early christmas presents

I am sitting upstairs in the students' living room (a square landing with 5 big bedrooms and 2 bathrooms surrounding it) while they pack and putz around. Every ten or so minutes, someone will come out of their room to ask if I'd like something they either don't need or can't fit in their suitcase. This has resulted in a shower of early surprise Christmas gifts, albeit random ones, and here are some of my favorites:

• Thank you note stationery
• Toothpaste...lots of it
  
• A perfectly good Juicy Couture hooded jacket in black (Vandy girls, you'll understand how lucky this is)
• More pasta than I could possibly consume in the next five months
• A pocket-sized calculator-slash-German translator