If you're anything like me, I really put a lot of thought into the gifts I give people - especially for the big events in their lives. I like to give gifts that are creative, relevant and memorable. The traditional graduation gift is a card with a check, cash or gift card that the graduate may use any way they choose. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I am just one of those people that hates to give money, because for me it is very impersonal. Since my brain works overtime on things like this I thought I'd put together a list to make gifting your graduates a little easier and definitely more fun!

Personalize It!

• Did you know that Jones Soda has a program to personalize a 12-pack of your graduate's favorite Jones flavor of soda? For $29.99 + shipping you can upload one of your own photos and they will put it along with a special message on every bottle in the pack! Just go to www.myjones.com to find out more.
• In my family, we love getting together for a good ol' game of Mexican Train. At www.dominoes.com you can get a set of dominoes with your graduate's name on each domino, or their college logo, or even one of your favorite pictures. I actually got a set of these Mexican Train dominoes for my mom for her 60th birthday. I was very impressed with the quality and the gift was so unique! This gift is a true show stopper. (A little side note: I found out about this website in a magazine last fall. Apparently, Mexican Train is the game of choice among the celebrities in Hollywood right now and these personalized dominoes are a popular gift with them, too!)
• On websites like www.qoop.com and www.blurb.com you can create all kinds of cool stuff with photos. If your graduate is going away to school and you think he/she might get a little homesick, you could create a calendar for their dorm room, or a personalized book which you can customize with photos and text. Qoop has a great poster creating program that gives you creative control for collaging photos. Check out these websites for more geat ideas on things to make with your pictures.

Practical Gifting When I went off to college, one of the things I had a hard time getting used to was buying my own toiletries, laundry stuff, school supplies, etc. I never had to think about those things before! They were always just there when I needed them. **kiss, kiss, mom!** To soften the blow for your favorite graduate, put together a care package with a practical theme.

• Get a laundry bag fill it with the things they might need for their first trip to the laundromat. For instance, you could get a standard laundry bag and load it with a container of laundry detergent, a box of dryer sheets, a small stain remover of some sort and a roll of quarters. You could even put a package of new socks or whatever you know they are going to run out of first. Laminate a notecard with basic instructions on how to do laundry and attach it with a ring onto the drawstring of the bag and you've got a really great gift!
• Dorm life is hard to get used to for some, especially the shared use of bathroom facilities. You can make it a bit easier by loading up a bathroom tote with essential toiletries like shampoo & conditioner, soap, mouthwash, etc. Add a bath towel and washcloth, and they're good to go - so to speak...(no pun intended!)
• Along those same lines, load up a backpack with basic school supplies like pens and pencils, markers and highlighters, notebooks and loose leaf paper. You might want to throw in a nice binder or even a flash drive. This is a gift that will definitely be appreciated when September comes and they're spending big bucks on books and have nothing left for little things like these.

Keep 'Em Current I am an avid reader with a particular interest in magazines. I am at a stage in my life where it is difficult to find the time to invest in reading full novels. College students are in the same boat, but worse because of the reading that is required of them in their classes. Giving a magazine subscription is a great option. Just walk into any Barnes & Noble and take a look at the periodical section. There is a magazine for everything! You could choose a magazine that correlates to your student's intended major. You can find a magazine that caters to just about every hobby or sport one could be interested in, too. Subscribe to a weekly news magazine to keep them up to date on current events. If your student is heading off to an unfamiliar city or town, think about getting them a subscription to that town's local newspaper. Their new locale will be a lot easier to settle into with a gift like that.

Get Crafty Handmade gifts are always really meaningful. If you're one of those crafty people out there I applaud you. You're probably way ahead of me here. If you're not one of those people, don't despair! At www.etsy.com there is a community of crafty people who want to craft for you. This is a super cool website. There is a page on etsy called "Alchemy" where you can post an idea of a project you'd like done for you and crafters will bid on your job to win the privilege of doing the work for you. What's even better is that you can post a request for ideas for a crafty gift. Let's say you have a graduate that loves pumpernickle bread, crocheting and snowboarding and you'd like to give them something special that represents all of these special things to them. Pretty soon you will have all of these creative, crafty people giving you ideas and offering to craft their ideas for you. Of course, it all comes at a price, but most bids are very affordable. Try out etsy, you'll love what you'll find there.

I came across a pretty neat idea the other day. A grandmother of many who is living on a very limited fixed income has begun a new tradition for the graduates in her family. She contacts many of the graduates teachers, friends, pastors, and, of course, family members and asks them to jot down a bit of advice, words of wisdom, funny anecdotes with a moral to the story, even comic strips and pictures and mail them to her. She then takes all of those things and creates a scrapbook for her graduate to take off to college with them. The independence of college life is hard to adjust to for some, but something like this would make all the difference in the world to a student who's feeling lonely, homesick, or just unsure about the decisions they are facing. I thought this was just brilliant and had to share it!

For Her When the girls in my family turn 16 we as a family, extended family included, collaberate to present the birthday girl with a charm bracelet that is reflective of who that girl has grown to become. I think this would be a really special gift for a female graduate. All you do is contact your family members and ask them to send a charm of their choosing that will go on her bracelet along with a card explaining why they chose that particular charm. Get them thinking about some of the things they remember most fondly of her. For example, when I was a tiny girl, around 2-year-old, I used to go to my aunt's field hockey games and run up and down the sidelines screaming her name over and over again as long as she was on the field. It's one of her special memories of me, so she might choose a field hockey charm to go on my bracelet and write her memory of those days. Think about her hobbies, sports, activities, vacations, clubs she may belong to, and even her goals for her future. Everytime she looks at the bracelet she will see the love and sentiment that went into creating it.

For Him A lot of guys going off to college are fanatic football fans. Especially when they are off to a huge football school. When my son Tyler graduates from college he is going to be one of those crazy guys in the student section who is all painted up and half naked in the middle of a snowy game in November - trust me, I know!

We are big Penn State fans at my house and one of the most fun things about football season is tailgating. It's like going to a huge party with 100,000 of your favorite friends! A cool gift idea for the graduating football fan in your life is a Tailgating Cooler/Grill. You could stuff it with a couple of grilling tools, some barbecue sauce, a bag of chips or six pack of soda (or even some Jones Soda! *wink*) and he's all set for the first game of the season - and he'll love you forever for it and sing your praises for the rest of his life!