Caroling/Maxhell Christmas - MERGE

[twin2]

The heathen bitch in me thinks it is funny that Sarah was 'gifted' a remote whatsy for her camera and then took a lovely photo of the dining room table and chairs.* HA. Excellent. :lol:

*Accessorised by a pile of people in the back corner. Skillz. Maxwell's have 'em!!

Well, considering all she knows about photography she probably learned from Christopher, having people in the shot, even as background is not too bad, it could have just been a picture of steaming tongs.

[twin2]

For those of you 'shoes off' people who don't have arctic entryways or mud rooms, what do you do with your shoes? And your guest's shoes? This is my first house that doesn't have that feature, and the battle to keep the shoes organized is slowly being lost. One by one, shoes move closer and closer to taking over the entire living room. Meter by meter, foot by foot, they are kicked and scattered and lost under furniture. When I was a kid, we'd take our shoes off and I'd carry them to my room. But I didn't live in a climate where if it's not snowing, it's raining, and I don't want my filthy shoes to drip throughout the house.

I come from family where shoes come off. Generally speaking, there is usually a mat inside the house near the front door, shoes go there, or as close to there as one can get.

I hate wearing shoes inside, my feet like to breath.

[singsingsing]

Yep, you just leave your shoes by the front door, usually on a mat or in a basket/bin or something. I guess it can get cluttered but when you're used to it you think nothing of it. I will say that one downside to the cultural norm of shoes-off is missing shoes. As a teenager I would often hear people complain that their shoes were stolen at a party. Once as a kid my family was going through a bunch of open houses in a new subdivision along with many other people. My dad's shoes went missing at one of the houses, but we found them at the next house - someone had put them on thinking they were theirs. :lol:

[latraviata]

And when engaged in sweet, sweet fellowship?

Yes, I wear my special fellowship shoes...

[nelliebelle1197]

I doubt he has a ton of control over Nathan, he got out fairly young and before Steve was fully down the rabbit hole of a cult.

For Joseph, who was born after Steve reached the bottom of the rabbit hole, I'm guess he does, though inderectly and slyly. My speculation is that if Steve sees something he doesn't like with Joseph's family, he brings it to his attention, but leaves the decision with him. However, seeing as Joseph, up until a few sort months ago was still under his Dad "rules" and brought up with "the father ALWAYS knows best", whatever Steve wants, Joseph makes his decision to agree with that.

Also, the wardrobe we saw before was wedding/engagement/"courting" clothes, so they are undoubtedly Elissa's nicer things or bought just for the occasions; also it is winter and some people choose darker colors in the cooler months.

[latraviata]

Yep, you just leave your shoes by the front door, usually on a mat or in a basket/bin or something. I guess it can get cluttered but when you're used to it you think nothing of it. I will say that one downside to the cultural norm of shoes-off is missing shoes. As a teenager I would often hear people complain that their shoes were stolen at a party. Once as a kid my family was going through a bunch of open houses in a new subdivision along with many other people. My dad's shoes went missing at one of the houses, but we found them at the next house - someone had put them on thinking they were theirs. :lol:

We wipe our shoes/feet on the doormat.

Still I find an entire company of people in a room having some sort of a party without their shoes on awful.

I don't wear shoes, nor bra in my house when I am alone. I do have a pair of shoes near the door in case somebody rings at my door I don't present myself without shoes or barefoot.

My son aka Cuteneurorad was invited for dinner by a young couple and they asked him and the rest of the guest to take their shoes off of because they had a new floor. Of course he did, he is a courteous man, but he felt quite awkward, wearing a suit and tie (because it was meant to be formal) and no shoes. But they all kept a straight face as they should....

[singsingsing]

Wow, really? Why awful? Maybe it's kind of a class thing, too - I'm pretty sure that if you're hosting a fancy dinner party here, you don't necessarily expect your guests to take off their dress shoes. But my friends, family and I don't go to many fancy parties. ;) But running shoes, flats, sandals etc. would come off, and boots definitely come off.

You will get the odd person, though, who insists that you leave your shoes on when you go into their house. You'll say, "Are you sure?!" And they'll reply, "Yes, yes!!" Also sometimes when you're just stopping in quickly, if your shoes are clean and all, you're not necessarily expected to take them off. There aren't really any hard and fast rules in general. Like I said, it's just one of those weird cultural things (and frankly I think it's more than a little ridiculous to turn up your nose at whether people wear shoes or not indoors. Who cares?).

[latraviata]

Wow, really? Why awful? Maybe it's kind of a class thing, too - I'm pretty sure that if you're hosting a fancy dinner party here, you don't necessarily expect your guests to take off their dress shoes. But my friends, family and I don't go to many fancy parties. ;) But running shoes, flats, sandals etc. would come off, and boots definitely come off.

You will get the odd person, though, who insists that you leave your shoes on when you go into their house. You'll say, "Are you sure?!" And they'll reply, "Yes, yes!!" Also sometimes when you're just stopping in quickly, if your shoes are clean and all, you're not necessarily expected to take them off. There aren't really any hard and fast rules in general. Like I said, it's just one of those weird cultural things (and frankly I think it's more than a little ridiculous to turn up your nose at whether people wear shoes or not indoors. Who cares?).

I do, I appreciate some sort of decorum and I think it is kind of a class thing.

When the 'odd person' asks or insists I take my shoes off in his/her house, I will take my shoes off without comment.

[Emme]

I don't like wearing shoes. I like being barefoot the best, though I find that I get very cold without shoes on if it's not warm out. Is that weird? Do most people like wearing shoes? I keep my shoes on at parties though!

[church_of_dog]

Yes, I wear my special fellowship shoes...

