A very simple favor/game is a flannel "diaper" made from about 2 or 2 1/2 in. square of cloth ,fold in diaper shape & pin with a little gold colored safety pin. 1 diaper is dirty- it has a very small dab of mustard in it!!When you tell them to check their diaper someone is the winner! Can be pink, blue, yellow or mint green diapers. GF was at GD's shower last week & they had a "crown" made of pretty blue fabric with silver stars, posterboard around bottom,(cut with wide zig zag) inside was stuffed with fiberfill. base of posterboard was edged with lt. blue & white pompoms. It was very cute & about 7 in across. Theme was baby will be king of their home. So the favors were bags from party store imprinted with a crown & "Thank you for attending A---'s shower" Inside the greaseproof bag was a big sugar cookie in same shape as crown on the bag. Lady had used a cookie mix & just cut into simple crown shape, they were about 5 in. across & 3 1/2 in high.You could write on the bags so you didn't have to pay for printing. GF said everyone really liked that they got to take them home! Could make a princess cookie for girl & glitz headpiece for girl. The crowns were the centerpiece on each table for the luncheon shower. I tried to take pic but my batteries died so I gave the crown back to GF. It was really adorable.Oh, crown cookies just had those dots in baby blue(looklike they were made with paper punch)at top of each of 5 points. It was very different & very cute!

"stalaCtites hang from the Ceiling stalaGmites sit on the Ground." I managed to earn a Biology degree without ever learning that one - I love it and will remember it! :) I grew up in Central California where one never went empty handed to someone's house for dinner. It was usually a bottle of wine or some favorite goodie of the hosts, which, of course, I would not expect to be served with dinner. The obligation to return the invitation was true as well. I have been very surprised to learn that hostesses in New York and elsewhere around the country would consider my impeccable manners to be rudeness! It makes me doubt myself and think back to occasions here in Florida when people may not have appreciated my "thoughtfulness" - so many of my friends and neighbors here are from the north. I'm feeling embarrassed after reading this thread :(. People here are slow to respond to invitations - which I think is rude and inconsiderate, although I am sure they understand the meaning of RSVP. I've never had anyone respond one way and then do the other without phoning to say they have to change their plans - that's crazy. Elizabeth

Whatever you do, before assuming that the train schedule is accurate, or that such a neighborhood is x hours from work, do a test run. At rush hour. In my subway days, I could count on (1) the train always came when I was about a block from the station, so I had to wait for the next one (2) the train was always delayed by something--people holding the doors, the dispatcher holding the train in the station to make a connection, etc. (3) just because it's a 'subway' doesn't mean it won't be affected by the weather. That goes double for an all-surface train. I second the previous poster who pointed out that unless you're at the end of the line, you'll never get a seat on the train, so forget all those fantasies about sleeping. I'll add that you might not even be able to get *on* the train--plenty of times I had to wait for the next train because the first one was too crowded to get on. Certain trains--like the 7 in Queens--even if you do get on at the end of the line you may not get a seat. It's that busy. So, bottom line, before assuming you can handle a certain commute, make sure you're thinking about that commute realistically. Your '1 hour' commute might easily be 1.75 hours more often than not.

Myfampg, it was I who was referencing "always buying a gift" - and maybe if I explain further you'll understand. I was not talking about showers for close friends and family, but rather the constant onslaught that I went through in my twenties and thirties of showers for co-workers (held at work), neighbors, long-lost friends from high school. I'm talking about being invited to a shower for my boss' fiancee, whom I had barely met, and the least expensive thing on the registry was $150. I'm talking about the sense of entitlement that some people have regarding showers. I started to lose some of my happy feelings regarding showers the first time that I happily spent all of my "fun money" for the week on a bridal shower gift, and the bride to be (who still lived with her parents, by the way, and had few bills of her own), proceeded to complain about how she'd been hoping to get more, and of all of the things that she was still "going to have to buy" for their new house - said house being a wedding present from her parents. Apparently she was under the impression that getting married entitled her to a free start in life? I went to a shower once to hear one of the other guests, whose shower I had also been to, explain in all seriousness how she felt that everyone should get to have a five year anniversary shower because her sheets and towels were wearing thin. I found out years later that, at least here with some of the various ethnic groups, one of the reasons that I was invited to so many showers of people I barely knew was tradition. For some people here, for bridal showers hostess invites close friends and family only, except for never-married women - where hostess invites pretty much every never-married woman the bride knows. Apparently the theory is that then when I got married, I'd "get my turn" to do the same. I've got to say that this tradition would have been great if I'd gotten married at age twenty - but tends to become a bit pricey after twenty years of being invited to showers for next-door neighbors' niece whom I'd met twice. (Yes, I did have a small shower but only family and close friends of years standing.) So perhaps I am just jaded. I still love showers for friends or family, and I actually don't mind showers for new mothers who really need and will appreciate some help, even if I don't know the women all that well. But best believe that unfortunately there are plenty of women out there who are more than happy to receive a gift given out of "obligation".