Holiday Gift Guide: The Women in Your Life

So, it's the second week in December and once again you have no idea what to get the important people in your life for the holidays. Minnetonka Patch is here to help! Today is part one of our annual Gift Guide— the women in your life.

Whether she's an overworked mom, an avid crafter, a competitive athlete, or all three, today we're giving you some hit gift ideas that will make her day! Best of all, every gift can be found close to home, here in Minnetonka.

The Overworked Mom: The one thing that every mom can appreciate is a break. That's why planning a day where she can take some time for herself is always a welcome gift. Try this recipe for a day that any mom will enjoy.

Ingredients (can be used alone or combined):

• 1 ClubKid® gift certificate. ClubKid® is a no-appointment needed, state-licensed, drop off daycare for children 16 months - 12 years. The kids are treated to games, crafts, puzzles, movies, toys and snacks. ClubKid® is open from early morning until late evening, seven days a week. Rates are $8.00-$8.50/hour for the first child (depending on their age) and $5.65/hour for the second child.
• 1 gift certificate.  Adjacent to ClubKid®, in , Aveda New Reflections Salon is the place to help mom relax. Gift cards can be printed right from their website and if you're wondering how much to get, consider this: for $50, mom can enjoy a hair styling (to look great for her lunch out) and some Aveda products. Spend $350 and mom will enjoy a 60-minute massage, a facial, manicure and pedicure.
• 1 gift certificate. Located just across the street from ClubKid®, and from Ridgedale Center is Bacio restaurant. This Minnetonka favorite touts its menu as, "fresh food, with influences from Italy and the Mediterranean, to Asia and beyond." Mom can pick her poison here- the wine and dessert menus are plentiful! 

The Avid Crafter: Many local ladies love to scrapbook. For these women you can head to and put together a basket of craft papers, stamps, stickers, scissors and even the scrapbooks themselves. If you want to go a step further, consider this:

• The SLICE is the first cordless digital design cutter; it's also a top gift pick among the scrapbooking set. The SLICE measures less than five inches square and weighs less than two pounds. Users can select from thousands of images and the SLICE then instantly converts them into die-cuts ranging between 1/4" and 4" tall. The SLICE  is available at and costs about $120. 

The Tech-Savvy Woman: According to Kelly Contreras, general manager of the Ridgedale Best Buy, digital book readers are a very popular gift this season. The best part? This is a great gift for the tech lover and the intellectual alike!  

• The NOOK 3G eReader is available at for about $200. With the NOOK, the woman in your life has 2 million books at her fingertips. This particular reader features 2GB of storage space and the built-in 3G and Wi-Fi wireless networking means downloading books only takes seconds.
• Kobo eReader is another choice, and a less expensive one, coming in at about $120. Its best features: it's light, weighing less than 8 ounces and it has a good amount of memory (1GB), which according to the manufacturer means the owner can carry up to 1000 titles wherever she goes. 

The Athletic Lady: No matter what kind of workout she does, the woman in your life can incorporate a heart rate monitor into her regime. A heart rate monitor is a great way to track one's aerobic endurance and help reach specific workout goals. 

• The Polar® F7 Heart Rate Monitor is available at  for about $110. This monitor tracks your heart rate and calories burned so that one is not over or under training.
• The Timex Zone Trainer Heart Rate Monitor is available at  for around $110. This model will track her heart rate, calories burned and up to 6 heart rate target zones. Other features include and alarm and a chest strap.  This is one of the top sellers at the Minnetonka Dick's.  One note however-- the folks at STARTLINE stopped carrying this model because they found the monitor was not reliable. 

The Photo Lover: If your lady likes photos and is a bit of a sentimentalist, try giving her a photo gift. These are affordable and are great gifts for kids to give. 

• Head to and for $17 each you can have a coffee mug personalized with photos of your family, friends, pets- whomever! For $13, give her a gift that she can use at work or at home- a personalized mouse pad!
• Try hitting up for an unfinished wood frame that you can paint and decorate special for your special one. Make it even more personal by using it to frame an important picture. This whole project can cost less than $20.

Final note: A nice letter costs nothing and can be a very meaningful gift. Also, never give a woman any sort of gift aimed at weight loss (i.e. exercise DVD, treadmill, Weight Watchers gift card) unless she has specifically asked for it. Ever.

Tomorrow's Holiday Gift Guide: The Men in Your Life