Do any of you give a holiday present to your coach? If so, what sort of things do you give? What are you giving this year?

I'm baking them some chocolate chip cookies - same as every year. If I didn't they'd be pretty upset too, they've been giving me little hints about the cookies for a couple of weeks now...

Each of my coaches will get a bottle of decent red wine. The catch is that, like my skating, it takes a long time before it's "ready." So the wine is of a vintage that will require some time to be drinkable and a little note to this effect.

I try to give my coach something skating related. One year I gave her a pair of Ice Lights boot gloves because she teaches outdoors once a week and I knew she needed them. Another time, I gave her a phone card to call her parents in Ireland. Since she now has a toddler, most gifts are for the tot, which makes it a lot easier.

I should add that three of us in my family take lessons from the same coach and we all adore her.

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***......you will get your coach lots of presents......you will give wonderful thoughtful gifts......you will not mind spending lots and lots of money on your wonderful coach............****

I wasn't sure what to get mine, but my mom and I have bought a little mug with a teddy bear on it for her, it's a keepsake for the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear, and the mug has some strawberry candies in it. I had considered getting my coach something skating-related, but then I figured that she might already have something or lots of things related to skating.

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Andrea

my favorite gift to recieve and give is that of a basket of edibles: cheese, wine, cookies and a candle wrapped in blue and silver. or, for our christian friends, cheese, wine and cookies wrapped in red!

everybody gets, in each basket, a handmade something such as a scarf, or an ornament, or even a sauce for ham or duck! something useful to them for entertaining over their holidays.

generally, the yummy consumables are most valued. except for anything that will keep the coach warm while on the ice teaching!

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life's not fair. don't whine, work harder. f.carroll
you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same spot. l. carroll

Mine always gets a bottle of red wine - it's what he likes. He had one today, too, as a "thank you" for helping me prepare my Interpretive for its success in France. We get his wife (who coaches my husband) a pot-plant, which is what she likes, and an appropriate toy for their son, who is nearly 5.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

My coach loves Colombian coffee and can never find any, so I ordered some for her, with 2 glass coffee beakers.

Last year I gave her lambskin gloves and Smirnoff!

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MEL
Absolute Skating

I'm planning to make my coaches some cookies or something. I had a look in Thorntons today to see if there were any I could buy (so I would be sure they would be edible ) but I couldn't see any. Will have another look, and if I can't find any, I'll make some.

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Since I'm learning to paint fabric, I'm going to give one a painted silk scarf.

Wine is always a nice gift, but a pot plant? Isn't that illegal

I've made up a gift basket with a bottle of white zinfidel, chocolate, a candle, a foot roller/massager, a pair of therapeutic slippers, soothing cucumber eye patches, a snowflake gem tattoo and a dry erase board with a rink preprinted on it, so she can sketch out programs before she writes them down.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Ah, two nations divided by a common tongue! I meant a plant in a pot, which I think you call a potted plant (but "potplants" is a lot quicker for greengrocers, etc, to write. Actually, greengrocers would probably write "potplant's" in this country). I didn't mean a marijuana plant... but you guessed that, really!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Girl when I read this thread, I laughed when I read that part too. I thought, oh somebody's coach has been a good boy/girl this year. Mrs. Redboots, I see what you mean about the way things can be taken differently. I've never been out of the U.S. So it's hard for me to see those differences too.

My coaches received prepaid Starbuck Coffee cards from me. However, I did find a nice ornament at Pier One Imports. It's a round ornament with skaters painted on it. It comes packaged in a navy blue velvet box. The card inside the box says that it is a "Li Bien" ornament from China, and through the small opening in the ornament, the artist repeatedly inserts a miniature brush to paint the artwork. It takes two days to complete each ornament. I bought one for myself.

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Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.

My moves and secondary coach also got prepaid Starbucks Coffee card from me too. My primary coach is gonna get something else... I'll save the third Starbucks coffee card for him for another time...

I can't say what the present is... b/c I STILL haven't gotten it to him yet!!! (I never seen to have the present when I DO see him...AUGH!!!) He'll probably get it at our next lesson or something... Anyway, I've been wanting to give him this particular gift for the longest time.

I got Holland chocolate from my secondary coach!!! How sweet!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Here's a THIRD skater who gave their coach (or coaches) a pre- paid Starbucks card. I figured since they teach on early morning ice and Starbucks is around the corner, this gift would be a no-brainer!

Borders Gift Card this year...

plus some stocking stuffers.

I think our rink must be in one of the few corners of this city where there isn't a Starbucks just around the corner! We do have a rather nice (new) coffee shop, though - not, so far as I know, a chain.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I don't know what I'm giving to one of my coaches, but for one of them.... I'm giving him some really expensive vodka lol. We thought it would be a good gift... considering he's Russian.

If I can get this to work right, this is the photo I used on my Xmas cards this year. That's me with Squirt, one of the dolphins I swam with at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, FL, back in October. I gave my coach one of these cards and a miniature metal swinging dolphin!

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....