Saturday, December 7, 2013

the joy of giving.

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I have a tendency to give gifts to everyone.  I give gifts to my family, my boyfriend, and my friends.  All my friends.  Not one or two close ones, but all of them.  One year, I believe I gave out 10 "friend" gifts, but this year I've knocked it down to six.  I think.  Instead of spending a ton on each of them, I spent less than $5 on each of the gifts and customized a cute and creative card to go with it (I'll post after I give them all out - I'd hate to spoil the surprise).  For the friends that I remain close with, but wouldn't necessarily give a gift to, I've decided to send handwritten cards to each of them, as they are still parts of my life and I want to do something cute and unique.  There won't be any posed pictures, or updates on what my last year has been like, but it will just be a little holiday cheer that will hopefully bring a smile to the stress of the end of the semester.

For my family, I like to give them each a little something individually.  Now that I'm on my own, I tend to be the one who picks up all the gifts, since my sisters usually are shopping with my parents around.  The three of us all go in on something for each parent (Little Brother is still too little to help with Dad's gifts).  We usually find a store-bought gift for them, something small, but then spend the day doing something of their choice, that they want to do (one year we spent the day helping my mom sort through hundreds of pictures for scrapbooking!).

Once my sisters and I started babysitting and getting money of our own, we were able to buy each other gifts with minimal help from our parents, and we didn't just have our names written in the "From" section of the tag on something Mom picked out.  Last year, I got my siblings all University of Minnesota apparel, and this year...well this year they both got some input on what they wanted for part of their gifts!  The other part I picked up at an outlet mall earlier this fall - it's been SUCH a relief knowing that my presents are done way ahead of time.

Loverman is the hardest to shop for.  There are plenty of great gift guides out there for shopping for men, and the range from a little pricey, to something more on the college budget that I happen to be living on.  (check out this one from College Prepster, for him & her, the one from Design Darling, Cupcake & Cashmere, Real Simple - they have a foosball table for $49! Love them!)  Last year I got him a DIY monogrammed flask and a blu-ray player.  One nice thing about buying for your man, is that they will (should/better) love you whether or not they loved the gift!

I hope this gives you all some ideas for future gifts!  The holidays are officially upon us - let me know if you have any other gift questions in the comments!

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