Homemade Halloween

Last year Natalie was an adorable elephant, wearing a costume from Carters that I found for so cheap  (after a sale and a gift card) it may as well have been homemade. This year, though, because the majority of outfits I could find that would fit her would represent the princess theme that we are trying to oh-so-desperately avoid (I realize this is likely futile), I decided I would take a stab at "making" a costume.

Adorable 9-month-old elephant last year

Here's the issue: I don't sew, I don't have a ton of free time, and I don't really care that much about holidays. But, babies and toddlers in adorable outfits are kind of irresistible.

So, going with the philosophy that I'd like to start a tradition of using as many items as we already have inside our house for future costumes, I brainstormed some ideas, and thanks to this post on A Lovely Lark I settled on using a hand-me-down hoodie as the basis for a book worm costume (inspired by this Real Simple link) for Natalie. Why a book worm? It's something she can say, it's easy, and it fits her personality. Done!

We had the pink hoodie and pink matching pants already in our house as hand-me-downs. I figured we needed antennae, a bow tie, and glasses. Because the original hoodie said "PRECIOUS" across the front in big letters, I figured we needed to cover them to say "BOOK WORM" (same number of letters! Perfect!). I debated if I should use felt, paint, or something else, and at the last minute (on October 30, I believe) I found a sheet of bright green duct tape and decided it would be our main material for not only the book worm letters but for the bow tie, too. I even wound up wrapping some extra duct tape around the antennae to keep the look as consistent as possible.

I wound up gathering supplies randomly while running various errands over the past couple weeks. I spent about 30 minutes yesterday putting it all together.

Here's what I ended up with, just in time for a celebration today (and practice trick-o-treat experience at our local library):

Here's the budget and details breakdown:

• Duct tape -- one sheet, $1.19 (40% coupon), from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I used this for the book worm letters, the bow tie, and the antennae finishing touches.
• Antennae -- $1.99, from a Halloween costume shop at the mall. I wrapped the springs and headband in duct tape.
• Glasses -- $0.59, from Party City. These were in the favors aisle. They are Dora the Explorer themed. I just popped out the sunglass lenses and peeled off the Dora stickers.
• Felt -- one piece, $0.29, from Michaels. I used this to form the portion of the bow tie that wraps around Natalie's neck.

So, last year I spent $4 on a store-bought costume, and this year I spent $4.06 to add accessories to a homemade costume. Let's see if we can keep this trend alive.

Fall traditions

Matt and I are believers in creating our own traditions. One tradition I'd like to keep as long as possible is an annual fall pilgrimage to Charlottesville, home of our beloved university, for a college football game. We chose this past weekend to attend the U.Va. versus Wake Forest game. It marked almost exactly one year since I walked around the Lawn and football stadium while quite pregnant, and it led to a fun photo op with our little one.

Inside my belly, outside my belly

And baby makes three

I think for years I have disliked fall because I associate fall with grading papers. When I don't have papers to grade I realize that fall is an awesome time with great potential for fun traditions. Revelation! I'll buy into the hype.

The art of the thank-you note

As I've said before, Matt and I have so much to be grateful for in regard to Baby Awesomerod. The first is simply the fact that she was conceived. The second is the fact that I've had a relatively easy and complication-free pregnancy. The third is that throughout this process we've been surrounded by generous friends and family who have thrown us multiple showers (parts 1 and 2) and given us lots and lots of amazing physical gifts (in addition to the comfort of their presence right down to these final countdown weeks).

I am a firm believer in expressing gratitude. I think this is best done in written form, preferably in the form of a handwritten thank-you note, though there are plenty of times when a nice email does the trick as well. When someone does something awesome for us it's the least we can do to send a nice note saying how thankful we are for what they did and for our relationship with them in general.

Here's my miniature thank-you note station that I keep in our desk with stamps readily available to reduce the chances of procrastinating on note writing because supplies aren't handy.

To toot my own horn (why do we say "not to toot my own horn" when that's obviously what we're doing?), on more than one occasion I've been told I have mad thank-you note writing skills. Although I do not consider this to be a particularly impressive skill, I think this came from years of training at the hands of my mother, who is a huge proponent of handwritten thank-you notes. Here's what I've learned.

