What are some of the best gifts you have given to, or received from, someone special?
A few years back I had just started dating a woman. She went to a mall and got a book signed by the author for me. Never mind that it was a sucky book from an unknown author, she noticed that reading was a big portion of my life and she put some thought into what I would think was cool. It remains one of my favorite gifts. (Perhaps because it seems that so few people put real thought into my gifts.)
I gave my husband some pretty awesome gifts over the years, if I do say so myself. I also give him LOTS of gifts he returns.
He didn’t return the $7500 I gave him to get his hot rod painted.
Gifts to me? Hmmm…he’s given me some nice jewelry and computer stuff mostly. He asks me what I want but I never get it.
My husband’s youngest son (age 23) gives the most thoughtful gifts.
He was a spoiled, selfish, lying brat when I first met him (at 13), but man, what a change ten years will make.
Like Khadaji’s girlfriend, he knows I read, and once he gave me a book. (Also like Khadaji, the book sucked, but it’s the thought.)
He’s noticed that I like birds, and he’s given me bird-related things. He does the same thing with his dad – he thinks before he chooses something.
(Hubby’s five other kids should just save their money, but I don’t have the heart to tell them.)
For X-mas several years back I designed two custom scents for my ex, and made her a package of each (perfume, spray cologne, lotion, powder, and soap). A couple of years before that for her B-Day I compiled all of her writings I could find and had about a dozen copies of a book printed up. Most of the rest of my gift’s sucked ass, but those still get bragged on.
A few years back I was dating a woman who told me that LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE was a favorite memory from her childhood. I went and found a second edition of a book by James Whitcomb Riley for her. I couldn’t find a first edition, but the second edition was over 100 years old.
I thought it was a pretty cool gift.
My iPod was a pretty damn cool gift. Thanks, honey!
Best gift? My wife made me a calendar on the computer with a picture of our dachshunds for each month. Which was nice in and of itself, but what made it the best is that the front page was a message, written in clumsy letters and “signed” by the dogs, wishing me a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Still makes me smile and chuckle every time I think about it. Of course, that’s one of the reasons we got dachshunds in the first place – I can’t help but laugh when I think of them.
Before we were married, my husband transcribed an entire album by hand into guitar tab. It was my favorite album, and he thought it would be nice if I could play it myself. I have that framed and it hangs in our bedroom.
I tried to be original. I made him cologne using cheap vodka, essential oils, and herbs. It had a sandalwood scent, if I recall correctly. I also made him matching incense. I forget what was in that - gum arabic? The incense didn’t really burn correctly, and the ‘cologne’ was kind of funky, but I had fun doing it and he thought it was a neat idea.
I thought of another one - not a holiday gift, but a birthday gift. Old friends/band members made me a compilation CD with all the songs from all of the different musical projects I worked on in my life. They made a CD cover with all these funny pictures of me. Even the CD itself had pictures. What was hysterical is that many of the pictures were of me wearing assorted kinds of goggles. Safety goggles, swim goggles…I had no idea I wore goggles so often. (to be fair, it was mainly drunken goggle wearing.) It was also a total surprise. I cried and laughed for about 15 minutes straight.
The second Christmas we were married, my wife got me a very nice, fairly expensive (for us at the time) watch.
The third Christmas, I got her the identical watch in the women’s version, so we’d match. Her watch had been stolen earlier in the year, in a break-in.
She cried tears of happiness.
This year she’s gonna cut off all her hair and give you a watch fob. Sorry to have spoiled the surprise.
No, you’re mistaking that for the year when she sold her cuticles to buy me shin-bone polish and I sold my shin-bones to buy her cuticle wax.
Well if we’re going to drop the holiday and SO requirements, then one of the best gifts I ever got was a frisbee.
I had spent a year living in Santa Cruz. While there I met a group of people (about 10-15 of us) and we’d all get together on the beach every Thursday after work. A bunch of us would play frisbee. Sometimes there’d be food. Sometimes there’d be alcohol. Sometimes we’d swim. Sometimes we’d stay late and build a bonfire. Sometimes we’d get together on other days as well. It was a golden summer, filled with many happy memories, and I think we all knew it would be, even as it was happening.
At the end of the summer I was moving away, and so was another guy in the group. So we had a little going-away gathering, and each of us received a frisbee, decorated and signed by everyone, wishing us well and using catchphrases and little drawings and jokes. It is one of my most treasured gifts. It always makes me smile and sigh and think of the sun and the sea and fun we all had.
The best gift I gave was a hand made cloak from Ireland. She hardly has a chance to wear it ever but I know she loves it.
The best I ever got was an ‘Intro to Flying’ lesson. Basically I got to fly a plane with an instructor for about a half hour. It was a blast.
My current SO figured out, early on, that guys just can’t get pumped up about sweaters. We want toys, dammit!
One year for my birthday she gave me a model rocket starter set. For Christmas she gave me more rockets and an electric train set. It was The Year of the Hobby for old tdn.
Best thing given to her? It’s yet to come, but this year she’s getting cookware. Really really really nice cookware. If I can manage to save up enough.
For my husband’s birthday this year, I got him a black powder pistol. He also really liked the bonsai tree I got him for our anniversary last year.
My husband knows that it’s not the cost, but the thought that counts when buying gifts for me. He has a knack for picking out books, CDs, clothes, and other things that are exactly to my taste. He even got me started on the Sims games.
One Christmas my SO surprised me with a sealed tin of 440 rounds of 7.62x54R ammo.
Remember gals as far as gifts go, , “Nothin’ says ‘Bitchin!!!’ like a case of ammunition.”
If my girlfriend got me a case of ammunition, I’d be doing a little bitchin’ myself.
My wife bought me a drum kit, complete with Zildjian cymbals!
I’m a crap gift-giver. I just tell her to buy something she wants and send me the bill.