<p>I have put coal in my kids stockings. They have deserved it! They also get goodies that they deserve as well in the same stockings. A cute European idea is to gather switches, bundle and tie them with a ribbon, then hang little chocolates, goodies and trinkets on them. You can buy them for St Nicolaus Day. Kids are always naughty AND nice. There are some years, there might be some coal hanging on those switches.</p>
<p>I made my D a punch card; each punch was good for $10 spending money. But each punch came with a restriction. Samples:</p>
<ul>
<li>this punch can only be used on day of the month that is a prime number</li>
<li>this punch can only be used on a past president's birthday</li>
<li>this punch can only be used on an even-numbered day of an odd-numbered month</li>
<li>this punch can only be used when the moon is full </li>
<li>this punch can only be used on the 5th Friday of a month</li>
</ul>
<p>You get the idea. It was fun coming up with the categories, and a great way to force her to spread out the present, and not cash it in all at once.</p>
<p>Clever!</p>
<p>Time to leave work. Maybe I'll stop by Best Buy on the way home and buy me some of them new-fangled flash drive thingies....</p>
<p>S downloads music and pictures on his flash drive all the time! He forgot to bring it back to school with him earlier this year and it was one of the few things he asked me to send. Occasionally he's even saved schoolwork on it and prints it out in the computer lab where he can print for free. ;)</p>
<p>All this talk of putting coal in the kids' stockings made me think that someone should market an edible candy lump of coal...but apparently somebody else already came up with that idea:</p>
<p>I just sent a dozen of Oscar Meyer Weinie whistles ( ordered from the Kraft website )
I got them as a joke because my pain in the butt, snobby sister , who will be visiting my poor mother and extended family is getting bent out of shape over the holiday menus.
Apparently , she is afraid that all they will have for Christmas eve dinner is a deli party platter. She told my very patient sister that if she "wanted a bologna sandwich, she could just stay home " ...now the joke is they want to have bologna or mini hot dogs at every meal.
Since I can't be here, I thought I could contribute.
Oh, and the whistles come with a song book so you can whistle the Oscar Meyer Weiner sing.
$3.50 a 3 pack</p>
<p>Wow, expensive lumps of coal. I Just wrapped real charcoal in gold foil and wrapped with red string ribbon. with tiny jingle bells to decorate. Got all of the decor from the dollar shop taking apart some cheap Christmas knick-knack.</p>
<p>Licorice makes neat coal too.</p>
<p>I got some for the stockings from See's candies, all under $5. I also got some food stuff from Cost Plus that are less than $2.</p>
<p>Chisquare, I love your punchcard idea, and I am going to copy it!</p>
<p>lje62, I wish I'd known about the Oscar Meyer Weinie whistles sooner - what a great idea! But no one in my immediate family would appreciate them. My kids never heard the jingle (has it been used since the dark ages?) and my husband grew up in Europe. I may get some for our family reunion next summer. (I can't believe your sister - I'd prefer to have a deli platter if no one feels like spending the day in the kitchen cooking!)</p>
<p>LJE62, I have scoured the Kraft website and can't find the whistles. Do you have a link or a URL you could share? Thanks so much.</p>
<p>here it is :</p>
<p><a href="http://brands.kraftfoods.com/oscarmayer%5B/url%5D">http://brands.kraftfoods.com/oscarmayer</a></p>
<p>click on shop kraft at the top of the page</p>
<p>My oldest son loves dumplings, fried rice etc...so he is getting a dumpling maker and chopsticks in his stocking....everyone gets a toothbrush and toothpaste... new laces for hockey skates, usually a PEZ dispenser and PEZ candy.... gum (they all have different brands they like) and chapsticks are always handy to have around.... I have done batteries in the past......boys just can never have enough batteries... Santa is putting some beads and clasps and things like that in my stocking as I took up jewelry making this summer/fall...... my hubby loves Dove dark chocolate candies.... and we found a GIANT fly swatter at a discount store recently, so DH will be surprised with that too in his stocking....</p>
<p>NYMom...my husband was also born in Europe and lived there until he was 18...there are some cultural things only and American can understand..though he does speak hot dog !
His country has hot dog stands like you might find a pizza place in most US towns</p>
<p>Just ordered the wiener whistles for my husband and his siblings; they will get a kick out of them!</p>
<p>A friend of mine has a husband who has everything. She bought him a membership in the Lone Ranger fan club! He got a membership card, gets a monthly newsletter, got a signed picture of the Ranger, etc. He absolutely loved the gift!</p>
<p>
[quote]
If I buy a flash dirve, is it obvious where to connect it? I mean, there are trays for CDs. I assume you plug the flash drive into something obvious at the front of the computer? When you save, is there something that pops up to ask if you want to save it to the flashdrive?
[/quote]
missypieYou plug it into a USB slot (little rectangular hole to you ;)). Do 'save as' (or it will just save to wherever it has been saved in the past). When you try to save it should list places you can save to. There should be a 'removable disc' option - or something similar. That will be your flash drive. Select that. Much quicker than burning discs etc.</p>
<p>Oh and if you are windows on your bar across the bottom there should be a little flash drive icon - (little rectangle with a green arrow). Before you remove the flash drive click on that and click on 'safely remove USB device' before you pull the flash drive out. (I am not sure what, if anything, happens if you don't because I always do to be safe).</p>
<p>If you pull out the hard drive without "safely disconnecting" it, you run the risk of damaging files that may still be in use on the computer from the flash drive.</p>
<p>That being said, the school computers won't let you use the "Safely Remove Hardware" option (It says it's blocked by the administrator) so I just pull the thing out, and I haven't lost any data yet. The whole process is much easier on Macs: press the "eject" button next to the device on the Finder, and you can pull out the flash drive.</p>
<p>By the way, I know the Oscar Meyer Wiener song, as does my 7-year-old step-niece, my 35-year-old stepsister, and my almost-50-year-old mother. I don't think it's a generational thing. (I also appreciate the Oscar Meyer company's correct use of the subjunctive: "I wish I were," instead of "I wish I was.")</p>
<p>lje62, My husband has been here since age 15. In his country, there are wonderful sausage stands everywhere. Maybe it's the same country?</p>
<p>Zamzam, I appreciate the correct grammar, too! </p>
<p>About disconnecting the flashdrive - I didn't know about the icon in the task bar - will look for it next time. What I do now is find the flash drive using "explore" and choose "eject" from the right-mouse-click menu.</p>
<p>You can give your flashdrive a name so that it will be easily recognizable in "explore" or when saving.</p>
<p>My daughter is receiving 6 pairs of earbuds in her stocking because she manages to lose them ALL the time.</p>
<p>Annual stocking tradition: mini Slinkies.</p>
<p>I was just about to say mini Slinkies; I got them in $1 section at the front of Target this year. My Ss and H are all fidgeters; in the past I have given them Silly Putty (in red and green eggs) and juggling balls. S1 is also a champion pen twirler (see Youtbe for videos), so I always get him a pack of his favorite pens, Pentel RSVPs. (They are optimally weighted.)</p>