Okay, just to summarise all of this for you as you are working in a pretty short time frame -

Jokers
Theses will expire at midnight tonight and will be replaced tomorrow with two new ones, regardless of whether you use them or not. That means you can book two trips using them today and then have two more to use from tomorrow, or book no trips today and still have two more to use tomorrow.

They are not usually extended, but the GGL team can usually apply them a couple of days after the end of your membership year, although this is not guaranteed. What you can also do though is use them to book a flight today and then, at a later date, make a change to fly elsewhere and still get the benefit of the Joker, but only within the same reward band.

Partner Cards
These will NOT expire tomorrow, so there is no rush to give them out today. Once you give them out, they will be replaced when you hit enough points to renew GGL again, which may be 2,500 or 3,000, depending on how BA's dodgy IT system is feeling!

As far as your wife goes, I would hold off on giving her Gold until the day after the start of her new membership year. That way she'll have it for two years; each partner card is valid for the remainder of the member's current year and the following year.

Hope that's of some help! Welcome to GGL and enjoy making the most of it. The benefits are actually very good and the GGL team is excellent ^