Happy Thanksgiving Stepmoms!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow stepmoms out there!

I hope today is a day without stress for you, that you have the family you want gathered close, and that you have all you want to eat until you need to unbutton your pants to sit down!

For those braving the airports to get out of town for some vacation fun, you are very brave. Like Black Friday, which is something I prefer not to participate in, lines at airports at this time of year is another.

If you're on your way to a nice vacation where the sun shines bright with no ex's in sight (I made a rhyme), enjoy. Pack the shorts, men's sunglasses (don't forget your own too), sunscreen, and leave all the conflict with courts and ex's and stepkids behind.

We are spending it at home this year - my husband, myself, and our own four children. Like the last few previous years, it will be without stepkids. I used to get upset over my husband not having his kids here when it was his legal time because of his ex. Not this year. I'm letting that go this holiday and enjoying my own family together and making memories and traditions with our own kids.

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Clothes, Men's Sunglasses, Bicycle and Car

Children are the number one fight between divorcing or separating parents. However, a lot of people fight over their belongings during a break-up. Every item in the house, including the house, becomes the object to fight for when anger takes over. Things you rarely looked at become all-important. I'll bet many people end up paying more for their attorney to lead the fight than an object is even worth (except for sentimental pieces...that's hard to put a price on).

When my husband left the mother of his two children, he took very little: his clothes, his car, his mountain bike, some child pictures, and his sunglasses. What was she going to do with Men's Sunglasses? He started over completely. He left the house that he had legal right to over her and all its furnishings to the ex-girlfriend without looking back. He just wanted out that badly. That's a pretty good indicator of their relationship eh? It tells me he had no emotional connection to anything he had with her or anything they'd bought together (or her), that it must've been pretty bad to just leave with what you could pack up in one trip and that he wanted no ties to her at all beyond his children.

I was good with that because when I came into the picture, it meant we started completely fresh and that there weren't any mementos around the house that glared at me every time I saw it. We started fresh and everything we have, we built together and had nothing to do with the past.

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Free Sunglasses from Kaenon

Father's Day is a few days away. Do we have our men all set to be dazzled by our appreciation? Mine was dazzled over a month ago when he got his present early. I feel like he should have something else to open though (even though the Roland guitar amp was pretty nice that he did get).

I checked into the Kaenon Father's Day Promotion because they're offering the possibility of free sunglasses (and my husband is never without his sunglasses). After what we spent on the amp, free is good! To get free sunglasses, you have to sign up to their email list. When you do that, they give you a promo code to buy the sunglasses. If Brian Gay or Robert Allenby win the U.S. Open on Father's Day, the sunglasses you ordered are free. Either way, you get a great pair of sunglasses.

My husband has to work on Father's Day so it's not going to be much of a day for him. I hope my stepkids do something nice for their dad.

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How do you handle Father's Day gifts?

As a stepmom, do you help the stepchildren pick out a gift for Father's Day from them?

When my stepchildren were younger, they usually made him something at school plus I made sure we had a gift from them as well. Now that they're teenagers, they live in a different state, and we don't see them as often (not often enough to involve them in buying a gift with me) I've left it up to them to acknowledge dad for Father's Day. I do, however, pick out a gift for dad from us (our own four children and myself) plus the usual school gifts they make at school for him.

Gift ideas for dad could be something related to a hobby he enjoys, sporting event tickets, Mens Sunglasses (my husband is a sunglass fiend), or homemade gifts. If you go with something related to an outdoor hobby like golf or an outdoor sporting event, he's going to need a pair of sunglasses.

So, how do you handle Father's Day in your home?

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