Nija's Thoughts

I'm going to take a break from my college series to talk about holiday work gift exchanges. If you work in education as I now do you will most likely have the opportunity to participate in a "Secret Santa" game. Other professional settings may have that or something similar. Some do a "White Elephant" or "Dirty Santa". Some general rules of thumb are... Keep your setting in mind working in a school for example, while we're all adults we can't exchange alcohol or adult gifts  Keep your potential recipient in mind This gift might not go to your friend that you work with but possibly anyone you work with that may not have the same since of humor or enjoy the same things as you Stick to the price cap You may be tempted to go over but there's a cap for a reason. Other people may not be able to afford to get fancy gifts so not only will people frown upon it because now there gifts don't compare and you look like a jerk, but you ...

I remember the days of being younger & having to bring Valentines for my friends, teachers, and even whole classes. Now I give Valentine's to my parents work, friends, & neighbors. My choice of Valentine's tend to be: Brownies Mini Cupcakes (red velvet w/ home-made cream cheese frosting) -frosting ingregdients: cream cheese, marshmello fluff, powdered sugar [this frosting will harden a little over night, eliminating the frosting mess of stacking cupcakes] Mini Cookies (heart shaped sugar cookies w/ red or pink sprinkles) *I personally like mini foods because you get bite size portions & you can make more out of the same amount of ingredients than regular size portions. Mini Red, Pink, or White Roses (from gas stations) These are all fairly inexspensive and things people tend to enjoy. Another good thing about little gifts is that youa can make gift bags for people filled with different things or for people you don't know that well it's just a li...