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Isn't that the whole point of the little loot bags people give out. To make it so no one feels left out, but only the birthday kids gets the really presents. My one of my sisters alway feels like everyone should be included, on my nephews birthday she got a bike for both him and Sascha, and they each got 2 new tee shirts and a play phone. I'm not going to object to a free bike, but I did try to tell her that I thought it was silly and Jared should get to feel special on his day. But my nephew does alway ask for somethingfor Sascha too when he gets a toy, so I guess he's learning something good.

:O oh the cool ness! I love that song, and still to this day Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite disney flicks from that time.

Wow.. and someone did relate to what I said. I was bracing to come to the thread expecting controversy or to have my ideas thrown in my face. Not saying people here do that.. I just seem to get that reaction often apparently. I guess I "unbalance" people with the kind of opinions I have and how I express them apparently.

I dunno. I just feel every child needs to have a day that is just for them. People need to grow up with the notion that they are important to someone.. and even if it's only that one day on their birthday.. it is a day when they matter especially. But, I think those kind of issues also roll into helping children to establish, follow, and respect boundaries. Cuz, when they grow up; others aren't going to accept them always wanting to have their cake and eat it too. [forgive the cliche]

I do the little party favors bag, but it's usually some dollar store simple toys. I know some people who buy cousins expensive presents even when it's someone else's birthday.

I agree. My brother and I would get small presents on each other's birthdays, but that didn't last long once we weren't young children anymore.

As for the whole family dinner thing, we used to have to eat dinner all the time because my mom made a big deal out of it. The TV was supposed to be off, but we usually left it on because we all wanted to watch the news. My brother and I never liked family dinners much because my mom would do the usual "so how was your day?", and we hated answering it. My brother would escape as soon as possible, whereas I'd usually stay around for a bit longer.
My mom has tried to get the family dinners to continue as my brother and I have gotten older, but it's been harder to enforce since we both work, and I'm often not home, depending on whether or not I'm out with friends or at my boyfriend's house for the night, etc. Plus I'm moving out in less than 3 weeks, so after that point, she won't have much of a choice.

There was a thread from a college law student in there yesterday trying to give RL stuff about the trial...but um, I don't see how that logic applies on a forum where cats can talk and the judge and attourneys are ROBOTS. Methinks accuracy isn't what they're going for.

And I think they already know most people are going to vote just on a whim; come on, most of them couldn't pay enough attention to the story line updates to notice details that apply to this trial.

oh man that stinks glit...er I mean Panda.

On the whole Ian trial, yeah I thinks it's funny how people are getting so serious about it. I think alot of folks seems to take the whole story line a bit too seriously. It's a silly story and most of it goes no where. Aside from being entertaining, it's mostly pointless in my opinion.