One other favorite with the girls was many years ago when iPods first came out, and one of my daughters wanted one more than anything. She was only in junior high though, and at that time we felt such a gift was highly extravagant for someone that age. However, she was a super hard worker who got great grades in school, and we wanted to recognize that. We decided to get the iPod but have a little fun. While at Lucky's or Safeway one night I saw one of those massive stuffed animals that are about 4' long. In this case it was a stuffed black and white cat. I got the cat and a huge box, figuring she would have fun with it. However, before packing the cat in the box, I unstitched a seam, inserted the iPod into one of the ears or legs of the cat, and stitched the cat back up again. When she got the gift (the last one to be opened) she was happy, but you could tell she was a little dissapointed about the reality of not getting the iPod she wanted so badly. As we were cleaning up all the wrapping paper from the gift giving, we "happened" to recall that we had heard somewhere that some of the stuffed cats supposedly had prizes in them, and had she checked? It took her several minutes to thoroughly inpect the cat, but when she finally found the item and realized what it was, there were plenty of tears of joy and appreciation for the gift.