<p>I love reading the thread on atrocious gifts. Because of that thread, I spent several hours shopping for a gift for cousin turning 70, who was having dinner party. I finally settled on 2 gifts. The one that took me several hours to choose was a black cashmere shawl sweater. The other was a gym outfit (we go to same gym). Our weather dropped dramatically last weekend, and cousin told me she wore the sweater; “just perfect, I had nothing like it”. The gym clothes are still in box, but I felt so happy. I even went to tell the saleswoman who had been so helpful.</p>
<p>With s/o, we shop together. My son prefers cash, but he knows I’ll send a care package, so he 'fesses up that he could use shirts or sweater. </p>
<p>A girlfriend once got me a $400 gift certificate for massage at the La Costa spa, Deepak Chopra center. She was a good friend but not even someone I was closely in contact with. The generosity of that gift had a profound lasting effect on me.</p>
<p>My parents took a lot of slides (but very few pictures) of us children as we were growing up. Unfortunately, who has a slide projector any more?? Several years ago I converted all those old slides to pictures and made photo albums for my mother and siblings. </p>
<p>All those picture of my/our childhood, all those pictures of grandparents and friends who have passed away - I think it was the best gift I ever gave. </p>
<p>The lady who baby sat me when I was little made me a quilt for my high school graduation. It had pieces of fabric for different tops she had sewn for me over the years. I think that was the best gift I ever received. She also made small quilts for each of my sons when they were born. My 16 year old still keeps his on his bed. </p>
<p>I made both of my kids comforters when they were 3 and 5 years old. D called it her “comfortable,” and loved it. I just repaired her comforter, as it became threadbare over the years. She still loves it dearly more than 2 decades later.</p>
<p>My paternal grandmother hand carried china for H & me for our wedding and gave us two king-sized handmade Hawaiian quilts that she sewed. It was very sweet of her, though we don’t use any of them, we are saving them to give to our kids.</p>
<p>Two years ago my kids got together and gave me a gift certificate for a Jane Mount Ideal Bookshelf custom painting of my favorite books for birthday/Mother’s Day combined. Excluding the precious handmade things that kids have given me while growing up, I have said repeatedly that it was my favorite purchased gift ever. I really enjoyed the challenge of thinking about which books had meant the most to me as I made me selections for the painting. </p>
<p>When I turned 18 my mom gave me a gold necklace of my name that she bought when I was born.* It meant so much and I wear it all the time. I don’t know, something about the fact that she had saved it for 18 years made it really special.</p>
<p>*This gift made possible by the fact that she worked in the jewelry district.</p>
<p>Funny, I clicked on this because my daughter has to write a response “What is the best gift you’ve ever been given” for her Smith application. Now I can expand her thoughts to food, homemade gifts, etc. to give her some ideas. Thanks everyone lol.</p>
<p>I was one of six kids. At Christmas my parents would take us all to the dime store and give us each five dollars. We would each have to buy a present for each of our siblings, each parent and wrapping paper as well. Oh, the presents I remember. The year my sister bought us each a emory board. The year all six of us each bought my father a box of handkerchiefs. Countless slinkys, yo-yos, candy bars, etc. But the best part is the I learned that it really is better to give than to receive. My favorite Christmas memories are not of the presents I got, but the presents I gave. One year I spend extra money to buy my little sister a stroller for her baby doll, I could not wait for Christmas day. She loved it so much! And I was so happy to have given it to her.</p>
<p>Now, fifty years later, we all still send each other presents every Christmas. Sometimes little things, sometimes big things, sometimes goofy things, sometime lovely things. But we all do it joy in our hearts and it always reminds us that no matter what we are siblings who love each other.</p>
<p>So when people ask me what the best gift I ever got I always say, “My parents found a way to help me keep my brothers and sisters for life.”</p>
<p>My parents took me to South Africa for two weeks this summer. My dad figured it would be their last big trip to the country (it was their 8th trip), so he got us really nice accommodations in two different private game preserves. I doubt I will ever get a nicer present.</p>
<p>My middle son did a painting from a photo of my dad sitting in his easy chair reading the paper…classic Pop. I cried when I opened it and saw it. Pop died on Thanksgiving 2006.
Yds spent a lot of time scanning pictures from my sons’ childhoods into one of those picture frame slide slow viewers. It is precious.</p>
<p>The best gift we ever received was a whimsical Alessi cork screw, as a wedding present. We just celebrated our 20th, and we use it all the time and think about the couple who gave it to us.</p>
<p>For my sixteenth birthday, a close friend wrote a beautiful song for me. While I only have a short recording of it on an old cassette tape, listening to it still warms my heart!</p>
<p>When our kids where little, we took a snapshot of them with their cousins. All six of the kids were doing their usual goofy looks in the picture and yet it wasn’t staged. I loved this picture. When my youngest d was about eight, she got mad at her older sister and colored out her face in the picture. I wasn’t happy. Years later, youngest d gave me a clean copy of the picture nicely framed. I have kept the original underneath it. The picture makes me smile whenever I see it- both for the photo and for my d and her history with it.</p>
<p>I received the best gift ever on my 50th birthday-and 2 people each gave me the same gift but uniquely different. My sister and one of my daughters each wrote 50 memories that they had experienced with me. Neither had told the other what they were planning to do.</p>
<p>As a child my favorite present was the year I turned nine. We had just moved to Hargeisa, Somalia and there were no toy stores. My parents ended up giving me a little attache sized suitcase (made in Czechoslovakia which end up in a story), and they filled it with cool office supplies. One was a little note book that made copies in triplicate, and there was a date stamp and a few other things that I no longer remember. I used the suitcase for years - and still own it. It’s filled with letters I wrote to my best friend the year I was in France and she photocopied them all and sent the copies back to me because she’d enjoyed them so much. I turned the book into a lesson book for my stuffed animals and it’s still around too. </p>