First of all, a good thank you note needs to be timely. 

I know everyone has these Emily Post-esque timelines they could follow that give us all some leeway and allow for several months to pass before a note must be sent, but I always think the sooner, the better. As a gift giver if I get a note in the mail months after sending a gift I'm usually like, "Wait, what did I give you? When? I forgot." Everyone likes more immediate feedback. Of course, when life gets in the way of giving timely feedback, "better late than never" is still the best policy.

Second of all, and perhaps most importantly, a good thank-you note needs to be personal. 

This can be achieved by:

1) Specifically mentioning the gift(s) received along with some explanation of why they're great. When the gift is money I think it's always best to give some hints as to how the money will be used.

2) Specifically mentioning something about the occasion being celebrated -- wedding, baby, birthday, new home, etc. Reveal something about yourself. Where are you with wedding planning? Baby prep? Home renovations?

3) Specifically mentioning something personal about the person to whom you're writing. How does he/she fit in with this celebration?

Third of all, a good thank-you note should be of reasonable length. 

A couple sentences just doesn't cut it once you're older than a third grader. Most greeting cards allow space for two or three paragraphs of text, and I like to use the space given to me.

Of course, the most important rule of thank-you note writing is that you actually write the note. 

Almost everyone writes notes for wedding and baby gifts, but I'm always shocked by how, for example, few students write thank-you notes for college letters of recommendation. Those suckers are not easy to churn out and are frankly something most teachers I know dislike doing. Perhaps if more than a handful of students each year would actually send a follow-up email or handwritten note to their teachers there would be fewer of us begrudging the task. (Steps off soap box...)

Do you have any other thank-you note how-to tips? What other ways do you express gratitude?

Showering Baby Awesomerod, part 2

Continuing on to the next four events held in Baby Awesomerod's honor...

In mid-November while my main event shower was taking place, some of Matt's guy friends from college got together and threw him and his brother (who is expecting a baby in late February) a dual man shower. (BTW, we love the expression "man shower" around these parts.) I assumed this would involve boys sitting around drinking beer. While this was partially true, the actual event was much more organized than I could have imagined.

The boys entered the host's house greeted by a giant door covering featuring questionable baby daddy Justin Bieber. They also enjoyed this custom-made baby cake that required Googling a picture of a baby.

As their special gift, Matt and his brother received matching baby carriers, which will be perfect for manly outdoor activities, such as taking the future babies on a hike.

Matt apparently had the great idea to haze himself by insisting that he and his brother wear the matching, empty baby carriers out and about town after the group left the party to continue watching football at a sports bar. This is my husband.

Thanks to our college friends for throwing this special man shower!

Several weeks after all this, we had another afternoon of simultaneous baby showers, both work-related. Matt's social studies department threw him a really nice baby shower, complete with another adorable cake (this time made out of cupcakes)....

...and we received lots of generous group and individual gifts from Matt's co-workers as well.

My English department has a special tradition of giving new parents from the department a basket full of baby books that various members of the department help assemble. I received this incredible gift during a mini-baby shower portion of my department's monthly meeting at the same time Matt was attending his work baby shower. Building a great library for Baby Awesomerod has been one of my goals, and I'm glad to have such an excellent start with this basket of books which came to us filled with lots of titles unfamiliar to me. That's the best thing about English teachers -- they'll introduce you to books you've never heard of before. We've also received several other great collections of books as baby gifts, and we are so happy to fill our daughter's nursery with as many books as possible.

So far she already has one complete shelf of board books (set at toddler height) and one complete shelf of picture books (set at adult height so she [hopefully] can't access them by herself and rip up the pages).

The last event held in Baby Awesomerod's honor is really dear to my heart because it was organized by my former journalism students. They got together with my friend and colleague Shauntel and planned an after-school shower for me in Shauntel's classroom on my second-to-last day of teaching before starting maternity leave. The fact that so many of my alumni would come back from college to reenter the hallways of their high school and put on an event for me is such a reminder of how special my students are and how fortunate I have been to work with such great people for so many years. Some of my students who attended are getting ready to graduate from college; others are in their junior year of high school; all are special to me.

