[pollystyrene]

The major gift-giving season is upon us, and occasionally we all need advice and inspiration when it comes to giving advice to family, friends and acquaintances.

So here's my issue: One of my BGP's has twin daughters who are turning one year old in a couple of weeks. My boyfriend and I are godparents to one of them. It won't make much difference this year, but in the future, we'd like to do a little something extra for our goddaughter on her birthday, something more interesting than a savings bond or something. But, because she's a twin, we have to be a little more careful, so as not to make her sister feel left out. The godparents of her sister are her uncle and his wife, who we're also friends with, so I guess we could talk to them and see if they were going to do special for their g.d., to make sure they're doing something, so as not to create sibling rivalry. What kind of special stuff could we do? Maybe when she's older, take day trips to the zoo or something like that?

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to get each of them for a birthday present besides this extra thing? I want to spend between $20-$30 on each kid, either 2 small gifts or one big gift for $40-$60 (or is that a bad idea?)

[Garlic]

I'm going to crazy lengths to get a t shirt for someone special.

There's a band t shirt that's only available in XL and XXL which basically I need for a medium sized man. I am pirating it. I see this working out expensively, but who cares.

Otherwise, and this is a bit mental....

The Coat
Out of my office window, which is four storeys up in the office block, my colleages and I can see a tramp sitting on a bench, and it's getting mighty cold at the moment. He sleeps outside a bookmakers in the town centre, I've seen him around before. We sent two kids outside to give him some coffee and soup (it's free in a Klix machine in the office), and he said thanks. After this the tramp got up and walked off for a pee, and then we watched in astonished horror as some chavs who were blatantly on crack (Brit speak: chav = white trash) picked his coat off the bench and stole it while he was gone. You've got to be a real bastard to rob a tramp. There wasn't a lot we could do because we were quite a way off from the situation!

He's not been around for a few days but I'm going to get him a coat. There are at least 3 second hand stores in walking distance of the office, I can pop in there and it will cost me about four pounds. That's my christmas present to him.

/cheesey, perhaps