A Beach With No Sand

Good morning, Highlowaha! It's Katie here after what feels like a really long hiatus! However, I'll be with you the next two mornings bringing a piece of my world to you. Today, we're going to be on a similar wavelength as Claudia was yesterday with her Cinco de Mayo/Teacher Appreciation gifts. Let me start with a little background.

I am currently a first year graduate student at James Madison University. I work as a graduate Hall Director in a residence hall that houses 235 freshmen. In my building, I supervise eight undergraduate students who serve as resident assistants on each of the nine floors in my building. I have been with these students since August when we went through training together and then opened our hall to all 235 freshmen to enter their first year of college. Now, eight months later, it is time to bring the year to a close as all of those freshmen will be moving out of our hall this Friday. As their supervisor and as a way to say thank you for all of their hard work this year, I am hosting a "closing dinner" for my staff on Friday evening. At this dinner, I will be presenting each of them with an end of the year gift from me as a token of my appreciation for their hard work this year.

Enter today's post. I have the gift, I have all the supplies I need, and I'm in the process of pulling it all together. However, one VERY important piece is still missing from these gifts. The punch line!!! What is a fun gift for my staff without a fitting punch line to go along with it. What I mean by punch line is the tag to go on each of the gifts that will, in one short sentence, give them a synopsis of the purpose behind the gift. An example of this was at the beginning of the year, when I gave them each a bottle of Coke, a package of popcorn, and some toenail polish. The punch line for that gift was "Pop Your Feet Up and Relax"! For this gift, I have nothing! This is where you, my trusty HLA community and friends enter the picture for me! You are just the creative group of people that I need to help me out! For me right now, it's like I have a beach, but no sand. I need the sand to top if off (talking in a figurative way).

I have included a picture of one of the gifts I am giving them to help you understand what they will receiving. For each of them, I painted a terracotta pot and am having all of their residents either sign their name or write them a short note. Then, on the inside of the pot will be a magazine, a pair of flip flops, a pair of sunglasses, their favorite candy bar, and some sunscreen. As you can tell, it has sort of a relaxation/summer focus. So what do you think? Do any punch lines immediately come to your head? Throw them my way! I have been thinking on this for weeks and I just can't seem to come up with the right line!

What about the rest of you? Do you have any gifts that you will be giving to wrap up the end of the year for your students, your child's teacher, your Girl Scout troop, etc? What will you be giving them and do you have any great punch lines that you are using? Please feel free to share in the comment section today.

Signing off until tomorrow with the song of the day...