For the young family

A picture is worth a thousand words (and memories), but fortunately costs just a fraction of that amount. A gift certificate for a family portrait is a safe bet, especially for families with young kids. People love having tons of shots of their tots.

Even for the families with post-pubescent children a portrait can be a good idea to bring the family together, at least on glossy paper, as each individual’s life is going its separate way (sorry to be so sorrowful).

Where to go:
A good standby for purchasing a solid photo package is the Sears Portrait Studio (http://www.searsportrait.com/). Also look into local photo shops for competitive offerings.

For the job-hunter

Power-suit…Check
Portfolio with paper and pen…Check
Copies of resume…Check
Confidence…confidence? Maybe, check the shoes.
No, it’s not the style of the shoe that matters, but it’s shine. Designer shoes or not, dress shoes don’t mean much if you don’t maintain them. Unlike a dingy sweater that a job-hunter can hide under a sweater (if so obliged), there is no such luck for hiding scrapped up shoes. But instead of buying the interviewing job-hunter some new shoes (definitely a kind gesture, but shoes are a very particular, personal thing since it involves style AND comfort) consider providing a shoe shine kit.

When I started interviewing for jobs I didn’t have one in my possession. The night before the big day I realized how “un-shiny” my favorite, grown-up looking shoes had become. Luckily I was able to borrow someone’s shoe shining kit, so on the big day I had shiny, gleaming shoes…too bad the actual interview wasn’t such a glowing affair (I didn’t get the job), but at least my feet looked good. And they continued looking good as the job hunt continued; I bought my own shoe-shine kit.

Where to go
Shoe shine kits are in most everyday “everything in one place” stores; just ask someone who works there. It will be the basic polish, just black and brown, so no luck for anyone sporting terracotta pumps.

There are also online resources (of course) that can provide a wide variety of products to really prepare a job-hunter for entering any room with the appropriate level of self-confidence and preparedness.

For the baby bird who is just leaving the nest

When you’re starting out on your own there are a ton of thinks to think about and even more things to buy. When it comes to the kitchen, and specifically cooking supplies, one thing will make or break the long-term survival of a newcomer to living on his/her own: the casserole dish.

The glory of the casserole dish will most likely not be immediately evident to the person receiving it, but during those nights when there’s just a smidgen of tomato sauce, half a box of elbow macaroni and a can of creamed corn to be found in the refrigerator and cabinets, the glory of the casserole will be known. (The above is not a recipe for a casserole, but I’m thinking that mixture wouldn’t be half bad). As long as the gift recipient can throw random scraps of food together and bake them (which means s/he can also work an oven), then a casserole dish will be used.

As an added bonus, it may be worthwhile to include a recipe book too. Personally my casserole ideas have usually come from soup cans and the packaging of staple foods like rice and baking/pancake mix, but an actual book will look better then handing the newly-independent a can of cream of potato and a sack of rice.

Where to go
Casserole dishes can be found at:
-Your local grocery store, probably in the baking products aisle
-A full casserole dish set can be found at home life stores or just the houseware section of big, box stores depending on how fancy you’re trying to be:
Bed Bath & Beyond
Target
Etc, etc.

Recipe books can be found everywhere. From a quick Internet search, these titles caught my eye:

The Big Book of Casseroles: 250 Recipes for Serious Comfort Food

(Image from Amazon.com)

Biggest Book of Casseroles

(Image from Amazon.com)

Campbell's 3 Books in 1: 4 Ingredients or Less/Casseroles and One-Dish Meals/Slow Cooker Recipes
(I couldn’t resist. I never understood why creamy soups existed until I understood the casserole)

(Image from Amazon.com)

For the Social-Climber

Nothing says up-and-coming socialite like understanding wine. It’s universally recognized as classy and a sign of being a fancy-pants. (From my description it should be fairly obvious that I am not apart of this up-and-coming sect…at least not yet). So for those buddies who aspire to be the crème-de-la-crème socialite, they better know something about wine. You can offer these buddies wine tasting package, trips to vineyards, and the like if you happen to be incredibly wealthy and/or produce wine yourself. Still, eventually any upwardly social mobile person will have to put in a little self-study to truly be able to break into the “cultured” crowd. A perfect way to help them put their ascent on turbo-speed is to assist them with their wine homework with a wine journal.

With a wine journal a budding connoisseur can keep track of wines s/he has had, impressions of the wines, and the occasion for which they drunketh from their goblet. It can even be a sort of scrapbook for saving labels…oooh, especially if you can get it signed by someone famous.

Where to go

The bookstore! Anything that has paper as it main component can probably be found at the dependable bookstore. With that standard, stationary stores or stores that sale writing products would be another good place to look (Think: Levenger).

A few online resources include:
The Wine Enthusiast (http://www.wineenthusiast.com/)

Wine.com (http://www.wine.com/)

Wine Journal
(Image from wine.com)

There’s also the option of creating a handmade journal. This would be more decorative and personal than store-bought journals, thus showing your support for your buddy in climbing to the top of the social scene (even if you include a few jokes). Socialite or bust!