This is the week of birthdays..

Sunday went out to eat with a friend for his birthday. His parents wound up paying so I didn't.

Last night I went out for a friend's birthday. Since the party was starting so late I borrowed my roomate's bus pass instead of driving. I hate trying to find parking in the district of town where the bar was at anyway. I just bought tea because I couldn't really have anything else. A friend was the bartender (didn't know he worked there til I got there) so I tipped him pretty well all things considered. Spent $3.50 total. I have a bunch of blank cards at home so I just grabbed one for the birthday card and inside wrote that my gift to her was a free night of babysitting. It's something she'll use and needs. Valued at about $25-30 since that's about what they give me when I sit for them.

Another friend has a birthday on Sunday. She really likes music but even more mix cds made by people. For my home communities' Christmas party we were instructed to make a mix cd of our favorite songs instead of a White Elephant gift. (although the 'wrapping' for the cd can be something white elephanty so long as money isn't spent on the 'wrapping'). That way we get to know people in our community better by their choice of favorite music. I will be putting together my cd this weekend and last night thought that it would be cool to get a copy to my friend for her birthday. I'll use another blank card for the belated card since it will be late and to cover all bases I'll send her an e-card on her birthday from Hallmark.

All in all I think I survived this round of birthdays quite well.

I went to the dollar store last night and found the exact box I was looking for to put the only gift I bought this year in. That was a nice bonus. And found that they had Nestle hot chocolate there. I'd slowly stocked up on it when the nearby Walgreen's had it for $1 for a box of 6 packets and had gotten used to having a mug of it every day at work. I hadn't run out of my stash yet but I only had about a week left so I picked up a box since I was there.

Tonight is women's community and I've been so excited about watching the gal open her gift that I completely forgot until this morning that I'll be getting something to. That's totally secondary right now. I found what I think is the perfect gift. Just really hoping I'm right. One of the gals moved nearby me so we're taking turns carpooling since the house we meet at is about 8 miles away. Not terribly far but it doesn't make sense to each drive when we live so close.

And just because I'm so excited I'll tell you what the perfect gift is. In addition to exchanging names we also filled out a little questionaire to get ideas of what people like/want/etc. The gal I got wrote that she collects stationary and that her favorite flower is a Peruvian Lily. So I google'd pictures of the flower, found one with just a single flower and a white background, edited the photo to add her name (first, middle initial, last), and uploaded it to Vista Print to be printed on the front of 20 blank notecards. And at the dollar store I found a cardboard box, kinda like a cigar box or those older style school pencil boxes and they fit perfectly in there. I wanted to find a box that doesn't necessarily look seasonal (this one just is green with big red dots) but she could refill it as she gets more stationary. Plus it protects the ones I gave her. I am sooooo excited to see her open it I can hardly stand it. Granted I did pay more for shipping than for the printing because we're exchanging gifts today instead of next week because people are gone next week for the holidays, but I didn't want to spend too much more than $20 total and all told it came to $24.