Sticky situation but if these people love you truly, then your needs and your feeling should mean more to them than some silly gift, no matter what it costs. I ended the same gift receiving nightmare by taking each person aside and saying, "can I be honest here? You know how much you mean to me and I'm sure I mean that much to you too, so I feel comfortable speaking honelstly here, As you know I'm out of work and things are rough right now and there are so many things I could really use, like??" dah, dah, dah, da da...Give examples. It's worth a try and worked well in my case. I also ask what they want from me. [Razz]