Tulips are a dime a dozen here, literally. A lot of the time they are free at the stores. Seriously. The common tulips at big box stores are often a few bucks per bag with a mail in rebate equal to the purchase price. If you want to make money with tulips in the US market then forget about organics, nobody cares about organics for tulips or any other strictly ornamental, takes care of itself plant. It's just a bulb after all and if one wishes to be organic they will grow that bulb out organically. Nobody is gonna eat it so who cares if it was grown in plutonium before we got it? If you want to make money with tulips in the US then you need to grow unique or hard to find varieties that have particularly striking colors or patterns. That is what gets the money here, not how they were grown. If you are going to offer common tulips then you have to compete on price and the current rate for common tulips is free to next to nothing.

ShellyGa, I ordered them via school from Original Works. I think you can also order them direct via originalworks.com if you have your own pics. If you need their 800 #, email me directly. Good luck. I love the ones I got this Christmas. Unfortunately the posts do not come with the flags. So I have been looking for them. I will save the flags now for Mother's Day since I can't find the posts/stakes. Think once this Xmas thing is over, the stores will start bringing them out. Pike might have them too. I haven't checked. Good luck. tc

It has been a good year for me, finding all the tools I wanted/needed on SALE. Except the Maslin pan, of course, since it's always full price, but so worth it. My 40+ son came for a visit, helped me make Apple Pie Jam, and now wants a Maslin of his own! He's going to need a really big stocking. I've asked Santa for a pocket camera to take photos of what I bake and can for my farm's Facebook page and website. The Olympus Stylus actually has a setting for "cuisine"!!!! LOL MY SIL, the chef, gave me a little potato peeler with a ceramic blade - wonderful for apples too large or too soft to fit into the rotary peeler - it looks like a disposable shaver. On my wish list is a Kyocera Mega-peeler with a much wider ceramic blade that could also be used to shave cheese or chocolate, besides those huge Wolf River apples. The little peeler is on my shopping list for gifting my friends who cook, bake, and/or can, and a Side-Swipe blade for my DD's Kitchenaid stand mixer since she keeps drooling over mine when she uses it. I always love to receive a handmade/homemade gift of any type. Draw it, bake it, can it, knit or sew it - I treasure those gifts the most. Nancy, whose wish is for peace/truce/contentment for all

I am the adult kid here (scary, ha) with a 16 month old and I didn't have a job to go back to after maternity leave with no prospects (I'm an architect and 80% of architects in my county are currently laid off) so things are a bit tight here as well and I am doing the handmade/homemade gift thing as well. Both of my nieces have their ears pierced so they are getting a hand painted and lined jewelry box and an inexpensive pair of earrings for christmas and my parents/inlaws are getting a book of photos of our son (blurb.com allows you to publish "real" nice quality books and I have been working on it on and off for nearly a year adding photos as I get them - this one covers just his first year). That's about it. My parents are financially much better off than we are. We moved back to a very high cost of living area and purchased a house about a year before the height of the market and now I'm laid off whereas my dad is retired with a very nice pension and my mom bought her company a few years ago and is doing well with it and they are VERY generous with us. If the situation ever flips - well let's put it this way, there is no way I'd spend money on an expensive trip while my parents were living out of a crock pot because they could not afford a new stove! (though I would not get them a Wolf). I say as a parent you need to listen to your instinct. When we make sacrifices for our children it's because it feels right and because we want them to have a good life. It sounds like you have given them a good start to a good life and they are not babies anymore. You do what makes you feel right... and my parents are pretty tight-lipped about what they do for each sibling because frankly it's no one's business except the people actually involved. I think this is a good policy - your other kids do not need to know if you are helping out one of your kids who needs it more. JMHO - and it should not be part of gifts, just something you do because you can (no raiding your own retirement fund because then the burden will be on your kids to take care of you LATER) and want to. As far as gifts, I urge you to sit down and think about what would make YOU feel good to give them. I'm sure there are things you can come up with that don't cost a lot of money. If it's just about the money making you feel good then you should probably reevaluate what the holidays are to you. There is a LOT in between "socks n underwear" and giving an extravagant gift you cannot afford.