Who doesn't love a good salon mani/pedi? You get to relax in a big massage chair, catch up on the fashion mags, and let someone pamper you from fingers to toes. But at this time of year, with holidays pulling at your wallet, it might be tough to justify the expense.

My daughter likes to do her fingernails in ten different colors with ten different designs on them. Very spendy. She was pretty disappointed when I told her there was no room in the budget for the nail salon for either of us this month. Then disappointment turned to ingenuity. She got a half dozen of her friends together at our house for a nail party. They spent the evening listening to music and doing each other's nails, sharing dozens of nail polish colors, designs and decals they had each brought from home.

When they were finished, they paraded through the kitchen, showing off 120 perfectly polished. artistically designed nails for Mom. I was duly impressed, oo-ing and ah-ing and congratulating them on their professional looking work. Then they decided my nails were looking raggedy and they should do me. Sure, my multi-colored, decaled and bejeweled nails aren't exactly my style, but I'll have my daughter and her friends do my nails again just before the holidays, so I'm fresh for Christmas!

Your "Coated in Many Colors" Gift Guru,
Linda