My DD flies home the 20th and stays until Jan 14th. I’m super excited. I haven’t seen her since August and only facetimed 3 times. She is excited to come home. She experienced snow for the first time a few days ago and says it’s “annoying” and lands on her face. LoL. She has a boyfriend, which is a first, so I’m hoping she doesn’t lose focus. She says she’s doing well in her classes. She registered for next semester and is taking five classes (rather than the four she has this semester), is participating in a club where she teaches high school students once a week, plus she plans to volunteer, and she works on campus about 10 hours per week. So she’s definitely keeping busy. She texted me yesterday she has some type of rash on her legs so she is trying to get in to the student health center. She thinks it’s some type of allergic reaction, but to what she is not sure. I’m hoping it’s not stress from finals.
@NolaCAR Get her a good set of tire chains and have her practice putting them on before she leaves. There are three kind of gnarly mountain passes in western Montana and eastern Idaho. It is not unusual to have to use chains in the mountains. Make sure her light is a headlamp and not a flashlight.
S2 is flying home (near Seattle) Saturday from ND. With their short Thanksgiving break, we have not seen him since mid-October. It was a good semester despite mono and bronchitis, not typical for a kid who has rarely been sick. He’s another one not quite sure about the social life as a non-drinker.
I pick D up same day from her college. She graduated this past Saturday but still had finals.
Hi All, I haven’t checked in here in a long time and felt a little nostalgic with many friends going through the admission process :)) My DS is beyond Happy at Wake Forest, he is home for the break and doesn’t go back until the 15th. He lucked out and had his finals early in the week. I can’t believe how fast the semester went by. I love hearing updates about your kids and how well they are all doing. Hugs to those who have kiddos that aren’t quite as happy. Wishing you all Wonderful Holidays and great family time!!
Cheers
Glad to hear about everyone. Son has two finals on Thursday, biology and animal science. He just needs a 64 in Bio and a 70 in Animal Science to keep his A’s he isn’t worried. He already knows he has A’s in the others (including Honors English and Chemistry). He was worried about getting an A in English and ended up with a 97! We are proud of him. Next semester will be much harder for him with physics. He is moving into the frat house on Friday. His roommate is extremely grade conscious so I think it will work out. It is a dry house and right next door to his dorm. They are even paying the penalty to break the housing contract and it is cheaper living there even when we factor in fees. Frat life isn’t as crazy at his school as it is around here. I wish he was coming home. He is driving to his gf’s house for almost a week and then meeting us at my sister’s house in TN. Then he will drive back home to TX on the 26th for his birthday on the 27th. We know we aren’t going to see him a lot. His gf is flying down on the 9th and they are driving back to college together on the 12th stopping at her parents. It will be crazy.
My son wrapped up classes today. His first final is Saturday and his last one is next Thursday. He has to be back 1/16 so his break will be 3.5 weeks. We will make the best of it. Fortunately for us (not for him) Minnesota is not going bowling this year so he does not have to go back to participate in band for the bowl game. Blessing in disguise I guess.
Happy Holidays to all!
It turns out D16 only has to take three of the four possible finals. She had two yesterday morning and the third is on Wednesday afternoon. Since her school is so close to us (just over an hour) she decided to come home last night and drive back on Wednesday for the final rather than going crazy with too much time on her hands on campus. S17 texted about two hours ago that he was at his gate for the first leg of his journey home and expected his flight to take off in about an hour. He is officially in the air now and should land at our airport in about 5 1/2 hours. D16 will start supper and we will celebrate his early December birthday with him tonight! :))
@dfbdfb I could have written the exact same thing about my D17. She says that even if she gets a 105% on her chem final tomorrow, she will still only get a B but she’d have to do really poorly on the final to lose her B. And she’s got a high A in bio.
@payn4ward it was very weird to see Texas and Georgia get snow when here in the upper midwest we have had no snow to speak of. We usually get our first good snow around Halloween, but this year has been weird.
@mageecrew @Magnetron Thanks for the winter driving advice, all of which I will make sure to act upon. Luckily, as an outdoor programs leader, D17 was given a lesson on how to put chains on by her college and then had to actually put chains on while driving a college van to a weekend snowshoeing trip in the Cascades. We are looking into getting chains for her car. @mageecrew It sounds like your D is really happy at Pitt, which is fantastic! @Magnetron congratulations on your D’s graduation! Sorry to hear about your S’s illness first semester. I got mono my first semester, too - it was miserable. Glad your S is doing better now.
D is on her way home, yyahh! (as she would say). She’s been sick quite a lot all semester and all through finals. She still has one final essay to turn in due Monday. I’m not sure how much finals count toward the grade, we’ll see.
@RightCoaster Oh sorry to hear the flight home was a disaster! My D is coming home today, on flight right now 
Can’t wait. She was a bit underwhelmed by the program actually, we need to discuss if she’s going back next semester. She had fun traveling though. I’m jealous you’re going boarding! We’re thinking maybe in Feb, we will fly to Park City.
@mamaedefamilia great to hear Oberlin was such a good fit for D
@LoveTheBard Oh, I like that you cooked - I have to cook a veggie thanksgiving for my D, I promised, since she missed being home!
@dfbdfb Sorry to hear D was sick - it’s tough especially when they feel like they just have to push through. I don’t know what I’m going to do to get my daughter healthier next semester.
@carachel2 Great update on your D’s experience - it’s amazing to watch our kids learn and transform…
@MSHopeful So glad D is loving NYC. I think mine is wishing she’d stayed in NYC first year too, lol. Paris has been great but the honeymoon period has definitely worn off and she really is an nyc girl. Part of the problem is she can’t work there and they don’t really have clubs, she’s used to doing a lot so she’ll be happy to come home where there will be more opportunities for work/volunteer.