As a treat, Matt was able to attend as well, which is perfect because he's a bit of a celebrity among my students, for no reason other than the fact that he's married to me and I suppose my students are interested in my personal life.

There was another awesome cake, this time bearing the nickname my students coined for me.

There was a hilarious shower game that involved my students cutting out images from magazines in order to piece together a picture of what our daughter will look like. These were the perfect people to participate in such a challenge because 1) they're a competitive bunch, 2) they're really creative and funny and 3) they apparently follow this blog rather religiously and therefore have uncanny knowledge of my life.

The winning team and the runners-up were crowned by Matt and me based on not only the picture they created of the actual baby, but also because of the ways in which they incorporated really specific details from my life into their collages (i.e. "Here's a bird because your nursery has an unintentional bird theme.") Other students put a broom in our daughter's hand symbolizing the amount of housework I'm going to make her do (ha!). One group sort of gave up on the challenge and just cut out from a magazine a very Pottery Barn Kids-esque room scene with a super organized wall of bookcases, which actually isn't such a bad way to symbolize the child Matt and I could create.

In addition to group gifting us our Fisher Price bouncer (which I am so excited to own!)...

...many of my students brought us adorable baby clothes, including cute onesies, tiny socks, baby sunglasses (!) and this precious little dress one of my students who now attends U.Va. -- our alma mater -- gave Baby Awesomerod. We can't wait to dress her up this spring and summer!

My former students' generosity is really astounding, and I appreciate how they too have formed a presence in our daughter's nursery.

Matt and I are so fortunate to have wonderful people surrounding us in every aspect of our lives, and we're so grateful for everything everyone has done to help us celebrate and welcome a new life into the world. (One of my former students even thanked me for having a baby, which I thought was super sweet.) We cannot wait to begin this next stage of life surrounded by so much love. THANK YOU!

Showering Baby Awesomerod, part 1

To date there have been five (!) events in Baby Awesomerod's honor, and I thought now would be a good time to post a recap and to express our gratitude in mass electronic form to everyone once more (now that the final individual thank you notes have been written). Today I'll write about the main event, and tomorrow I'll fill you in on all the other goodness that came our way since then.

The main event was in mid-November hosted by two of my very best friends, Susannah and Lindsay. Susannah and I are friends from back in the days of seventh grade when we passed notes in the hallways between classes. Lindsay and I met on move-in day of first year of college as we were two of the 10 girls living together in our dorm suite. Both girls are classy, creative and know me well, and the shower they threw reflected how much thought and hard work they put into a truly personal event.

They decorated the house in oranges, grays and greens in honor of the nursery's color palette. The hand-sewn cardstock streamers from Etsy and the tissue-paper pom poms made pretty decorative statements.

They also said they "attempted" what they called a "quasi-book-theme" by balancing plates of food on top of stacks of board books and by decorating the pumpkin cupcakes (it was November!) with little flags containing classic children's book covers.

When guests arrived the hostesses greeted them with a piece of cardstock paper (decorated with prints from adorable baby-inspired stamps), a pen and a clothespin so they could write well wishes to Baby Awesomerod and hang their contributions to the ribbons on the wall. These became a cute team-effort decoration as well as a perfect keepsake when Susannah presented me with all the cards sealed inside an old wooden cigar box at the end of the shower. Since then I've added all the other cards we've received for Baby Awesomerod to that box, and hopefully in the next couple days (if baby stays put) I'm going to start her baby book by adding some sonogram pictures, pregnancy photos, and cards.

After everyone arrived and enjoyed great food (Lindsay is known for her mad cooking skills), Susannah got the main part of the event kicked off by having everyone in attendance go around and say her name and how she knows me. I was really happy she did this as it allowed friends from different parts of my life to mingle more easily because the gift-opening portion of the shower was quite informal (the way I like it) with standing-room-only space making it so that everyone felt free to move around the house, nibble on food, and chat with one another instead of staring at me in silence making the obligatory baby shower ohhhs and ahhs each time I opened a gift. Listening to my friends' and family members' quick introductions got me a little choked up as I looked out at my friends from high school, college, work, and general adult life; my family from Northern Virginia and Richmond; my mother-in-law's friends who attended. It reminded me of an email my friend Courtney sent me the day we found out Baby Awesomerod is a girl, and she said how lucky this baby is to grow up surrounded by so many strong women. I couldn't have said it better -- the women in my life are independent and strong and have made me who I am today, and for that I am most grateful.

