I feel your pain, Christmas shopping/gift making is the bane of my holiday break every year. There's always that one person who it's impossible to figure out a gift for.

As for your friend, what about a scarf? They're relatively cheap to buy or easy to make, you can pick a color you know she likes so she can see you put some thought into it, and if you get there and it's not a situation where you want to give gifts then you just have an extra scarf. Either way, good luck, I hope you manage work things out. ♥

Merry Whatever! :D