Okay, this started to bug me, so I Googled a bit. What year is your Camry?
Do these instructions not work?
Press and hold the 2 outside buttons for 10 seconds until the indicator
light flashes quickly. If you sell your vehicle, be sure to erase the programs stored in the HomeLink® memory.
Well, I’ll be goddammed, that is correct! The manual is deceptive in that it says that “individual Homelink button programming cannot be erased”, but then it goes on to say (the part beyond where I stopped reading) that the transmission codes for the three different buttons for three different devices like garage doors, electric gates, and maybe activating personal-service robots, can all be erased in just the manner you described. Thank you!
(c) Erasing the entire HomeLink
memory (all three programs)
To erase all previously programmed codes
at one time, press and hold down the 2
outside buttons for 20 seconds until the
indicator light flashes.
If you sell your vehicle, be sure to erase
the programs stored in the HomeLink
memory.
Next time I go out I’m going to teach my new-to-me car my garage door code!
Hooray! I own a Lexus (Toyota product) and used the car’s HomeLink to open the garage door at my old house, so I was pretty sure it was possible.
Birthday party over! It was basically a wedding. Grandma’s sons kept asking her, “Where’s the groom?”
The photographers were great. My son somehow got through all the pictures, but that was his limit. It was too bright and LOUD in the ballroom. He had a meltdown pretty much exactly when the speeches started. So we were sitting in the, I dunno, cocktail area, while my son stimmed over the countdown timer app. My husband and I swapped out time in the ballroom and ran each other food. I don’t consider that ideal, but we eked through it in our own weird family way.
We were joined in the hall of shame by the cousins who have a newborn. Twelve days old, this kid, and he’s already doing formal events. (This was my husband’s childhood growing up. Apparently Grandma used to be a lot more strict about attire for every event, whereas these days she picks her battles.) But I mean who doesn’t dress to the nines on Thanksgiving Day?
Sadly I missed quite a lot during the actual party. There were ballroom dancers, and an interpretive, um thing. And I saw a parade of people with feathered fans go past, so the dancing wasn’t over when we left. And even more sadly we left before the filet came out.
Parts of it were nice just being able to chat with people. But I am relieved to be home and have it over.
It’s crazy, though, to spend that much money for a four-hour event.
Shout-out to @Maus_Magill for finding me a bra vendor - I doubt I’ll be going strapless but I found a great formal one from Soma.
My husband is getting me carne asada to make up for lost filet.
Sorry this is scattered. I did drink a bit.
One would certainly hope so.
Congrats on a successful party from your POV: you didn’t strangle a single in-law.
They were all very nice, actually! Even the jerks were in a good mood.
I had planned the next two days off but I will have to do some work Tuesday. But tomorrow morning after I run my son to school, I can just loaf around the house with hot chocolate and get in the holiday mood.
Thanksgiving?
I ordered something from ebay, not only did I not realize it was from China but they took 5 days to ship it, almost certainly guaranteeing I won’t have it for Thanksgiving; getting it too late renders it useless as i can’t give it to the person who was going to get it.
Yes! Driving south on Wednesday to see my Auntie and family for a much needed break. It’s our annual tradition. The lowest-key Thanksgiving imaginable.
But also Christmas! We put up the tree this weekend so we don’t have to do it after we come home. I recently discovered that throw pillow covers are a thing, so now I’m shopping recreationally for winter pillow covers.
Yaay!
Which suggests that maybe this sorta-positive experience will help dispel your raging anxiety next time. The hassle will be hassle and the waste will be waste. But the dread is 100% optional if you can get your mind right about it. Free booze! And probably the good stuff. What’s not to like about that?
This year for NFG, we are going to see Wicked (part 2) in the theater. When we bought tickets (and can reserve seats online), every seat was available. So we’ll be doing that in the middle of the day, and probably eat theater food as lunch, before having our NFG meal for dinner.
NFG dinner will include salt and vinegar chicken wings, deviled eggs, stuffing, and a chili cheese dip I make to go with tortilla chips (though we’ll also have buttered rolls to go with it). I’m excited.
I wonder if a midday movie theater film can be a part of the NFG tradition going forward.
Well, it should be! 
I don’t know what they think is going to happen when people need ot go into nursing homes, but there’s no Medicaid. They just don’t seem to care if society collapses. They also want to get rid of social security.
The thing I was most anxious about was getting my hair and makeup done, because I’ve never done that before. Also it was a first doing family photographs for both me and my son. Yes I had some anxiety. But that’s not really the heart of the issue.