Anyway, happy holidays to all! Enjoy the breaks
@NolaCar and @dfbdfb Thanks for posting frankly about the challenge of 100 level Chem. My D found the amount of work necessary for Chem 101 to be daunting and felt that she was somehow lacking. It will be reassuring to know that she is in good company!
@Fishnlines29 Thanks for the update. Sorry that your D has been ill - especially demoralizing when far from home.
To all, enjoy your kids this holiday season!
My daughter is now home. Will be great to have her (and her older brother) home for 3 weeks. First semester went about as well as it could have for her. Did well academically. Found a group of friends. Was active in multiple clubs/groups. Adjusted very well to life on her own. Lots of confidence. And most importantly, she is very happy.
And she brings home with her a lot of energy/excitement. Has always be true of her relative to the rest of the family. Even more so at Christmas when she has the energy/excitement of a little kid. Fun to watch and be a part of.
son17 just got his Spring dorm assignment and he is living with a friend in a fun dorm. It is a dorm that houses some freshman musicians and artists and my son likes creative and open minded people. He did not ask for that dorm, but was happy to get the news. It’s close to other freshman dorms and he heard it’s pretty nice.
@Fishnlines29 hope your D has a nice break at home. The next few months will go by fast I bet, and then she’ll be in NYC, that will be exciting.
S17 got home about 1 AM this morning. After sleeping a few hours, we drove over to see D and her bf before they left for Oz this afternoon for a month. After a really stressful last week, struggling with his drafting project, I think he is ok. He is going to see friends, take an online class and do the bone marrow donation over his break. Tonight, he’s seeing the new Star Wars movie and then we are having Chinese food. At his request, I added Smithsonian Channel to our package so we can watch “Air Disasters” together; however, H got upset when we tried to watch because D is in the air right now. So, we switched to crime stories.
It’s nice to hear how well everyone is doing.
It has also been a long time!!! Happy Holidays to everyone!!!
D17 is loving Michigan and we saw her during parents weekend and thanksgiving weekend. She will be coming home Tuesday after her last final (engineering course). She has joined a sorority and will move in next year. Academic wise, she seems to have found her rhythm. She was surprised to see an A+ on her transcript for Calc 3. She didn’t know there are A+s in college :)) . She already took the orgo final, and feels good about it, so hopefully keeping her A there. Social wise, she is slowly making new friends. All in all, so far so good!
Hi, fellow parents, I haven’t been here for a while. Love to read all your kids updates!
Looks like D is having a good semester…11 credits updated in the grade book, all A or A+. The last one should be a A too. She is also involved in tons of ECs, writing for three publications on campus, leadership in 3 organizations, including Vandy Student Government and one of the chairs for Vandy’s Mosaic event in the spring. She will also be a radio DJ once a week and start medical shadowing next semester. She has time to pursue what she enjoys. Still goes to bed by 12, and the hardest day was 8am to 11pm studying. During the final reading week, she kept sending me final memes, including one she made!
She is happy that she didn’t go to MIT or U Chicago, she loves the balance and opportunities Vandy provides. But she does have good friends who go there (none local, but from EA or friends made during visits) and they still keep in touch. She has also decided to go to 6 people apartment with her friends next fall. None of them party and are all early risers like her.
We are leaving NYC tonight and will be back on Friday. On Saturday, we are leaving for Florida for a week.
Happy Holidays to all and your families!
Add another kid who got bit a little by Chem in the first quarter. A high B is really good, but the first sign that S17 is actually mortal. He has decided he will not be switching to a Chem major. I am really proud of how he has handled his first taste of less-than-perfection. Hasn’t got down or lost confidence at all. The other classes went great, so he’s off to a great start.
D is home! She is really happy at OU, has “found her tribe”, and is rocking the academics.
QOTD: What are the “rules” of the household now that your DC’s are home for the holidays?! curfews? no? sleepovers out? chores? jobs?
My youngest is my S17. I wouldn’t call the “rules” per se. Our big thing is to communicate plans and any change to plans; respect each other; Be aware of planned family events and attend; clean up after self and pitch in to keep the house organized. For the most part these keep things running smoothly. S17 and D16 share a car, so they know to coordinate with each other during the week and the vehicle situation may be more flexible on the weekend with communication ahead of time.
D17 got back in last night! (Flight came in close enough to midnight that I didn’t get her to the house til the next day, technically.) So it’s only proper to answer the:
No curfews except the days when there’s a family thing the next morning, but that’s really just a request for sanity. No sleepovers, though given how high D17’s level of discretion is I suspect that wouldn’t be an issue no matter what. No chores list, in part because we’re curious whether she drifts back into being the one that spontaneously does what we’d assign her anyway. She won’t have a paying job, since she’s only here three weeks if you factor in jetlag recovery the next couple days (four hour time difference!).
My kids were never big on sleepovers. So no issue there.
No curfew. It was odd for me when my son first came home from college two years ago (having always waited up for him to come home) to go to bed with him still out. But that is what happened at school so we kept it going when they were home. Neither really stay out very late though. We do ask that we know where they are though and at least give us some idea of plans. Never been an issue.
Tough to find a job with being home for 3 weeks (with holidays in the middle). Though one job that can work is delivering pizzas. Pay is pretty good and hours can be flexible. Son had that job during the summer and picked it back up when he came home for winter break. Gave him something to do and some $$.
Chores around the house are the same as they were before they left. Help a little around the house. Run some errands. Nothing very taxing.