On a less-sentimental note, as every woman in attendance introduced herself, she cut a piece of twine representing her estimate of the circumference of my belly. At the end of the gift-opening portion of the shower everyone tested her string theory (obligatory nerd joke, check) and most grossly overestimated my belly's size. The two who came closest were Susannah's mom and my friend Emily (who flew in from Louisville, another amazing surprise!), but Emily won by about a centimeter and received an awesome fruit tart (I believe that was the prize, but by that point in the day I was on sensory overload).

My little sister was one of the worst offenders in the overestimating category. Check out all that extra twine! I'll get you, my pretty, when it's your turn!

Of course, the gifts were the main event, and we received an incredibly generous outpouring of baby gear for our little one on the way. Many items came from our Buy Buy Baby registry (for the record, I still hate the name of that store). This was really helpful because it meant I left my mid-November shower with virtually everything we would need for our baby's first year of life. She received few items of clothing at this shower, but she has made up for it by getting a fully stocked closet from other generous friends' and family members' gifts since the initial shower.

Everyone made fun of me for how excited I was to receive a bunch of cloth diapers, but then my friend Katy, who has used cloth diapers for her two children, gave the ultimate cloth diaper demonstration (not on an actual baby). The crowd genuinely ohhhed and ahhhhhed as they got the low-down on modern cloth-diaper technology.

There are so many amazing gifts we received, and I am still amazed at how generous people are when a couple is having their first baby, but two that especially stood out were of the homemade variety. One great gift was from my high school friend Zoe who followed this post from Oh Joy! and custom-made these two freezer-paper onesies. One clearly labels our daughter as Baby Awesomerod, and the other has a little beach scene, likely paying homage to the many trips we're known to take with friends to Duck, NC.

The other amazing homemade gift, and the one that made me cry, was a collective group effort from my four best friends from high school. All made it to my shower, which was a special gift by itself as they traveled from Philadelphia, New York City and Denver for the event, but then they gave me another tiny onesie that melted my heart. It reads "11th Guy" on the front and "5 x 2 + 1 = 11" on the back. Here's the sentiment behind all the code: in high school we called ourselves Five Guys, partially in honor of the original Five Guys restaurant that wasn't far from our science and technology magnet high school (nerds!). Then we all got married between 2005 and 2009 and officially became 10 Guys. Now that I'm having the first baby of the group we'll soon be 11 Guys. The back of the onesie with the math equation is a nod to our nerdy science-and-tech roots. The onesie itself may not seem like a big deal to anyone outside our little circle, but to me it's a symbol of the ways in which our relationships have grown since we all met in 1995 and how we've grown together even though there's so much physical distance between us. These are the girls for whom you would fly across the country at a moment's notice. I know they'll be there for my daughter like they've been there for me.

And they love it how even though I may have a giant belly these days, I haven't changed my dancing habits since high school. For some reason it truly cracks them up when I dance around with a goofy expression and rub my belly. I nearly kill them.

To wrap up shower #1 (of 5! no worries, the rest will go more quickly), our gracious hosts encouraged each guest to take a little favor bag filled with kettle corn, my all-time favorite snack. The best part? Check out the handmade bags!

A final special thank you to everyone who made the day so special! It is an event that will stay with me for as long as my memory holds out :)

Best save the date ever

While cleaning out my Gmail account, I found this link Matt sent me a few days ago. He found it through Mental Health Break on Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Beast, one of the countless blogs Matt frequents daily.

If you have two minutes, I highly recommend this best save the date ever. Enjoy the beautiful day!

Organized giving

Lately I've felt like I've been surrounded by charitable giving campaigns that extend well beyond the response to the horrible tragedies in Japan. These campaigns have been smaller and arguably less important (they don't exactly involve life or death). For example: prom.

It started with the Pi run to raise money for Jefferson's class of 2013 prom.