What really lies at the bottom of is that I hate parties. I hate crowds and noise and super loud music and surface-level conversation and drunk people and basically everything about parties. I want you to imagine putting a ton of thought and time and expense into doing something you hate, add in wearing uncomfortable clothes the entire time, and also you’ll be doing this for the rest of your life, at least three times a year. It’s not about the individuals who are there - a lot of them are really lovely! It’s about the format.
I would really rather be with any one of these people in a smaller, more intimate setting having an actual conversation - which I do get to do sometimes. There are some people in my husband’s family I’m pretty close with.
But this is what this family does. They dress up for each other and party. It’s a major way they show and express love so you can opt out sometimes, but you miss too many of these things and it’s a problem. And this particular event was mandatory.
My husband was a beloved grandchild who strained the patience of his grandparents when he went into the lowly field of clinical psychology rather than business school. When we got married, I was not only not Catholic but I wasn’t even Christian - our wedding referenced Buddhism, but it was pretty clearly atheist. My husband is a quiet, humble man in a family of powerful, aggressive men. He didn’t cave to pressure. Never even considered it. Married me, moved away, got his PhD, returned home.
Years and years ago at our wedding, my uncle met my husband’s grandfather and uncle. Nothing bad happened, you understand? He just met them. And he said later to my husband, “I did not realize until I met them how strong you are.” Because you can’t. You can’t understand my husband’s integrity until you grasp the magnitude of pressure that falls upon everyone in his family to be a certain way at all times, and never fall out of line.
So now it falls on me a little bit. And I’m extremely different, and was raised very differently. My childhood included cycles of poverty, my mother was aggressively opposed to the very idea of a woman caring about her appearance or behaving feminine in any way, I had a small family, nobody gave a shit what you looked like on Thanksgiving. It was a whole different world. And after twenty years doing this I can sort of look like I belong in their world, but I don’t. I drive a fucking Honda. And I want to. I wouldn’t drive a Rolls Royce even if I could afford it!
It’s much easier to feel like I belong when we are together in someone’s home and it’s smaller and we can be just people. It’s much harder for me to feel like I belong at one of their fancy parties. And I think that’s one of the reasons I hate doing them. I never feel like more of an outsider than I do at these events. It’s not how they treat me, it’s how I feel inside.
My annual and entirely pointless rant:
I can understand selling Christmas items in November. But formerly live trees, a.k.a. fire hazards? And it is too early for Christmas music, because we will still want to enjoy it on Dec. 26th, which is only the 2nd day of Christmas, or, in North America, erase-Christmas-until-next-October day.
Why can’t we just have Christmas at Christmas time?
Christmas is a massive production for many people, and takes more than a month to prepare for.
I have a friend who is staying with me until next Sunday who is being a big help in learning how to adjust. One of the reasons I’m getting the tray for my walker is so she doesn’t have to carry stuff for me. We got the raised toilet seat immediately (thank Amazon for next day delivery) after finding out that I couldn’t stand up from the toilet (had to call 911 to get me up when my friend almost wrenched her back trying to pull me up).
I keep in touch with friends and family. I have plenty of books, both paper and Kindle, puzzles. I have a month’s worth of TV shows that were recorded on my DVR while I was gone, not to mention the streaming shows I watch. I’m also keeping up with stuff I’ve missed on the Dope. All of this is keeping my from thinking about how my life is going to change.
Before we had a kid we didn’t do much for Christmas. We were living out of state so it’s not like anyone was going to enjoy our effort.
Since we had our son we started putting up a tree and I’m slowly accumulating decorations. It’s actually quite a bit of fun.
At first we waited until after Thanksgiving, but when we got back home late Sunday after Thanksgiving, we didn’t have time that weekend. Then by the time we finally put up the tree it was only up for two weeks. That’s when I realized, if you’re going to go to all that trouble you might as well enjoy it as long as you can. So this year we put up the tree before Thanksgiving break, and it’s great. I love the idea of coming home to this and not having to deal with the logistics after we get back.
Especially this month which is absolutely insane. My December schedule makes me want to cry.
Of course, and that’s fine. Sell your Christmas items in November, October, or year-round. Some people really enjoy it, and good for them!
What I object to isn’t that. It’s (1) turning the entire retail experience into CHRISTMAS!!11! at places like the grocery store or the hardware store, and (2) yanking the entirety of Christmas away during the actual Christmas period.
In my never-going-to-happen ideal world, Christmas goods appear in stores in early November, with plenty of time to shop & ship, but the trees, the giant displays, and the fucking music would make a more timely appearance sometime in December, and would linger gracefully through the New Year.
I would also ban “All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey. Do not hate her as a musician but I’m so sick of that song.
That’s fine, just don’t take away “Last Christmas.”