[Marian the Librarian]

Re: shoes in the house - Mr. MtL and I are the proud, happy owners of two 15 year-old cats who, despite fine qualities too numerous to mention, have a regrettable tendency to the occasional episode of reverse peristalsis. I keep my shoes on, and encourage our guests to do the same. I'll take a bit of added sweeping/vacuuming time over the sorrow of inadvertently stepping in cat puke in bare/stocking feet :pink-shock: any day of the week.

[salex]

And when engaged in sweet, sweet fellowship?

Actually, I had some very high stilettos that, after finding they were not working for parties/dancing, were relegated specifically for sweet sweet fellowship events...

[church_of_dog]

What I think is really unhygienic is carpeting. So I don't have any in my home. I take my shoes off when I'm at home, for comfort. I wear slippers instead. I wear the slippers out into the yard too, so they're not clean either. Just comfortable. I have workers at my house these days, and a muddy yard, and they do their best not to track it in, but it gets tracked in, and then swept or vacuumed. Not a big deal.

Carpet grosses me out, but other than that I'm not afraid of dirt.

[PennySycamore]

My children played on the floor, cats and dogs and shoes around them.I never cared a bit about germs and the like, it never crossed my mind. I think we are less germ focussed here.

And probably have fewer allergies.

I wear sneakers or my doggie slippers from LL Bean most of the time because I'm always having to take the dogs out.

[Hane]

Oh, please--not the "shoes in the house or not?" debate again!

[Arete]

In my family and circle we tend to take shoes off when entering as guests during the winter months. It is very ingrained that you are being discourteous to the "mistress of the home" ( yes, that is the actual translation) if you track wetness and mud inside from the winter landscape. In Europe a lot of the floors are marble, we seem to lean to hardwood here. So decorum can actually take you in different directions in terms of the shoe on/off question. Hosts are expected to keep chairs and neat storage containers so guests can get shoes off and on in comfort. Hell, I even keep a basket of clean slipper socks so no one has to ruin stockings.

But yeah, nothing to do with tracking germs. It's about minimizing the salts and dirt being tracked.

[Arete]

I think finding out why people evolve their customs around anything is pretty interesting, and I solemnly swear I have never forcibly parted a guest from their shoes.;)

[Arete]

I was thinking about this...if the women don't make money in the same way as the men do, perhaps sons/daughters sort of "pair up" on bigger gifts, whether it's planned or just sort of happens that way.

I have "paired" and even tripled and quadrupled with other people to get one nicer gift for someone, so I don't find the fact John and Anna pooled their money to gift the newlyweds strange or patriarchal. Makes good practical sense from my perspective.

[Arete]

One last comment and I promise I'll shut up. Nathan looks bad. I mean genuinely bad. He is probably down with a bad cold or something along those lines, but both he and Melanie looked like they needed a good supper and to be tucked into bed to sleep for 2 days.

[Coco]

I come from family where shoes come off. Generally speaking, there is usually a mat inside the house near the front door, shoes go there, or as close to there as one can get.

I hate wearing shoes inside, my feet like to breath.

i love this idea :)

Right now it would be the worst thing ever since my kids would just throw the rocks around, but maybe one day. We live in a super messy snow and ice climate and don't have a regular porch - our carport is dirt floored. We normally use one of those big plastic tub things for muddy shoes. Ugly but keeps it contained. It crapped out last spring, so right now we just use an old towel and stack the shoes by the door. We only have four people and two of those are tiny - 2 year old and 5 year old.

Totally agree with what AreteJo said about having slipper socks around for guests though, if they felt like taking off shoes. No one should have cold feet! But definitely all my picky rules would fly out the window for guests or parties. Any nice parties we go to are definitely not at our home though. :lol: And when we have friends over, it's totally up to them.

I'm sort of a germaphobe unfortunately but my kids don't get sick very often or have allergies. One of my mom friends has two boys and a newborn and dogs in her house and a really relaxed attitude about kid germs, and her kids are sick every few weeks and have allergies, so i think sometimes it depends on the kids too, and maybe they're recycling the sniffles back and forth between each other. I guess our house had enough leftover gift cooties from the last person to keep us inoculated. :D

[Marian the Librarian]

One last comment and I promise I'll shut up. Nathan looks bad. I mean genuinely bad. He is probably down with a bad cold or something along those lines, but both he and Melanie looked like they needed a good supper and to be tucked into bed to sleep for 2 days.

Agree! I think they all look worse for wear, and I'd look bad too, if I were subjected to a lifetime of Steve. It's a wonder they're not all barking mad.

[SoybeanQueen]

We have two long boot trays in our entryway for family footwear. We have 7 people in our family, so the trays are often full. I can't help with the organization part, just the trays. :)

It's not a cultural thing or a germ thing in our house. We just like being shoeless. Some people see the trays of shoes and assume we want them to take their shoes off. I just tell them they can do whatever makes them comfortable and we move on.

I will say that living on a farm and having carpet in the living room (right off the entryway) provides quite a good example of how much stuff is tracked in on shoes. It's horrifying, and that's why we're going to replace the carpet with wood floors this year.

[latraviata]

Oh, please--not the "shoes in the house or not?" debate again!

I am so sorry Hane, but after years watching pictures of shoeless people I finally couldn't control myself anymore........ :pull-hair: :pull-hair:

[nelliebelle1197]

I am so sorry Hane, but after years watching pictures of shoeless people I finally couldn't control myself anymore........ :pull-hair: :pull-hair:

I don't think just because a configuration of members had a conversation 5 years ago that a different configuration should get a smack for a similar conversation YEARS later. :roll:

[latraviata]

I don't think just because a configuration of members had a conversation 5 years ago that a different configuration should get a smack for a similar conversation YEARS later. :roll:

In all honesty I started it 5 years ago..During a very obstinate period shortly after the death of my son.