But then a couple weeks ago my neighbor Laura contacted me because in the midst of her spring cleaning she'd stumbled upon several formal dresses she wanted to donate to a good cause. Matt and I mentioned in passing a year or two ago that someone in our school system was collecting used dresses for girls to wear to prom, but we had trouble tracking down the details. This year, though, thanks to a nudge from Laura and my own desire to free up some crucial real estate in my own closet, I did some sleuthing and found out that the program is still taking place (yet it's oddly under advertised, if you ask me). After Laura dropped off her goods with me and I raided my own closet, I stopped in at my parents' house to pick up my own prom dress and a couple other formal-yet-still-fashionable dresses from my younger years before dropping off all the booty in Alexandria.

If you're local, here are the details for the FCPS Princess for a Night (PFAN) program that I received from the event's organizer:

This spring, dry cleaned formal dresses, shoes, handbags, jewelry, unused make-up (for example, sample cosmetics), and “nice” shopping bags (for example from Macy’s or Neiman Marcus) will be

collected between Monday, April 4th and Friday, April 29^th, 2011. We are especially in need of dresses for petite (size 0-2) and full-figured young ladies (sizes 18+). (Please do not donate velvet or wintery dresses, soiled items, outdated items, casual dresses, or items for mature women as they can not be used.) Donations can be dropped off at four locations:

1)      Gold’s Gym, 7770 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA  22306. Monday through Friday between 4:45 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., Saturday between 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.

2)      Hitched Bridal Couture and Creative Planning Salon, 1523 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007 (www.hitchedsalon.com). Tuesday through Thursday between noon and 8:00 p.m., Friday between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and Saturday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

3)      West Potomac High School, Main Office (Entrance #1), 6500 Quander Road, Alexandria, Virginia  22307. Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

4)      T.C. Williams High School, Main Office, 3330 King Street, Alexandria, VA  22302. Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. 

If you know of a young lady in need of a dress, “shopping” and dress selection will take place at the following locations:

Mount Vernon High School 8515 Old Mount Vernon Road, Alexandria, VA 22309 on Saturday April 30^th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on Monday May 2nd from 2:15 to 5:00 p.m.
T.C. Williams High School, 3330 King Street, Alexandria, VA  22302 on Friday May 6^th from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m., Saturday May 7^th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on Friday May 20^th from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m., and on Saturday May 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
West Potomac High School, 6500 Quander Road, Alexandria, Virginia  22307 on Saturday, May 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Monday, May 16th from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. 

  
If you live outside the D.C. area but you still want to donate your old-but-still-fashionable dresses, there are two other places I'd recommend checking out: DonateMyDress.org and PrincessProject.org, or simply Google "prom dress donations" and your metropolitan area.

Thanks, Laura, for motivating me to follow through with the dress donations this year! I have officially crossed this task off my long-term to-do list.

All this prom giving has Matt and me seriously considering attending BOTH of our high schools' proms this year, which could actually mean that I might attend more than 31 proms in my lifetime.

New year. New attitude. New bag.

We just returned from our annual trip to the beach with friends for New Year's. This year we celebrated with three of my best friends from high school and their fabulous husbands. Along with ringing in the new year in the hot tub after a rousing game of Taboo, we also did some outlet shopping. As we were walking by the Coach outlet, my friend asked me if I had considered buying an expensive purse. I said I am always considering it, but it's impractical, and it's something I would have to devote lots of time to before making a purchase.

Fifteen minutes later, I made the purchase. I found the purse. I knew. I'm a decisive person.

Also, if my best buddies hadn't been with me, I probably wouldn't have bought it. The conversation went something like this:

Friend 1: "Stephanie, that purse is totally your style."

Me: "I know, I have really obvious style. I think I'm really easy to shop for. And that bag is adorable."

Friend 2: "I know this will blow your monthly clothing budget, but you can just buy less clothing to make up for it."

Me: "It's such a splurge."

Friend 3: "Uh, this is not a splurge; this is a deal."

With that, I walked up to the coupon lady standing at the store entrance and asked for the 20 percent off everything in the store coupon I rejected when I walked in.

And I walked out with this.

I love white bags, and the toffee (that's according to the tag) and white combo really did it for me. The top of the bag is cutely ruffled...just a little for visual interest. And the inside is perfect for organizational purposes. My friends also commented on the inside of the bag particularly suiting me. Again, my style is pretty obvious.

