My young nephews have already told me they want the pants with all the pockets that zip off into shorts. They are about $30 for a nice pair so I'm looking for them on sale. I guess it's a hot cool item for kids to wear right now.

My folks have said the same thing - don't buy them anything cause they have it all by now. They did say that we could get them exotic food items. So I'm thinking of going to a specialty store and pick out some items like smoked salmon and cheeses etc. I enlarged a nice picture I took of all their grandkids and put it in a nice quality frame. I then bought several matching frames but am leaving them empty and they can fill them with photos they already have and do a nice grouping.

My son is 8, soon to be 9 and I've been looking into rock climbing gyms. The ones in my area offer one hour beginner climb with instruction and equipment for $25. This might be a nice gift for your nephews, if there's one close by.

Could I suggest an Entertainment Book for your parents? Many organizations in our area sell them as fund raisers and they are filled with "buy one, get one free" meals both at fine dining and casual eating establishments. Some restrictions do apply on weekends but it's a great deal and one of my standby gifts for someone who has everything.

We tend to do gift certificates for my inlaws. They don't like anything extravagant. We've done restaurants, Home Depot, and J.C. Pennies because we know she shops there, pre-paid phone cards, and we keep trying to get them to use a home made gift certificate- we made one up to send them to a bed and breakfast- if they will just pick a weekend to "get away."

I can't help wanting nicely wrapped gift to open though, so I end up thinking of useful containers to put the certificates in and adding things like candy or food.

I made all the Grandparents an album with photo's of the kids and us. Each year for birthdays...aniversarys and xmas we make new pages and give them to them as gifts and they include them into their albums. They love it cause the album sits on their coffee tables and everyone coming over to visit gets to chat about the photo's. Perfect gift for the person who has everything.

I went to Kinkos and had a calendar made with photos of all the kids, grandkids etc. My MIL loved it!

Last year my sister rented an ice skating arena for all the nieces and nephews, and we had our own private skating party. When they were little, she took them all to a "Tea Party" where they all got to dress up in cool costumes and have a party. I like the rock climbing GC's, that's a great idea.

Last year I made grandkids (7 months and 2) and 17 niece and 13 nephew fleece quillows. They all loved em.

Also, this year for 14 yo nephew, freshman in high school, I plan to make a bulletin board covered with denim and also give him a disposable camera for recording fun events in his life.

Then we do the calendar thing for all the rest. Once they graduate from high school they get included in the calendar list.

But I would ask them. Love all the individual ideas listed in the previous posts, but think it would be best to "go to the source." Kids are such individuals these days.

HTH.

Gramma Connie