to draw a person waiting outside a bathroom trying to hold it and sweating!)

It was everyman for himself and the first to guess 5 correctly won a lottery ticket. We guessed all those above (some took longer than others) and many more.

And on the other side, the Pretty Cheap Jewelry Miss ~

At our extended family gathering, I bring gifts for people I've met once (and hardly remember) or not at all. We focus on the kids and there were two families; one with a 1.5 year old boy and the other with a new baby and two boys around 10 years old. I made two big baskets and both turned out very well. Here's the one for the 1.5 year old...



I happened to have a basket ready to fill and in went (library sale shelf) kids books, a dad apron and napkins (I sew'ed), a bottle of local restaurant BBQ sauce (local biz) and a scented candle/soap (regifted) made a nice family basket.

The miss? I gave my father in law's 2nd wife a really gorgeous handmade plate from the potter's guild with a bar of local handmade soap. She loved it, but I know she REALLY wanted a book store gift card. And another great aunt similar story. They are generous to my kids, so -- Next year!

More stories soon!