J- DH gave me a block of Wusthof knives one birthday or Christmas (can't remember which), but the set came with a penny in a felt envelope. I am not sure what the significance of the penny was. There was probably a card or something in the felt envelope, but I can't remember as I was too excited over the knives to care about the penny.LOL He purchased them at Williams-Sonoma so perhaps if you called, they may be able to tell you what that penny represents? I've always found the people who work at WS to be extremely helpful and they may have the answer you are looking for. You have definitely peeked my interest. Please let us know, or maybe another poster will be better able to help you! Just a thought...

I have had a trainer for 2 years and this is my thinking. I pay him to work me out, and he does. So, I am paying him to do his job. I only tip waitresses who make $2 an hour and depend on tips. I feel I pay my trainer fairly. However, at Christmas we do give a nice gift or cash (whatever he needs at the time). Last Xmas he was on a BW3 kick, so we got him gift certificates and the special sauce. We only give him cash/gifts on occassions that call for it. (birthday,graduation, wedding, etc) I DO understand how you are thankful, but personally, I think a card would be enough. I do know that he has some VERY rich clients who give him Theater and concert tickets, cash for dinner, clothing, etc. But I am not one of those clients. This is just my opinion, and I may be way off.

I have three of these brothers. Christmas is always a fun time. (Not.) Does he have Netflix or Hulu Plus? You can give him several months of streaming video, if he likes to watch TV. A "luxury" brand of something he uses often? Like gourmet coffee or chocolate or nachos? If he has a favorite movie or TV show, something related to that? I knitted one brother a Doctor Who scarf last year and he loved it. Even though he's not into gadgets, what about one of those emergency radios? The ones with a flashlight and charging port, that run on batteries but can also be hand-cranked. Nearly everyone has power outages at some point, and needs some emergency gear. Two places I've found good gifts for my brothers: Restoration Hardware and ThinkGeek. Check out RH's gift section--look at the stocking stuffers. There are a lot of ideas there. ThinkGeek does have a lot of techy stuff, but there's some useful home gadgets there as well. In addition to a cat hammock that my cats just love. (Would he like a gift for the cats?) It's a good place for outside-the-box gifts. Granted, he is probably not going to want the Zombie Apocalypse Garden Gnomes, but they have a lot of iPhone and iPad accessories, desk/office stuff, and a lot of things related to coffee and bacon, which a lot of guys seem to like.

Oh your poor daughter - she must feel awful about the shopping cart damage. It's terrible when you can't even park your car safely in the parking lot. My previous car was hit while parked at the supermarket too and of course the driver took off. I hope the car only needs some paint and not a dent removed.