<p>I've never started a thread before, so please bear with me!</p>
<p>My Freshman daughter has a Boyfriend. She thinks these people are awesome, and they seem to really enjoy her. For Christmas, they bought her two tickets to see "Wicken" when it comes to Chicago in May. She would like to do something special for them for Christmas. But while she really like them, she doesn't know that <em>that</em> well. She's spent a couple of weekends with them, but that's about it. (We live in Mich and they live in Chicago.)</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions of somethig she can do for them? I don't know if it matters any, but they are extremely wealthy (but very down to earth) and we are as mid-class soccer-Mom-ish as you can get! She'll be home this weekend. I plan on suggesting either baking for them, or perhaps making some kind of donation in their name. (We're doing a lot of that this year after Husband was laid off for nine weeks.) I'm not sure if she'll like either of those ideas, so I thougth I would check with some of the Parents here to see if you've ever been given anything unique by a daughter/son's boy/girlfriend.</p>
<p>I like the idea of something home baked myself - it is loving and personal. If she includes a nice note with it telling them how happy she is that they are in her life, I think that would work. If they are wealthy, they would probably enjoy the baked goods more than any "thing."I don't think I'd do the donation for folks I didn't know well - just never know what they would consider appropriate.</p>
<p>Your D sounds like a very thoughtful young woman. The idea of baking goods for the BF's parents sounds good. It has a personal touch to it. If she wants to give them something not edible, maybe she could enlist the help of the BF. For example, what kind of music do they like? She could give them a CD; or a book, or a nice picture frame. She could also look into shops selling ethnic arts and crafts for something inexpensive yet quirky. We like to buy gifts at Ten Thousand Villages, a chain of shops selling arts and crafts from all around the world that is run by the Mennonites.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I agree with the home baked idea. I get so many store bought goods for the holidays these days, but very little that is home baked and yummy. My kids go right for the homemade goodies, I can tell you. Also this year, I noticed when I had to stock the after game meal for the football team, that the Costco bought deserts, even the pretty little cheesecakes and creampuffs and supposedly fresh made cookies where not cutting it. The boys went right for the less pretty home made cookies, brownies and blondies. If you put them in a pretty tin and maybe throw in some coffee goods, that would make a nice package.</p>
<p>When S was looking at schools last year, several parents and kids took him in at various points. I sent each of them a tin of fudge as I have a very well received fudge recipe. Very well received. S got e-mails from the kids, I got some really nice thank you cards--all unexpected as the package as really an addendum to MY thank you note to them.</p>
<p>Lots of good ideas here. I have four girls so the gifts I've received have been from boys! I've never had any of them give me baked goods but I would have loved that. :) A few nice things I've received have been an art book by an artist I love, a book about the town where the boyfriend grew up, a pretty frame with a pic of my D and the b/f in it, and an assortment of teas and coffees with a pretty mug. It's lovely to get something from the significant others, it really matters very little exactly WHAT that something is.</p>
<p>Having two kids engaged and one with a very special girlfriend, I think the picture idea is better when the relationship has gone to that level. My daughter took some terrific black and white photographs of her boyfriend from freshman year that the parents absolutely loved, but she was only peripherally in one shot. I would be having either a revolving gallery or (more likely) a gallery of exes if all of the boy/girlfriends sent couples pictures. The fudge or cookies are more representative of the permanence of most of these early relationships no matter how wonderful the persons involved.</p>
<p>I would check to see that they eat sugary desserts. If anyone brings me a pie, H brings it right into his office where it's consumed in five minutes by the starving hordes.</p>
<p>Personally I hate fudge ( my great aunt used to insist upon everyone taking a piece when we visited at xmas, not realizing that it would be found I used to stick mine in the couch!) But I realize many people like it. I concur with a homemade food gift though I lean more toward spiced nuts ;)</p>
<p>I use a easy microwave fudge receipe but also would like another one for the files. I am waiting for DS to wake up so we can bring fudge to his first grade teacher (a tradition I started long ago). This will be the first time son goes-I was surprised he wants to go with me....If he would just wake up! I have things to do.</p>
<p>I'm not a mom or anything, just putting in my ideas, being a teenager and all:</p>
<p>Well there are a lot of free, easy recipes online if you don't want to be limited in the baking department. The photoframe idea is good, and you could very well do the photoframe + easy baking stuff. I suggest making something like a cake or a pie instead of cookies, because it looks more professional! </p>
<p>Another idea - if you don't feel like baking:
Find a reliable recipe for a certain type of food - get a mason jar and put in the right ratio of all the ingredients (flour and all)! Then they could just make the stuff whenever they wanted, instead of eating it all at Christmas!</p>
<p>You could always make a care package kind of thing - with goodies and random things (including the photo). There is a lot of photo-transfer stuff out there, so if you're really into it, you could always put the photo on a mug or on an ornament (I know Kinko's does it)! </p>
<p>And anything homemade is always better than an expensive gift! </p>
<p>Yeah, picture ideas are great. I took these two pictures of my roommate and her boyfriend.. and her boyfriends parents are my boss.. so I went into the Dark room and made two color 8x10's by myself of these pictures and gave them to them for christmas. I also am going to make 2 more copies to give my roommates mom :)</p>
<p>earlier this year two of my roommates turned 21, and my other roommate did the picture thing for them, and she got an 8x10 frame and got these little things at the craft store and decorated the frame.. it looked very artistic and creative, and all of the little things on it described the roommate that the picture was taken of...</p>
<p>Fudge - I have tried many different recipes over the years and my favorite is the Fantasy Fudge on the back of the Kraft marshmallow creme jar. You can microwave it too. For stovetop I recommend you use a candy thermometer, and I use a 12 oz bag of Nestles semi-sweet chips instead of the squares (because I'm lazy). I am famous for my fudge and don't mind sharing that the recipe isn't mine. (I've already made 6 batches. My son said I'm the most popular mom on his dorm floor because I send him fudge every few weeks. When his floormates see him with a box his room suddenly becomes the gathering place.)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the suggestions! This is awesome. I'll have her read this thread Sunday after she's had a chance to get some sleep. Hopefully, she'll decide on a nice tin of homebaked stuff. If nothing else, it'll give her something to do next week beside talk to him on the phone!</p>
<p>My son's GF recently baked cookies for me. I was thrilled and they were YUMMY! I love the idea of putting them in a nice tin and with pretty bow. I remember my son standing by as she gave them to me.....he had a huge grin on his face and kept asking me to try one before dinner "mom, try one, they are soooooooooooooooooooooo good! try one, try one, try one, try one....mom, please they're soooooo good". So, as I tried one and enthusiastically commented on how good they were, the two of them just stood there girinning at me....</p>
<p>and I got worried that they were about to give me some news I didin't need to hear. But, all was well.</p>