At originally $398, I thought the $152 I paid was a good deal. Matt said he can now justify getting an iPad this spring. We'll see. He did just get a new gadget I'll share more about soon. I'll also share my new plan for organizing my new purse soon.

In addition to having a new bag, I've decided that my resolution this year is going to be more all-encompassing than last year's highly practical and specific resolutions of flossing daily (check), Furminating the dogs daily (not so successful there) and starting a blog (here we go year two!). This year's resolution is unoriginal, inspired by the Serenity Prayer: I need to do a better job accepting the things I cannot change. Hopefully learning to follow this advice will help me personally and professionally, though it won't be easy. I know you must be shocked -- Stephanie has problems letting things go? Inconceivable.

One thing that remained the same this year in the midst of all this crazy bag/mantra change is the New Year's celebratory cake. We like to decorate a cake New Year's Eve that highlights the accomplishments of our friends celebrating with us at the beach. I'll let you guess which accomplishment below was ours. Here's a hint.

 

Here's to new beginnings and new bags in 2011!

How to organize gift bags

Tis the season of bags. Lots of them. Everywhere.

No doubt as you finish (or start, as the case may be) your holiday shopping, you'll next be grabbing all the wrapping items you can find. If you're like me and most people I know, you already have a ton of gift bags lying around your home, waiting to be re-gifted. So, time to get organized.

Although I love perfectly wrapped presents more than just about anything else in the world, I recognize there is a time and a place for re-using old gift bags, and this is of course way more environmentally friendly to boot.

We have approximately 70 gift bags in our home, so I rounded them up and organized them by type.

Our groups divided up nicely into these eight categories:

• super small bags
• medium-sized bags I like
• medium-sized bags that are more plain/boring
• medium birthday/balloon/celebratory bags
• large bags
• wine bottle bags
• Christmas bags
• non-Christmas other-holiday bags

I used to have a bunch of wedding bags, but over four years into our marriage and about 35 friends' weddings later, our supply has been depleted.

A few rubber bands transformed the neatly organized piles into neatly organized packs.

A clear plastic under-the-bed container I've held on to from my childhood became the free carrying case for our newly organized gift bags. I keep my pile of medium bags I like at the front of the container so it's easily accessible. Holiday bags can stay in the back.

For now, this solution works for us. Of course, at some point I will need to do more than just simply re-gift gift bags. I'll need a more creative solution to what could become gift-bag overload. Here's a list of 10 ways to re-use gift bags, some of which may work for you.

Have a happy and calm Saturday, especially if you're planning to do any shopping!

White elephants

This weekend I'll attend two parties with White Elephant games. At one party I'm expected to bring the worst item imaginable, and at another party I'm expected to bring a gift for under $10. Matt and I always discuss is how "White Elephant" has various interpretations depending on the crowd. The dilemma we face is always unless we've been clearly told in advance to bring the world's worst gift, we don't want to give something nice and end up with a dud. Three years ago, when the party pickings were clearly slim, we wound up choosing our own gifts and feigned surprise when we opened them. We are highly practical gift givers and seekers.

In an effort to reduce your chances of getting a half-burned candle at your upcoming gift exchange, here's a list of some tried-and-true small gender-neutral gifts that have broad appeal:


A $10 bottle of wine. Even if someone doesn't drink, it's always nice to keep a bottle handy for guests. And $10 can get you a good bottle.

Movie tickets. You could buy them in bulk at Costco.


A Starbucks gift card. Boring? Perhaps. Utilitarian? Absolutely.

An iTunes gift card. It's so much fun to see a credit in our iTunes store account.

Non-perishable treats, like gourmet hot chocolate or pre-packaged chocolate-covered pretzels. (I believe chocolate-covered pretzels was one of the two gifts we brought three years ago and took back home with us.)

A Restaurant.com gift certificate or another pre-paid special through a site such as Groupon. Yes, the winner will have to inevitably spend money to get the deal, such as $50 worth of food for $25, but I'd be pretty excited if I opened that gift.

A magazine subscription. Find a cheap online deal, and have the winner give you her address. Here's one example of Everyday Food for one year for $8.99.

Now, what did I leave out? What are the best (or worst) gifts you've seen at a gift exchange party?